Linus Torvalds, Linux's founder and leader, doesn't agree with The SCO Group Inc. CEO Darl McBride's characterization of Torvalds as being unwilling to look at SCO's Unix source code because "he didn't want to be tainted by it." McBride made that assertion in an interview with eWEEK.com earlier this week. In his contradiction of McBride's assertion, Torvalds said that he told McBride that summer that the issue wasn't with tainted code, but with signing SCO's NDA (nondisclosure agreement) in order to see the Unix code that SCO claims was stolen and placed in Linux by IBM.
This NDA has been widely criticized on several grounds. The criticisms include: SCO gets to determine exactly what code it shows; disputes over potential disagreements about whether information under the NDA was disclosed must be resolved in Utah courts; and any information revealed under the NDA cannot be discussed, even if it is already public information or the person was aware of it beforehand.
News source: eWeek
