It was purposefully based on an already existing peice of software, down to the exact command syntax. It almost even has the same name, also on purpose.
Go ahead and argue till you turn blue, but without Unix, Linux would have never existed. And without IBM taking huge chunks of Unix and porting them to Linux, it wouldn't even be a topic on this board.
Other modern day operating systems have been based on prior products, but none so much as Linux is based on Unix. And no amount of crying is going to change that.
Unless you live in the Stone Age as a hermit there aren't many independent pieces of work.
Umm who here has said Linux would have existed, or even is not based on Unix... Try to keep up man!
I knew that was coming...
So where's all of the SysV copied code then? Santa's pocket?