SCO has been on a legal rampage over its claims that some of their intellectual property exists in the Open Source Linux Operating System. They launched a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM in March, followed by sending 1500 warning notices to corporations last week claiming that unauthorized use of Linux could result in legal liability. They have also suspended the sale of their own Linux products.
If their claim is successful, this would mean that anyone running the Linux Operating System could owe SCO some licence fees to use the product, should SCO choose to charge.
If this wasn’t enough to get the Linux fan base nervous, SCO has now licenced its UNIX technology to Microsoft. Microsoft claims that this deal shows “Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to respecting intellectual property (IP) and the IT community’s healthy exchange of IP through licensing.” They claim that they are trying to ensure compliance across it’s UNIX-based products such as Internet Explorer and Frontpage.
