By Tony Hallett, 14 January 2004 15:45
NEWS SCO Group has extended its Linux licensing programme to countries other than the US, calling it superior to indemnification moves by HP and Novell and once again warning user organisations that it will chase them for their use of the operating system.
SCO, which acquired the rights to Unix in a previous incarnation as Caldera, has said that as well as fighting IBM and other vendors it will legally pursue users by the middle of next month.
"It could even be sooner than that," Chris Sontag, senior VP and general manager of SCOsource, told silicon.com. "And we may or may not come after a US-based company first."
The extension of the SCO Intellectual Property License for Linux - which covers what SCO claims is Unix code within Linux - hints at a non-US lawsuit, though Google, with its thousands of Linux-based servers, has been mentioned as a possible initial, high-profile target.
Hundreds of large users have so far received invoices for what SCO says is their use of its intellectual property (IP) within the open-source OS. Most have done nothing in response.
"I screwed mine up and threw it in the bin," one CIO told silicon.com last autumn.
SCOsource's Sontag said: "That's a mistake. They are making an assumption that this is [just] a problem [we have] with IBM... We have users who didn't realise the development process in Linux is so flawed. They jumped in."
Linux developer groups, distributors and large vendors - most notably IBM and Intel - have taken exception to SCO's accusations and actions. SCO is trying to convince users to buy its Linux licence - at $699 per year per server processor and $199 per desktop processor - characterising it as good value versus HP and Novell's indemnification at about $700 per year, which Sontag called "pseudo licensing".
SCO has also given licensees of its Unix source code - there are around 3,000 of them - until this weekend to declare that they, or anyone that has worked for them, haven't lifted any of its Unix code into Linux or elsewhere. In an advisory this month, law firm Bird and Bird said: "It would be a very considerable undertaking for a corporate licensee to respond in full to the SCO requirement to provide evidence for all of the confidentiality protections for all of its employees and contractors over the term of the Unix licence."
SCOsource's Sontag said: "It is problematic for recipients but an obligation they signed up to."
Comments
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1. anonymous
Two corrections.
SCO purchases SOME rights to UNIX.
To date, no one has received an invoice, just a letter.
2. Webster Ranger
SCO continues to ignore the burden of proof required for a challenger to the established order. Threats to expand the circle of lawsuits beyond the existing contention with IBM are nothing but shakedown cons--it's the old Mafia "insurance racket" trying to resurrect itself. Forget Google, Darl; why not go directly after the U.S. government (perhaps the DOD)? When are the SEC and the DOJ going to step in and haul the CEOs of SCO away in police VANs? Aren't fraud, extortion, and racketeering crimes anymore?
3. Rad Echt
How much longer do we have to endure these stories - either SCO can prove the code is there, or isn't - how long does it take to do a code print, sit down and compare, and then highlight all the infringements for the judge?
Or would that be just too sensible?
4. anonymous
Forget the detail. This is a scam by the greedy. Two things you can be sure of:
1. This will not benefit the people who created the intellectual property, just the usual money grabbing executives and their lawyers.
2. No one outside the US should take any notice of a country this greedy and corporately corrupt trying to enforce its unilateral we-win-you-lose laws and trading practices on other sovereign countries. We are still trying to attack the over-charging monopolist Microsoft in Europe, thank god there is a reasonably priced alternative to make this happen.
BTW: TRY Linux, Star Office, OPEN OFFICE!
Opinion: This is no different from a US business trying to licence the Internet, Gene sequencing or the Bible for personal gain (coming soon?). These people are just so greed driven its untrue.
Isn't it great American's are going to the Moon? As many as often as possible please. Great. Republican's and hypocrites first, please. BUT watch our for Tranquility Base and Martian Homeland Registered Companies legislation passing through Congress - with strange interesting IP laws, tax arrangements and off-planet detention centres for regime designated dissidents. Sounds like Total Recall is quite prophetic, apart from the happy ending.
Brian
5. John Anderson
SCO had one flavour of unix and the purchase caldera does nothing to further their claim.
Indeed SCO wanted to distance themselves from UNIX in the past calling their incatation Xenix or something similar.
This smacks of the outrageous tactics used to destroy DRDOS way back. Send all correspondance from SCO to the police or report it to the serious fraud office.
When I was trained on Solaris (are they asking for Solaris users to pay a fee?), the lecturer explained the inconsistancies within unix as being due to the use of various chemical substances by the developers.
It seems that SCO are trying to give us all a delayed bad trip.
6. Allan Knowles
I doubt very much whether SCO will try to go after any company outside the States or Canada. In those two countries the defendent can't claim back their legal expenses from the plaintiff if the plaintiff loses (hence litigation for coffee being too hot, stubbing big toe etc.). Patent infringement cases are notoriously difficult to prove and can backfire (e.g. the windsurfer case - which is similar in a way to this).
7. anonymous
SCO has NOT sent Invoices to anyone, and nor will they. This would constitue mail fraud, a serious criminal offence. Rather, SCO have sent out letters urging the purchase of their "licenses" and including thinly veiled threats of legal action otherwise.
8. Robert Spragg
SCO can go fuck themselves if they think we are all going to rush out and pay $199 for Linux !
9. Larry Sherwood
In response to John Anderson's inquiry about whether Solaris could be next on SCO's hit list, I think the answer is a resounding "No". Sun already has some sort of license that SCO has recognized that clears them from the kind of exposure that SCO claims IBM faces. Sorry, I cannot be any more explicit than that, but if you reasearch the news articles on the subject, I think you would share my sentiment. It is a little unsettling to have seen Sun trumpeting its license as a marketing wedge, which to some extent I think they have done.
10. David Precious
Who the hell do SCO think they are? They claim that their "intellectual property" is contained in Linux, ignore the demands to actually offer some proof of their wild allegations, then start trying to threaten companies that they must pay extortionate "licencing fees" to SCO for the privelege of using Linux. Good luck.
SCO will go down in history as one of the biggest idiots of our time.
11. walterbyrd
1) They are not actually trying to sell those licenses. They wouldn't sell you one if you begged them. Call them up and give it a try. The idea is to make "investors" think that they have a potential income stream.
2) They are no idiots. In less than 18 months since darl took over as CEO, scox share price went from $0.60 a share to $15.50, even will scox's products/services business collasping.
3) It's just a stock scam