By David Becker, 24 February 2004 09:05
NEWS The SCO Group has launched an online-ordering site for companies that want to use the open-source Linux operating system with SCO's blessing.
The website debuted quietly last week. It enables companies that use Linux to purchase a licence that covers SCO's Unix System V, portions of which SCO claims were illegally incorporated into the source code of Linux.
Full licences cost $699 per server central processing unit (CPU) or $199 for a desktop PC that runs Linux. An annual licence costs $149 per server CPU or $49 per desktop PC.
SCO rattled the technology world last year, when it sued IBM, claiming that the computing giant illegally incorporated source code from the Unix operating system, which SCO controls, into Linux software. The case has since ballooned into a far-ranging attack on Linux, attracting legal attention from Linux leader Red Hat and the ire of Linux supporters worldwide.
SCO began selling Unix licences last year for companies that wish to continue using Linux with SCO's consent. The company backed off a plan to bill Linux users but recently expanded the licensing terms to include overseas Linux users.
SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said the online ordering site was launched to make compliance easier for companies SCO hasn't contacted individually. "We want to make the licences more accessible to any business that's interested," he said.
SCO has declined to reveal how many businesses have purchased Linux licences, but the activity is believed to be minimal, as businesses wait for the IBM case to be resolved and rely on legal indeminfication offers from major Linux sellers.
Meanwhile, SCO was still using its alternate web address on Monday as it waited for denial-of-service attacks the MyDoom virus instigated to stop. MyDoom attacks crippled SCO's regular site on 1 February. The virus was programmed to stop the attacks on12 February, but infected PCs with incorrectly set dates were still causing trouble last week.
MyDoom hits had waned by 90 per cent as of the weekend, Stowell said, "but that 10 per cent is still more than our server could handle".
David Becker writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There are 2 comments. Join the discussion
1. steve m howard
i use linux now at home. i downloaded
latest kerbel last night from
http://www.kernel.org
will this mean that SCO will now
sue me becuase i did this download
without having bought a license
from them?
will this also mean I have to pay $199
each time I download a new kernel
build? (which I do about 2 times
per month).
what happens if I decide to use linux
one day as a server, will this means
I have to update my license with
SCO each time I start a new linux
daemon?
2. Joe
"SCO launches online Linux licence shop" -> "SCO launches online Linux sweatshop"
Considering how much money is made off of essentially FREE LABOR, in the Linux world, I'm gonna bet that SCO gets sued for offering Linux, and suing the very people who wrote 95% of the updates to Linux. Suits are already coming from RedHat. Who's next? SCO could be setting itself up for thousands of suits. This would be like that Roman expression about a thousand small cuts.
Also, doesn't SCO's suing Linux users and developpers, basicly interfere with SCO's rights as users/distributors under the same license that Linux has? This would ironicly make them 100 times as worse offenders, as far as copyrights go. Can't have your cake and eat it too... If you sue over infringement, people who wrote most of your code, you're going to get burned in secondary suits. They're taking one heck of a risk doing that!
<goes to reread line-by-line GPL and SCO License agreements>