Who's Suing Who?

Momentarily stealing the spotlight from Linux's epic David-versus-Goliath struggle against Windows, a company called The SCO Group has decided to single-handedly take on the multifaceted community that produces and uses Linux. Mired in myriad lawsuits and countersuits involving IBM, Novell, and others that may take years to sort out, SCO has managed to cast a pall on the Linux community.

SCO's main claim is that it owns the copyrights to the original UNIX operating system that Linux is modeled after. SCO says it has discovered portions of this copyrighted software in Linux's source code and therefore Linux is an unauthorized derivative of the UNIX OS. As a result, SCO says, anyone who uses or produces Linux owes it money.

SCO hasn't stopped at suing Linux developers. The company recently filed suit against two high-profile companies that rely on Linux: Autozone and DaimlerChrysler. Heck, SCO even threatened the United States government in letters to a couple of Energy Department labs that use massive clusters of Linux servers to study science.

Peace of Mind for Sale

Does this make you feel a little nervous about loading Linux on your PC at home? It shouldn't--for now. Unlike the Recording Industry of America in its hunt for illegal music downloaders, SCO so far has no plans to sue individual Linux users.

Although SCO has not proven its claims in court, it has begun selling the SCO Intellectual Property License for Linux to companies that are worried their Linux-based business systems may eventually be deemed be illegal. Some have even bought it. The price for this peace of mind ranges from $49 per year for desktop systems to $699 per processor for servers.

Naturally, the Linux community has declared SCO enemy number one. Novell claims it still owns the copyright to the UNIX source code, thereby nullifying SCO's claims. Because of that statement, SCO slapped Novell with a slander lawsuit. Linux-loving hackers retaliated by hammering SCO's Web site with a massive denial-of-service attack.

Will SCO Succeed?

If you talk to computer experts, you get the feeling no one really believes SCO can prevail. IBM recently asked the court to throw out SCO's case against it. And Baystar Capital, a major investor in SCO, wants out of the company after admitting Microsoft (the anti-Linux) helped facilitate Baystar's original $20 million investment in SCO.

But lots of people are hedging their bets. In a bold step, Hewlett-Packard has begun a program to indemnify its Linux customers against SCO's copyright lawsuits. Of course, there's a catch: You have to buy a Linux service contract from HP to qualify. And a new company called Open Source Risk Management has begun selling legal defense services to companies that use Linux. Eventually, the firm plans to sell insurance against lawsuits such as SCO's.

At least one knowledgeable observer--respected technology analyst Rob Enderle--believes SCO's case has merit, and that the company will prevail. If he's right, Open Source software, as the world knows it, may be doomed, and Linux users may one day awake to find they're running illegal software.