The SCO Group is preparing a new Linux licensing program that it claims will allow users of the open-source operating system to run Linux without fear of litigation. The program will be announced "within the next month or so," according to SCO spokesman Blake Stowell, but on Monday the company will announce what he calls a "precursor" to this program in a press conference with SCO Chief Executive Officer Darl McBride and SCO's high-profile attorney David Boies, of the firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner.
In March, SCO launched a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM, charging Big Blue with breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. At the heart of SCO's complaint are allegations that IBM attempted to destroy the economic value of Unix in order to benefit its Linux services business, and that it inappropriately contributed source code to the Linux kernel.
Since then, SCO has warned Linux users that they could be held liable for inappropriately using SCO's intellectual property and boosted its claim for damages against IBM to more than $3 billion. In June the Lindon, Utah, company announced that it had terminated IBM's Unix license, originally obtained in 1985 from AT&T, but subsequently transferred to SCO.
News source: InfoWorld
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