SCO's next target: SGI?

SCO Group, which has sued IBM for more than $3 billion for allegedly moving Unix code into Linux, may also have Silicon Graphics in its crosshairs. SCO on Friday declined to comment on future legal action, but Chris Sontag, the senior vice president in charge of SCO's effort to derive more revenue from its Unix intellectual property, has said two things that suggest SGI is a likely target.

First, Sontag said in June that SCO is contemplating legal action against another major North American hardware maker besides IBM. Second, in an August presentation at which SCO detailed some of its complaints about Linux code, Sontag described SGI file system software called XFS in a list of "examples of significant infringing derivative works" contributed to versions 2.4 or 2.5 of the heart, or kernel, of Linux.

SGI said its conversion of XFS into an open-source program is permitted. "We believe our release of XFS as open source to Linux was consistent with our Unix contract with SCO," SGI spokeswoman Marty Coleman said. She declined to comment on whether SGI is in discussions with SCO. A new SCO lawsuit against SGI would mean significant new work to shoulder in addition to the Lindon, Utah-based company's case against IBM and its campaign to get all commercial Linux users to pay SCO hundreds of dollars per server to use the software. But a lawsuit is not the only avenue open to SCO: The company has shown a recent preference for more moderate courses of action, such as sending invoices to Linux users rather than taking them to court.

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