Report: Microsoft to license Unix from SCO

SCO's move to seek money from companies using Linux gets a boost

By John Blau, IDG News Service

May 19, 2003 12:00 PM ET

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IDG News Service - Microsoft Corp. has agreed to license Unix technology from The SCO Group in a move that could support SCO's controversial efforts to collect royalties from companies using the open-source Linux operating system, a Unix clone, The Wall Street Journal reported today, quoting a Microsoft official.
Under the deal, Microsoft will license Unix patents and source code from SCO for an undisclosed amount.
Officials at Microsoft and Lindon, Utah-based SCO couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
The move by Microsoft suggests that the deep-pocketed U.S. software company views SCO's patents as important and could prompt other companies to sign license agreements to avoid litigation down the road.
It comes on the heels of two major developments. In March, SCO filed a $1 billion lawsuit against IBM for allegedly misusing Unix code to bolster Linux efforts (see story). And last week, SCO said it will suspend its Linux business and warned commercial Linux users that they may be held liable for intellectual property violations that it alleges exist in the Linux source code (see story).
Unix was invented more than 30 years ago by AT&T Corp., which later sold the technology to Novell Inc. SCO acquired the patents and source code in 1995. Caldera International Inc., a distributor of Linux software, bought most of SCO's operations over two years ago and recently changed its name to SCO.
SCO, which now alleges that parts of its Unix source code have been copied into Linux, is mounting a huge campaign to exact fees for the use of its intellectual property rights.

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