| Sumario: | Is the escalating legal dispute between IBM and SCO Group, an obscure Utah software company, more than a storm in a teacup? At issue is the tangled heritage of the Unix operating system, and its relationship to Linux, a free operating system built by programmers collaborating via the internet. Battle commenced in March 2003, when SCO accused IBM of illegally copying code from Unix into Linux, and claimed $1 billion in damages. On June 16th, SCO revoked IBM's original contract with AT&T, filed for an injunction requiring IBM to recall and destroy all copies of AIX and raised its damages claim to $3 billion. By casting doubt on the legality of Linux, and suing a deep-pocketed company that has championed its use, SCO seems to be trying to get IBM to buy it off. Other firms have sought to capitalize on the confusion. In May, Microsoft signed a licensing deal with SCO, indirectly supporting its attack on Linux and other open-source software, which poses a long-term threat to Microsoft's proprietary kind.
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