SCO Group claimed its Linux licensing programme is "on
track" and played down the legal action taken against it by IBM and
Red Hat ahead of this week's SCO Forum event in Las Vegas. The
company also warned users not to expect refunds of licence fees if
it loses its legal cases.
SCO's public relations director Blake Stowell said the licensing
programme was "going forward" and denied reports that it was to be
suspended in the face of IBM's counterclaim.
Stowell told users to expect a few surprises at SCO Forum, where
attendees will be given the opportunity to view an example of the
contested code. "There could be a rabbit pulled out of the hat at
SCO Forum - you never know," he said.
Stowell said 900 companies have contacted SCO in the past two
weeks, 300 of which were willing to buy a licence. As yet, the
company has just one licensee, however.
Users who buy a licence are unlikely to get a refund even if SCO
loses its cases against IBM and Red Hat. Stowell said the licensing
issue is separate from the IBM case and "users would not take out a
licence if they did not need to".
In its counterclaim document, IBM has disputed SCO's right to
charge Linux users licence fees and accused SCO of infringing four
IBM patents.
Stowell denied this and said IBM's claims were "suspect".