UK users defiant in face of latest SCO threats

UK Linux users are being advised to stand firm in the licensing stand-off with SCO despite the software company's decision to sue DaimlerChrysler and Autozone.

SCO sent out thousands of letters last year to Linux users claiming they were in breach of the company's Unix intellectual property rights and demanding payment for licences to use it.

Anecdotal evidence suggests most companies dismissed the threat, with many quite literally binning the letters.

But do the latest developments and SCO's insistence that it will not restrict targets to just US-based companies change the attitude of UK CIOs and IT directors?

The CIO of one large UK user, who did not want to be named, told silicon.com that everyone is watching the case "with interest" as it unfolds.

"I can't believe that they will be succesful in their actions and I still believe that they are taking their challenge to the wrong organisations," he said.

David Rippon, chairman of the British Computer Society's Elite user group, said it is now a "difficult one to call".

"If the two test cases go in SCO's favour then it will go after everyone," he said.

Rippon advised UK companies to hold back from paying up to SCO until after the cases against DaimlerChrysler and Autozone.

Law firm Masons said any UK organisations that become targets could ask the court to wait for the outcome of the key IBM and Novell cases but the fact these are overseas means it is "less likely" that a UK court would grant such a request.