Richard Allan MP, the Liberal Democrat IT spokesman, warned on Wednesday that uncertainty over SCO's claim that Linux infringes its Unix copyrights will deter some public-sector employees from breaking away from proprietary software.
Allan said that the legal actions already brought by SCO against some firms, and the possibility that they will target other users of open-source software, are a "significant disincentive" to public-sector IT managers who are considering embracing Linux.
If correct, this is good news for software vendors such as Microsoft, which was recently embroiled in a row after it emerged that it had played a role in discussions between BayStar and SCO over their $50m (£27.8m) funding deal.
Allan argued that the laws surrounding copyright may need to be revised to prevent claims such as SCO's from harming the IT industry, saying that the alternative is that similar legal actions could "hold up innovation" for several years.
However, other experts said on Wednesday that SCO's legal action will have little long-term impact.
"No, next question," said Matt Asay, director of Linux business office at Novell, when asked if SCO posed a serious threat to Linux.
A spokesperson for Red Hat replied that his company had repeatedly asked SCO for the offending lines of Unix code in Linux but so far hadn't received anything. "Every week that goes by that they fail to provide that code should be seen as evidence of the strength of their suit," he said.
Responding to the SCO question, Bradley Tipp, Microsoft national systems engineer said: "It's nice to see a court case that we are not involved in for a change." Some audience members responded to his reply by shouting out various comments relating to the memo linking Microsoft to SCO.
Talkback
The fact companies who invested in SCO
are starting to have doubts on SCOs credibility
and their likelihood of winning, means SCO wil
run out of money long before they can finish
playing their corrupt litigation lottery.
WHEN RBC recalls their loan,
it'll be game over for SCO!
(See, it took a blind, naiive, stupid Canadian bank
to lend SCO money, because no bank with a brain
and any business sense would even entertain
the thought of funding SCOs litigious game.)
Whatever...SCO's about to drown in a legal guagmire of it's own making. Baystar saw the writing on the wall and is yanking their support. The Royal Bank of Canada will likely follow suit, SCO won't be able to pay it's lawyers and will become insolvent and the whole mess won't get cleared up because the lawsuits will never get a chance at a trial because SCO will be a defunct and dead company...unless MicroSoft swoops in with a cash infusion to resurrect their dying puppet.
This news is unfortunate in that many nice doggies must be licensed, many buildings inspected, many bad guys caught, much water supplied . . . The penguin is ideal for gov't, but there's always one constant concern: IT professional retention in the sector. I've seen guys walk faster than former husbands of Rosanne.