The Question and Answer Board

[IH Geek [Dave]]

The signal to noise ratio is pretty bad, especially since the "Open Source Community" is flooding every possible venue with their unmitigated hatred of SCO. Apologizing in advance for the stereotype, in "their" minds SCO is Satan reincarnated, and not one of SCO's claims has the slightest iota of merit or credibility. In addition to programmers, they are now self-proclaimed intellectual property law experts, copyright experts, contract law experts, and are certain beyond a doubt that no IP over which SCO has ownership is in the Linux kernel (or its derivatives), despite the fact that they don't personally know the source of the source.

The bottom line is that nobody truly knows if SCO has a valid claim against IBM or the Linux vendors or users, nor will they until SCO withdraws or the case is tried and ruled upon.

That said, I understand that IBM and some of the Linux vendors are offering some kind of indemnification, and are funding some kind of defense fund, for what that's worth. It's a noble effort, but was done more for their own benefit during the interim period of uncertainty (i.e., to protect their revenue stream), in my opinion.

So, in answer to your question, I would want an ironclad indemnification from someone like IBM who is likely to be able to back it up in the off chance that SCO prevails in some substantive way.