Right now we're at the stage where SCO has not even proven that anyone needs such a license; they are merely claiming this to be the case and threatening to sue anyone who doesn't pay up. Since SCO is promising to publish prices for these licenses, it makes zero sense for anyone to pay them anything until SCO actually drags them into court. Then they either fight the court case, or buy a license at the published price, depending on their druthers. Or they tell SCO they already have a license to run System V on that box; it came free with the hardware. Almost all the big hardware guys have these fully paid-up UNIX licenses; they could pass out System V sublicenses like candy without sending SCO a dime. |
I don't understand why SCO thinks they are the only people who could be selling these "protective licenses." There are several companies out there who have the right to sublicense UNIX technology. More than a few have fully paid-up licenses, meaning they can sublicense to their heart's content without paying anyone any more royalties.