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If IBM did what SCO claims that they did and IBM's AIX agreement is as is claimed, IBM will wind up paying penalties, of course. The bigger question is how IBM will respond. As the author of the article you pointed to suggests, IBM could hurl patent suits back at SCO, Microsoft, and anyone else it wants in order to recover any money it loses here. And I do think the logical outcome still leaves IBM in control of SCO, either by buying it outright or taking over as part of a patent infringement settlement. It will be cheaper than paying the penalties and losing them.

The fact that "SCO" distributed Caldera Linux also complicates matters greatly for them. The problem is that if their suit has merits, they really did have the right to put the IP under the GPL and the release of their own distribution may very well have done that.

Of course, as I said, IP law is too murky. We won't really know how this will turn out until it gets in front of a judge and we see all of the evidence.

I do think the logical outcome still leaves IBM in control of SCO, either by buying it outright or taking over as part of a patent infringement settlement.

I think that IBM will either buy SCO, or they will become partners again. I think that Linux users will one day for for Linux as well. That mostly assumes that SCO will win, but even if they don't, IBM is a greedy company that Linux users shouldn't trust, just like most M$ users shouldn't trust M$. But that's just business, doesn't mean you can't use their products, as I have lots of both companies products right here in my home (This is being written on dual IBM system running a version of Windows).

If IBM did what SCO claims that they did and IBM's AIX agreement is as is claimed, IBM will wind up paying penalties, of course.

Aren't you overlooking the obvious penalties associated with IBM's use of poison gas, and the killing of millions of innocent women and children?

In watching the two of you go back-and-forth with all the various crimes IBM might have committed, I am stunned that you are leaving out the really important things. Assuming for a moment that IBM had Kennedy killed, there could be serious consequences. Or suppose that IBM planned and executed the 9/11 attacks?

It sounds plausible to me that Enron was their fault, too. Why worry about this puny SCO stuff when IBM is clearly the largest criminal enterprise on Earth?

Let's face it. It is only through the efforts of Bill Gates, the heroic American who steals other people's innovations and then sends shills into Internet forums to throw crap on other people, that we even know of these things. What horrible evil might still be hidden from us? Inquiring minds want to know.