SCO rules out further court cases

SCO, the US software vendor that has angered most of the open-source community with its claim that its proprietary Unix source code has been illegally copied into the Linux kernel, won't be launching any more lawsuits in the foreseeable future, according to chief executive Darl McBride.

McBride said that his company will be concentrating on the legal action it already has underway, rather than suing "another 10 companies".

"We're not focused on doing more end-user lawsuits right now. We want to have our claims heard before a court," McBride told the Financial Times.

SCO's UK operations could not immediately be contacted for comment.

SCO began its legal assault against Linux back in 2003, when it claimed that IBM had misappropriated its Unix trade secrets. It subsequently became entangled in a fierce scrap with Novell over precisely who owned key Unix patents and copyrights.

SCO's attempts to persuade companies to buy licences permitting them to run Linux without the threat of legal action appear to have been largely unsuccessful. SCO has sued several companies, but last month it largely lost a courtroom battle with DaimlerChrysler over the issue.

This defeat led to suggestions that SCO's challenge to Linux could be a busted flush, but McBride is still talking tough. He compared the setback to "losing a spring training baseball game".