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The Santa Cruise Operation, the new owner of Unix, stepped
up their war against Linux by sending cease-and-desist letters
to select Fortune 1000 companies charging them with illegally
using more than 65 SCO-owned Application Binary Interfaces
(ABIs) without permission. The letters claims the ABIs that
allow customers to run UNIX applications over Linux are owned
by SCO and are being used without the company's permission.
SCO, which has supported and distributed Linux in the past,
insists that use of its IP by Linux customers in a commercial
setting violates company rights, according to U.S. Copyright
Law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Most industry watchers recognize that SCO's legal attack
is a desperate attempt to boost UNIX sales which have been
severely impacted by the availability of Linus Torvalds' open
source Linux which is functionally similar to UNIX. SCO has
not yet proved any claims against Linux in a court of law,
a fact that has caused consternation among Linux vendors,
customers and open-source advocates who vehemently dispute
all of SCO's highly publicized IP claims.
In a determined effort to be the "bad boy" of the
operating system world, SCO is harrassing its own customers
by sending out hundreds of letters to Unix licensees demanding
they provide written certification that each licensee is in
full compliance with the AT&T Unix source code agreement.
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