SCO, of course, is suing IBM for $3 billion for allegedly throwing SCO IP over the wall to Linux, a seminal case on which the fate of Linux and open source may very well hang.

It is SCO's position that the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which dreamed up the GPL and the whole notion of copyleft, is trying to usurp the right granted Congress under US copyright law to regulate copyrights and that the FSF is unjustifiably trying to suck up copyrighted work that it feels should be made public domain.

SCO also alleges that the Free Software Foundation has only selectively enforced the GPL and so any GPL claims made against SCO can't stand up "as a matter of equity."

SCO flicks off those belated patent claims that IBM suddenly threw at SCO when IBM amended its countersuit and says the claims are so broad they could apply to anyone who sells software. If SCO is violating the claims - and SCO's lawyers say they have reason to believe that the purported patents are invalid and that IBM may not even own them - then everyone else that sells software is too and that IBM would basically have to sue everyone else for the same thing that it's suing SCO for.

SCO calls it a "frivolous attempt to try to put pressure on SCO."

SCO continues to maintain that "Linux is, in actuality, an authorized version of Unix that is structured, assembled and designed to be technologically indistinguishable from Unix, and practically is distinguishable only in that Linux is a 'free' version of Unix designed to destroy proprietary operating system software."

• First IBM, now SGI - SCO Strikes Again
• SCO, IBM, Unix, Microsoft, and Canopy - SCO Group's Sontag Speaks Out
• SCO Attempts to Have GPL Declared Void
• SCO Subpoenas Linus, Others; IBM Returns the Favor
• IBM’s Latest Acquisition Highlights Popularity of Hybrid Clouds