Now Microsoft has stepped in and licensed the source code and patents associated with the Unix operating system from SCO. The stated purpose is to ensure that Microsoft's software complies with SCO's intellectual-property rights and that it can ensure compatibility with Unix software. However, few people believe that to be the major reason for the deal. Most probably, Microsoft wants to stir up the whole argument in the hope of stemming the Linux tide.
Chris Sontag of SCO immediately claimed that the Microsoft licensing agreement reflected the strength of its intellectual-property suit against IBM. I'm not sure how his logic works here. If IBM already has a license - irrevocable, fully paid up, perpetual etc. then the real implication is that Microsoft was worried that it might have infringed intellectual property. This is possible as Microsoft developed its own version of Unix in the 1980s.
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