SCO Group Inc's attempt to lock-down copyright on Linux is proving a dangerous distraction, obscuring real threats and challenges to open source. That's according to open source evangelist Bruce Perens, who believes open source software and developers face a broader threat from national and corporate patent police. Speaking at last week's LinuxWorld conference, Perens listed dangers including a proposed European-wide software copyright law and a failure by some of Linux's biggest supporting companies to guarantee Linux is safe from prosecution. "SCO is nothing beside the threat that the Open Source developers face from software patents, a fight that we are losing badly," Perens warned.

He singled-out IBM, a Linux stalwart and the primary subject of SCO's action, for pursuing a "pro-software patent agenda". The company is renowned for maintaining a massive patent library. "None of our company partners other than Red Hat have even given us any assurance that we are safe from their own patents... I'd sleep a lot better if I could see something on paper that spells out just what sort of armistice we have." Another threat to open source comes from legislators, enshrining copyright protection into law - as European politicians are planning. Perens said such laws are problematic because royalty-bearing standards are inserted into certain industry standards. He said laws would pave the path for prosecutions, noting open source developers would be unable to fund a defense against corporate action. He claimed a typical US patent dispute costs $2m.