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The SCO Group, not content to die a quiet death, has over the past year transformed itself with a new business model. Starting with a lawsuit against IBM, SCO has been suing corporations it alleges have violated its licensing agreements for the Unix operating system, which SCO owns.

I am not a lawyer, but I believe that legally SCO has no leg to stand on. In their first allegation, they accuse IBM of violating their Unix license by copying code into the Linux kernel. Not only have they failed to publish any evidence that this is actually the case, but because SCO itself published Linux source code under terms that release these kinds of proprietary claims, that may not even matter.

SCO was probably hoping to be acquired by IBM as a settlement for this case. But IBM's stubborn desire to fight the trumped-up accusations hasn't spelled doom for SCO: somehow, despite huge declines in their original business—software—SCO's stock price has shot way up and they have received new rounds of venture capital financing. It's a little perverse to watch: investors are giving this company money on the theory that it can generate enough fear to extort protection money from its former customers and business partners.

What's scariest is that, as Cesar Brea points out, it's working. Although when the cases go through court SCO is likely to lose and might give up, its directors and the small army of lawyers and consultants they retain have profited greatly. Just by looking like a bully, they've inflated their stock price enough to cash out at a huge profit.

This is an interesting case. A couple of years down the road, I hope it will serve as a catalyst for some improvements in our legal system and the complete humiliation and financial ruin of SCO Group and every one of its executives and lawyers.