The cash infusions allowed SCO to hire one of the nation's most prominent and expensive litigators, David Boies, to press its claims. In one of the case's many odd twists, it was Boies who tormented Microsoft when he served on the Justice Department's legal team in its antitrust prosecution of the company in the late 1990s. To retain his services, Boies's firm received a $10 million cut of the $50 million investment SCO received, as well as 400,000 shares of SCO stock, which could soar in value if the company prevails.
Most troubling to companies, governments and other potential Linux users is that SCO is going after them instead of the companies that provided them with the software. Generally, they get Linux from distributors such as IBM and Novell or Red Hat Inc., which make money by selling installation and support and packaging other services to go with it.
"Companies like DaimlerChrysler and AutoZone have been dragged into this as pawns in a bigger fight . . . and that is not logical," said Daniel Egger, who heads Open Source Risk Management, which he hopes will offer insurance to companies worried about copyright infringement with open-source software. "They didn't write it. They are just end users running it."
Linux backers call this tactic the spreading of "FUD," tech-speak for fear, uncertainty and doubt, to turn the marketplace against open-source software.
Tensions are so high that people on both sides claim they have received threats to their safety. Groklaw's Jones said she closely guards her privacy and base of operations after a menacing note appeared on an Internet message board.
SCO chief executive Darl McBride said he now sometimes carries a handgun, and his wife sometimes gets threatening calls when he is away on business. On Super Bowl Sunday this year, SCO's Web site was temporarily shut down by a virus aimed at the company.
"This case is a tinderbox," said Laura DiDio, a software analyst at the Yankee Group research firm, who said that some "Linux loonies" have harassed her over her research reports on the lawsuits, which generally have favored SCO's legal position. "IBM is using Novell, and Microsoft and Sun are using SCO to fight their battles for them."
Linux leaders deplore harassment as the work of an errant few, but they have no reservations about their desire to revolutionize the fundamentals of the software industry.
They believe that open-source collaboration yields better software, because more minds are put to the task. And they argue that operating-system software is now so essential to the economy that it should be a basic commodity that is cheap, or free, so that users can better spend their resources tailoring it to fit their needs and using it to expand their businesses.
"When that happens, some people lose, but everyone else wins, because things getting cheaper raises the general wealth level and raises productivity," said Raymond, the author.
Disputing the Benefits
McBride calls these arguments tantamount to a death sentence for a multibillion-dollar software industry that has helped propel the United States to economic and technological leadership in the digital era.
In March, he sent a letter to every member of Congress warning that Linux threatens the country's economic well-being and even its national security.
