"Each Open Source installation displaces or pre-empts a sale of proprietary, licensable and copyright-protected software," he said in his letter. "This means fewer jobs, less software revenue and reduced incentives for software companies to innovate."
If open-source advocates want to give away their wares, McBride said, they can do so. But he insists they cannot take code from SCO-owned Unix, put it into Linux and distribute it for free.
He sometimes describes the company's predicament in the down-to-earth language of the cattle business in which he was raised.
"We went out one day and our Unix cows were missing," McBride said he told his father in trying to explain the case to him. "We looked in the Linux pen, and there's a bunch of them in there that have our brand on them . . . in this case the copyright. Someone took our cows and we want 'em back -- it's as simple as that."
SCO officials acknowledge that the firm, formerly known as Caldera, was likely going out of business before pursuing its Linux licensing program. The company purchased rights to Unix code from Novell and sells it to some companies, but McBride said that business cannot compete with Linux's free distribution model.
For its part, Microsoft has been on the offensive against Linux for years, often labeling it one of the company's greatest competitive threats. Calling it "viral" and a "cancer," officials have lobbied the Pentagon, other agencies and foreign governments not to use it, while stepping up efforts to win business customers by being more flexible in Windows licensing negotiations.
More recently, the firm's public rhetoric has moderated.
"Developers should be free to use whatever license they choose," Martin said. "But Microsoft wants people to be aware of the benefits and drawbacks."
Last month, however, a think tank heavily funded by Microsoft, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, issued a lengthy study questioning whether developers of Linux, including patriarch Linus Torvalds, appropriated substantial amounts of code from other systems.
Torvalds denies the charge, as do developers quoted in the study who say its author distorted their views. But Torvalds recently told Linux developers that when they add features or refinements to the software, they should certify that the code was not improperly copied.
Even the most hardened Linux advocates, including Torvalds, doubt that Microsoft inspired SCO to bring its lawsuits. But they contend the software giant knows how to exploit a golden opportunity when it sees one.
For them, news of the $50 million investments in SCO had the whiff of a smoking gun. Why would a Northern California venture capital firm, BayStar Capital, and the Royal Bank of Canada sink a combined $50 million into a company that acknowledged that Linux was so overwhelming its Unix business that its only hope of survival was its lawsuits?
