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Its the end of the line for free Linux, if The SCO Group Inc. gets its way.
The company on Tuesday set a price tag on the open-source OS: the “SCO Intellectual Property License for Linux” will cost $1,399 for single-CPU servers. The company said an introductory server price of $699 for one CPU will be available though Oct. 15.
In a statement, the company said its license will let customers avoid infringement of SCOs intellectual property rights in Linux 2.4 and Linux 2.5 kernels.
“We believe it is necessary for Linux customers to properly license SCOs IP if they are running Linux 2.4 kernel and later versions for commercial purposes,” Chris Sontag, senior vice president and general manager of SCOsource, the intellectual-property licensing division of SCO, said in the release.
“The license insures that customers can continue their use of binary deployments of Linux without violating SCOs intellectual property rights.”
The move follows legal action earlier in the week by Red Hat Inc., which initiated a pair of legal actions aimed at disarming Santa Cruz, Calif.-based SCOs claims of copyright violation over Linux, including a pre-emptive judgment to find it innocent of all potential copyright violations. Red Hat also announced the formation of a legal fund designed to help smaller Linux firms with their own defenses.