Before I jump into flame territory, let me say, for the record, that I believe Microsoft is interested in upholding the value of intellectual property (IP). It's not hard to understand why: Redmond loses lots of money in pirated software.

That said, I don't believe, for an instant, that Microsoft licensed Unix source and patents from the SCO Group because it wants to be in the right on the IP issue, or because it feared being sued by SCO for code it includes in its Services for Unix product.

(SCO recently sued IBM for $1 billion over alleged IP violations, a move my eWeek colleague Jason Brooks characterized recently as clueless, disingenuous, or both. Hear, hear!)

Read Brooks' "SCO Deserves a Public Scolding"

And More on Microsoft's Move to License Unix From SCO

To me, it doesn't take much effort to connect the dots. Microsoft is using SCO to help market against Linux. After all, what better way is there to hurt Linux sales than to strike a blow at the very heart of Linux, the GPL? And to do it indirectly, with another company taking the bad rap for it? It's no secret that Microsoft sees IBM as the biggest reason for Linux taking hold among enterprises. Why not help scrappy SCO take on the Big Blue Goliath?

Microsoft has tried to make the public case (mostly unsuccessfully) that the GPL is an un-American cancer with the potential to contaminate a company's (or government's) entire software base. Now it has an even better argument: GPL'ed software is dangerous because it is embroiled in a messy lawsuit.

The Microsoft-SCO history is long, complex, and litigious. Microsoft and SCO (when it was The Santa Cruz Operation) were embroiled in legal skirmishes of their own back in the 1990s over Xenix.

In fact, Unix/Xenix has been giving Microsoft's legal headaches for years. Anyone remember AT&T suing Microsoft in 1998 for breach of contract and intentional interference over AT&T's Advanced Server for Unix, a product for integrating Windows and Unix? But I digress....

For More on the SCO-Microsoft Connection, Read This

In 2001, Caldera Systems purchased most of SCO's IP. As of 2002, Caldera Systems began calling itself The SCO Group, which, these days, folks are abbreviating (again) as SCO.

But there are more complex connections between Microsoft and SCO/Caldera. The sister company of Caldera Systems — Caldera Inc., which later changed its name to Lineo -- sued Microsoft for antitrust violations. The ugly and protracted legal battle ended with Microsoft paying estimated tens of millions of dollars to settle the case before it went to trial. And the last of the 37,480 pounds of records in the Microsoft/Caldera case are in the midst of being shredded.

Microsoft-Caldera History Relegated to Toilet Paper

What do you think? Is there more to Microsoft's decision to license SCO's Unix than meets the eye? Or is Microsoft just trying to avoid another potential legal minefield?

Write me at mswatch@ziffdavis.com and let me know what you think.