An HP representative confirmed late Tuesday that the company will announce plans to assume liability for its customers' use of Linux. Lindon, Utah-based SCO has asserted that its code was unlawfully inserted into the open-source operating system.
HP is one of the largest sellers of servers running Linux.
Earlier this year, SCO filed a $3 billion lawsuit against IBM for allegedly misappropriating Unix technology. Since then, the company has asserted broad rights over Linux, sending a letter to 1,500 large companies telling them that they could be liable for damages because of their use of Linux.
IBM has filed a countersuit against SCO.
The HP representative said the company has no plans to sue SCO itself.
"We really thought about it and we decided we were just going to move forward and assume all risk ourselves," the representative said. "This is what we want to do to protect our customers."
The open-source community has soundly rejected SCO's claims, although a couple of companies have agreed to pay license fees for their use of Linux, SCO has said.
Sellers of Linux and Linux-based systems have taken a variety of approaches, ranging from denouncing SCO's claims to filing suit, as Red Hat has done.
Red Hat also set up a US$1 million legal fund--the Open Source Now Fund-- to defray legal costs that may be incurred by Linux developers.
That sort of stand up posture will give HP's name a strengthened reputation amongst the open software community and a measure of confidence to businesses depending on Linux and HP equipment. Thank you HP! That removes the lingering doubts. How long until IBM follows suit?