While declining to comment on the specifics of the SCO Group's response, O'Shaughnessy confirmed "we have refuted that SCO is doing anything improper or is in breach of Australian trade practices legislation".
O'Shaughnessy said the reply had been forwarded to the ACCC last week after the regulator had sought the SCO Group's perspective on the complaint from OSV. OSV had argued that the vendor's call for commercial users of Linux to purchase licences to legitimise their use of the open source software breached those provisions of the Trade Practices Act dealing with misleading and deceptive conduct. The company claims Linux infringes on its intellectual property rights associated with Unix and sees the licensing program as a way of recovering compensation from companies who are exploiting the open source software.
O'Shaughnessy said the ball was now in the ACCC's court and stressed the regulator had not yet launched a formal investigation. However, he added that the vendor still intended to make the licences available to commercial users of Linux in Australia by the end of the current calendar year.
Only the ACCC can say if SCO is 'clean'. I'm sure they all claim to be 'innocent'.
What SCO is trying to do is the equivalent of hitting tennants up for rent, when they hold no rights to do so or have any proof that they own any part of the property.
In essence, it's a scam.