ACADEMIA

By Joris Evers, IDG News Service, The SCO Group is threatening to revoke its license to IBM for the use of Unix next week, sticking to the ultimatum it set when it sued Big Blue in March. AIX is IBM's flavor of Unix, but SCO owns the rights to some elements of Unix. Revoking the license would invalidate all AIX customer licenses, so users of the software would be operating with an invalid license, according to SCO. AIX is sold with IBM's pSeries servers and other products. Unless IBM corrects the wrongdoing charged by SCO by midnight on Friday, or settles the case, SCO intends to revoke the license it sold to IBM and weigh its further legal options, SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said Thursday. "They need to correct their actions as outlined in our complaint. If those terms aren't met, then we will announce what our actions are on Monday," Stowell said. "We would intend to revoke the AIX license." SCO sued IBM in March charging that IBM used proprietary Unix code for the open-source Linux operating system, violating the Unix license agreement. SCO seeks at least $1 billion in damages and set a 100-day deadline for IBM to cease its "anticompetitive" practices. IBM denies the charges brought by SCO and does not believe its license can be revoked. "IBM believes that our contract is irrevocable and perpetual," IBM spokeswoman Trink Guarino said. "IBM will continue to ship, support and invest in AIX."