[Talk] SCO attacking Australian users?

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

I've just seen this in the Australian
(http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9044174%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html):

  SCO targets locals in Linux battle
  Kate Mackenzie and Chris Jenkins
  MARCH 23, 2004
  
  SCO Group has begun targeting Australian Linux users in its legal
  campaign to claim ownership of some code in the open-source
  operating system.
  
  SCO has engaged lawyers to "contact Linux users" about its
  controversial Linux licencing scheme, after its US legal counsel
  reached 1500 of the world's largest Linux users in May.
  
  SCO Australia-New Zealand general manager Kieran O'Shaugnessy would
  not say how many Australian organisations had been contacted, but
  claimed at least one sale had gone through for a SCO Linux licence.
  
  SCO said several US companies had bought the licences, including
  Computer Associates although CA disputed the claim. SCO's Linux
  licences went on sale in the US in July, and were made available
  here in January at $999 per server processor and $285 per desktop
  machine.
  
  Mr O'Shaugnessy said he received a dozen inquiries on the day the
  local licences were announced.
  
  Last week, he was fairly certain at least one sale had been
  completed, but would not comment on how many more were in the
  pipeline. "The first sale may well have gone through, but I'm not
  going to comment on each and every sale," Mr O'Shaugnessy said.
  
  Linux developers, including its creator Linus Torvalds, insisted
  none of SCO's intellectual property was used in any versions of the
  Linux kernel.
  
  SCO's licences for Linux have been the subject of complaints to the
  Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which last year
  asked the company to provide information on its claim.
  
  Mr O'Shaugnessy said SCO may take legal action against Australian
  Linux users who did not buy its licences.
  
  It had launched lawsuits against two large US companies that used
  Linux, and a $US5 billion ($6.7 billion) lawsuit against the
  original target of its Linux legal action, IBM, he said.
  
  "It's an ongoing process that started about a month ago," Mr
  O'Shaugnessy said.
  
  "We reserve the rights to pursue our claims through the courts if we
  don't get satisfaction going down the IP licensing path."
  
  It was revealed last week that SCO sent letters to two US
  supercomputer facilities which use Linux, the Lawrence Livermore
  National Laboratory and the National Energy Research Scientific
  Computing Center.
  
  The Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications
  (ac3), which runs one of Australia's fastest supercomputers on the
  RedHat Linux distribution, would be "very surprised" to receive a
  letter from SCO demanding it take out licences for the 155-node
  cluster, chief executive Dr Phil McCrea said.
  
  SCO's US lawsuits appeared to target well-known international
  companies, he said.
  
  On that basis, ac3 was unlikely to be pursued.
  
  "We are hardly known outside a certain peer group," Dr McCrea said.

Does anybody know more?  Is this claim that somebody bought a license
correct?  Does the ACCC know?

Greg
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