Sorry fobs and ORAC but I think that that's very naive. I agree with RTFM and goates. And the question of pirated software (and I'm antipiracy) doesn't come into it and is a whole other ballgame.
"..certainly Microsoft has made mistakes and been caught out.." yep, and got away essentially scot free from an antitrust conviction.
"..how much Microsoft has contributed to the Charities and needy causes of the world.." - all tax deductible.
SCO is Microsoft's backstairs funded sock-puppet in this carefully calculated attack on free (GPL) software and the FSF. If this case succeeeds (and there is always the outside chance that it will) then all coice will disappear from the OS market and there'll just be MS, who will then be free to do exactly as they wish.
And RTFM, don't be so sure about BSD - if SCO win they will certainly go after BSD, which WILL be vulnerable since it is a UNIX based OS.
Remember, this is just the pretrial discovery phase, if it does proceed to trial the trial itself will take years and cost billions. Only Microsoft (who have already given SCO $10m) has pockets deep enough to sustain it for that long.
And so what if SCO eventually loses? The Open Software movement will have lost enough that MS's much delayed Longhorn OS (not due out until '07-'08) will have a far better chance of being widely taken up than it's present uninspiring outlook. And you'll pay, oh boy will you pay - in more ways than 64.
MS have a long history of playing hardball to win and no, they're not interested in your best interests.
"The Freedom to Innovate" - don't make me laugh.