SCO today extended its 'Intellectual Property [IP] License for Linux' worldwide and warned that it expects to take legal action for breach of copyright against UK-based companies.

In addition to the run-time licence - starting immediately and costing $699 per server in the US - SCO is to offer an annual licence for $149.

Chris Sontag, SCO senior vice president and general manager of its SCOsource division (pictured), said the licensing scheme was a much safer route to take, and lower in cost, than the indemnification schemes from Hewlett Packard and Novell.

He told vnunet.com that the firm expects to begin legal action against Linux users in the next couple of weeks and confirmed that UK-based multinational companies were in SCO's sights.

"There are large Linux users [in the UK] - with very large commercial usage of Linux for which our IP is being exploited - for whom we have a great deal of concern," he said.

"We have had some discussions. With some of those companies they have not been fruitful. There is a very good chance of taking legal action against these very soon.

"The [HP and Novell schemes] are really not an indemnification. Neither have an IP basis. They are saying 'we will stand up and provide legal service for you if you are sued over IP issues'.

"But there are qualifications and limitations. You pay extra money to HP and Novell, both to the order of $700 per year. But they are not true insurance. Both are capped and you can still face legal consequences."

The licence will be available both directly and through SCO's 11,000 resellers. The run-time licence only permits use of what SCO says is its IP, so users who have amended the source code will not be covered.