A venture capital firm called Baystar Capital was crazy enough to invest $50 million in SCO, the people making what appear to the naked eye to be highly preposterous claims about 'owning' unix. (Full details at Groklaw, of course.) If this is a Microsoft-inspired way of keeping a cloud on the legal status of Linux, it's depressing. If the Baystar people actually are wrong enough to think that SCO has a case, that's really depressing — think of all the better uses for $50 million! (And if you want better investments in the internet/tech field, call me — I can point you to a really great investment you can make for one twentieth of that amount.)
There is of course a third logical possibility, however unlikely: Baystar have made a smart bet. Very unlikely, and far too depressing to contemplate.
There is a fourth possibility: Baystar is aware that the whole legal hoo-haw over Linux “IP infringements” might be a pump-and-dump scheme (cf. Red Hat’s suit for declaratory judgement), but they think they’ll be able to make a profit on the next “dump” cycle.