The Beaverton, Oregon-based non-profit organization created the $10m fund from donations in January 2004 to protect itself, its members, and other Linux users from SCO’s threats to litigate against businesses running Linux.

Those threats became a reality last week when Lindon, Utah-based SCO launched litigation against AutoZone and Daimler Chrysler, alleging that AutoZone violated SCO’s Unix copyrights by running versions of Linux that contain its Unix System V code and DaimlerChrysler violated its Unix software licensing agreement by refusing to provide certification of compliance with the provisions of that agreement.

We have communicated both to DaimlerChrysler and AutoZone that we have the fund and offered it to them if they want that, said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. I contacted them as soon as it hit to tell them that we would be willing to help them.

The offer of help has been extended to DaimlerChrysler even though SCO’s complaint against the automotive giant relates to its Unix software license, rather than any Linux-related copyright infringement. While the OSDL’s board would decide on how the fighting fund is best used, this would not rule out DaimlerChrysler, according to Cohen. They have to apply… but we wouldn’t exclude them, he said.

Both AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler have yet to respond to SCO’s litigation and Cohen said OSDL will wait and see what they want to do before responding itself.

In the meantime, OSDL’s advice to Linux users is also to wait and see how SCO’s legal battles against IBM Corp, Novell Inc and Red Hat Inc turn out before writing out checks to cover SCO’s demands that they license Linux code that it claims is its intellectual property.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some people write some checks, but I would be disappointed, he said, adding that some companies running Linux were likely to succumb to SCO’s demands to enable them to concentrate on running their business rather than worrying about potential litigation. This should not be taken as a sign of approval for SCO’s claims, he added.

This certainly seems to have been the case with EV1Servers.net, the dedicated hosting division of Everyones Internet, which became the first named customer for SCO’s Intellectual Property License for Linux early last week.

The SCO agreement eliminates uncertainty from our clients’ hosting infrastructure, said Robert Marsh, CEO of Everyones Internet in a statement. We make no endorsement of SCO nor do we make any admission as to their claims. However, what we did do was make a prudent business decision based upon our circumstances and our customers’ needs and the need to bring certainty to their businesses.

This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire