“On October 7, 2004, Jeff V. Merkey made the following offer on
the linux.kernel mailing list:
"We offer to kernel.org the sum of $50,000.00 US
for a one time license to the Linux Kernel Source for a single
snapshot of a single Linux version by release number. This offer
must be accepted by **ALL** copyright holders and this snapshot
will subsequently convert the GPL license into a BSD style license
for the code.“Groklaw, for example, included an article that mentioned this
proposal. It also noticed that someone with the same name is listed
on a patent recently obtained by the Canopy Group. SCO is a Canopy
Group company. Thus, this proposal raised suspicions in many as to
Mr. Merkey’s motivations…”