According to an article from InfoWorld, HP is now offering to indemnify purchasers of its Linux systems and support contracts against lawsuits from SCO.

The deal is for people buying and using the HP-approved operating system from HP and only works if you have a valid support contract, but it provides more protection than anyone else in the Linux community today.

To qualify, you must meet the criteria for the coverage (HP equipment and OS, purchased from HP, with a valid support contract) and you must sign a contract allowing HP to act as your legal counsel and HP agrees to be responsible for all IP claims by SCO.

Of course, those whacky folks at SCO have come up with a spin on this, indicating that this move by HP "proves" that Linux is costly and therefore you should just license it from SCO instead of getting indemnification from HP. Never mind that, just weeks ago, they were claiming that the lack of indemnification meant that the OS was expensive because of the potential legal action... but we don't grade SCO on consistency, they are running scared.