Information technology professionals identify indemnification of "open source" products, such as the freely distributed Linux operating system, as a primary and growing concern, according to a new survey of 200 United States-based IT professionals.

Stephen Graham, group vice president for IDC's Global Software Business Strategies, said Thursday the research group's study underscored the escalating trend by corporations to verify and clarify the level of protection they have from software vendors in cases of copyright dispute.

Clearly, SCO's $5 billion suit against IBM - and related litigation against Linux corporate users over the Lindon company's claims that its Unix code was lifted by Linux - has been "the catalyst for people thinking about indemnification," Graham said.

But the issue of how to license open-source software, and protect its users, will extend well beyond any resolution of the SCO-IBM case.

"There's an increasing propensity of software companies to patent, and do so globally," Graham said. "A whole host of issues are arising . . . that create an environment where the end users' concerns of getting caught in the middle of disputes are justified."

SCO spokesman Blake Stowell, citing the ongoing status of his company's lawsuits involving IBM, Novell, DaimlerChrysler, AutoZone and RedHat, declined comment on the study's findings.

However, Novell - the world's No. 2 Linux distributor and a partner with numerous open-source applications - used the study to emphasize its own policy to indemnify its customers against challenges to their use of the open-source community's favorite operating system.

"It really is more of an IT management issue rather than open source [development]," he said. "Customers are concerned about being taken care of . . . [and] we are taking care of our customers."

Bruce Perens, a Berkeley, Calif.-based Linux developer, lamented the apparent rise in concern over open-source software's bona fides.

"It's bad for the customer when vendors replace innovation with litigation," Perens said. "These folks should be competing on the basis of the quality and functionality of their products, not abusing the patent system to lock each other out of the market and create monopolies."

bmims@sltrib.com