They are never seen because the only other probe to fly by Mercury, Mariner 10, only mapped about 40-45% of Mercury. MESSENGER will see the parts that have never before been seen. Additionally, Mercury is always too close to the Sun (in angular separation) to point Hubble toward it. So these really are going to be never before seen images. Not just new, crisper images of previously seen terrain.

IBM would probably settle very quickly for an agreement by SCO not to challenge its rights to UNIX/LINUX in the future.

No.

IBM stands accused by SCO of breaching a contract between the two and divulging priviledged information or methods to others by contributing code to Linux.

IBM has as customers the governments of just about every country in the world that can afford to invest in IT. IBM provides solutions to hospitals, research centers, and buisnesses all who deal in sensitive or proprietary information. IBM can not have people going around saying that IBM broke a contract, especially by not treating sensitive data or methods correctly. IBM must, as a buisness priority, have SCOs claims declared completely baseless.

Which, cheerfully enough, means that IBM can't settle for anything less than the complete dismantling of SCOs claims, which will be quickly followed by the destruction of SCO by IBM's counter claims.