Hi DKelley,
It is an interesting question you raise and I guess the answer is yes and no :)
@@IDENTITY returns the last identity entered on the table by your current session (this is limited to your session only, you will not get identities entered by other users). While @@IDENTITY is limited to the current session, it's not limited to the current scope. therefore, if you have a trigger on a table that causes an identity to be created in another table, you will get the identity that was created last, even if it was the trigger that created it.
SCOPE_IDENTITY(), like @@IDENTITY, returns the last identity value created in the current session, but it additionally limits it to your current scope as well. In other words, it returns the last identity value you explicitly created, rather than any identity created by a trigger / user defined function.
There appears to be alot of misconception around @@IDENTITY - I guess as always the devil is in the detail..
Regards Purple