Groklaw's Purpose

Groklaw's Purpose

by Pamela Jones
Groklaw

August 14 2004

Groklaw is not a discussion board, although it's enjoyable and sometimes useful to have discussions along the way, or a blog or entertainment, though I try to make it funny and a pleasant experience. It's as complete a record as I can make it of this historic case, with all significant details recorded for history. That is why we have SCO Archives [ http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20030831173953678 ], a chronological listing of what happened by date. We have the IBM Timeline [ http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20031016162215566 ] and one for Novell and Red Hat too, with all the legal documents and the dates they were filed, and we have the Legal Docs [ http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=legal-docs ] page also, which is currently in process of being updated and rearranged. All the legal documents filed are available as PDFs and as text, for the visually-impaired, who can have difficulty with PDFs, I've been told, and so that they can be searched by keywords using our Search [ http://www.groklaw.net/search.phputility ]. All that work is done by volunteers, some of whom go to the court to pick up documents and exhibits, some scan, some transfer from PDF to plain text, some do the HTML, some research, some send me links to stories worth covering, some attend court hearings and give us reports.

Groklaw is also an anti-FUD site. And I hope it's a place to grok enough of the law, so if anyone has any information that could be useful, they know where to bring it. That is the purpose of the Legal Links [ http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=legal-linkspage ], to show you where you can find legal information, and that is where you will find links to all the relevant courts too. We also have the Quote Database [ http://www.groklaw.net/quotes/index.phtml ], so you can find specific quotations by the principals in the SCO story, which is updated by volunteers. Also, we offer transcripts [ http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20040421121716487 ]of the hearings, teleconferences, of media interviews and public appearances, when we are able to obtain necessary permission.

Groklaw isn't Slashdot and it isn't the New York Times or the Drudge Report. It's a working site, thousands of people -- more than 7,000 now -- working together as volunteers, applying open source principles to chronicling the SCO legal assault on the FOSS community and trying to help to defeat what we believe is a wrongful attack. Groklaw is a non-commercial site. I am a volunteer too. I can tell you I've never worked so hard in my life, because I work for a living and do this in my free time afterward. Mathfox is a volunteer too. We are all volunteers. It's our way of saying thank you for software that the community wrote and gave as a gift to the world.

My concept was this: Many of Groklaw's readers know the history of UNIX and the SCO/Caldera history too, because they were there. They lived it. So my idea was that if I explained what would help, they would know where to find historical evidence that could make a difference. And it has happened just that way. Groklaw is not like any other site. It's sui generis, unique in its goals and purposes. So far as I know, it's never been done before, which is the creative fun of it.

I am explaining all this, and showing all that we do and offer, because we have hundreds of new members since SCOForum and a lot of new visitors, too, and many of you may not know all that is available here. Enjoy our hard work. And feel free to participate.

09:59 AM EDT