I mentioned a while ago that I was thinking of a
project for Groklaw to tackle as a group. Here is what my idea
has morphed into.
I want to do a systematic, comprehensive, and carefully
documented history timeline relating to Unix and the Linux
kernel, based, with his kind permission, on Eric Levenez's
Unix History timeline chart, but from the perspective of
tracing the code by copyright, patents, trade secret, and
trademark. The idea is that the final timeline will be a
publicly-available resource, released under a Creative Commons
license, that will assist the community in defending against -
or better yet in deterring - future lawsuits against GNU/Linux
code.
I am convinced that we can make a difference,
legally. I am also convinced that SCO won't be the last
attempt to make money from GNU/Linux code, even if they fail,
which I expect them to do. There are, sadly, always companies
and lawyers willing to initiate a lawsuit if there is the
whiff of short-term money in the air, even if they know it's
only a nuisance lawsuit.
We're in a good position to do such a project here at
Groklaw. First, the gang's all here, a good foundation of
folks who lived the Unix and Linux history, and we've
developed the research skills to be able to follow through in
depth. A friend said to me that one of our most potent weapons
is that you are all still alive. We can, therefore, compile a
living history, where each of you contributes your memories of
Unix and Linux. That combined history will be like a shield,
protecting against any so-called expert the opposition can
possibly call to testify.
I talked this over with a number of individuals, including
Eben Moglen, of FSF, Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman, Dan Ravicher of PubPat Foundation, and a select group of Groklaw
regulars and many others at various companies and
organizations, and I also interfaced with Daniel Egger at Open
Source Risk Management. You will remember the article about
his project. The upshot of it was that there was universally a
response that this was a worthy idea, useful to pursue. Daniel
Egger, as it turns out, was already working on a related
project, as you know, related to offering vendor-neutral
indemnification, so that users can get low-cost protection
while retaining the freedom to continue modifying the code.
So I am collaborating with Daniel Egger at Open Source Risk
Management and offering them my full support by coordinating
the collaborative development of the timeline and the living
history. I realized interacting with readers on Grokaw that if
each one just contributes what he remembers, all the details,
we will be able to go through it and find what matters
legally. It will represent a legal barrier to future SCO
copycats, because no experts they could ever come up with will
be able to counter the combined evidence we will amass. That's
the plan. Are you with me?
This project is highly complex and we anticipate it may
well take a full year to complete. I will manage the
"front-end" and post the timeline in small draft sections for
public comment as we develop it; OSRM has agreed to support me
by doing much of the "backend" work, including identifying and
prioritizing areas where further historical research or
documentary support would be desirable, and tagging, indexing,
and storing relevant information for the timeline as it comes
in from contributors. But the project is ours and belongs to
Groklaw, and it will be our present to the world.
OSRM has simultaneously retained me, part-time, to work on
their indemnification project as their Director of Litigation
Risk Research. Not only that but they are donating a certain
portion of my time to Groklaw, which will free me from having
to do so much nonrelated paralegal work and be free to really
focus for the next year on this project. I am very excited
about the project and I hope we'll have fun too. Groklaw will
continue, meanwhile, as it is, and it remains noncommercial
and my personal baby. Well, more accurately, ours, because
Groklaw wouldn't be much without you.
I'll be providing more details in the days to come. But any
of you that wish to email me with any information you feel
would be helpful, either in terms of the history itself, or
organizing and conceptualizing it, editorially or technically,
feel free to do so, or to leave your comments here. I'll be
putting a permanent link to the Timeline Project on the home
page, so you can find it easily. And if you know anyone that
should be in on this, please spread the word.
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