Groklaw Starts Unix/Linux History Project

An anonymous reader writes "Over on GrokLaw, PJ and others have decided to create a 'timeline' for Unix and Linux development. The plan is to recreate, as completely as possible, the history of these two operating systems '...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.'"

Comments

Don't do it.

[Quasar1999]

Sco will find a way to use this history to further 'prove' that source code was acquired from commercial software at specific times from specific companies, using nothing more than the fact that some feature was added to linux on a specific date. This aids insane companies like SCO who want to find relationships and infringement where there really was none... go back far enough, and no one from the time/company/developer will be able to defend their IP...

Re:Don't do it.

[Kalak]

While PJ is on the side that is generally against SCO and Linux, that is because she is on the side of finding the truth of the issues relating to SCO. The truth is against SCO because they are not looking at things with more than an eye for profit. If she (and the others at groklaw) were to find that there was a place for infringement in Linux, you can bet that she would be the first to e-mail a copy of it to LKML so that those that are interested in protecting Linux are able to insure it is clean, or becomes clean, and remains clean.

Linux will not come through this because it's better at hiding things than SCO, but because it is better at opening things up to be revealed to all than SCO. Such a history only reveals more truth to Linux and its development, and can only help Linux.

Image if they did find something. How long it would remain in the kernel? Everyone would switch to non-tainted kernels, and SCO would have no one left to sue.

Revealing the truth can only help Linux

No...

[debilo]

Fearing SCO is not really a reason not to do this.

go back far enough, and no one from the time/company/developer will be able to defend their IP...

I don't really understand this conclusion. Are you trying to say that documenting and publishing events of the past somehow aids criminals? If so, how?

Re:Hrm...

[Dukael_Mikakis]

I agree. It seems like it's going to be a damn hard project. But I guess it depends on how they want to approach it. If they want to document the major events (i.e. Linus had an idea) then it might not be so daunting, but then it might not be so interesting either. If they want to go into any depth, it seems like it'd be impossible because so many people have had their hands on Linux, and there are so many different versions and branches and everything.

Sounds something like documenting the history of the English language. The "big picture" stuff might not be very interesting, but then it'd be impossible to document when every word was first used, and by whom.

I guess, obviously, the logical plan is sketch out major events then flush out the details.

Re:UNIX Timeline

[j-pimp]

Well I must be fucking new here cause I RTFA. Allow me to 'splain to you.

Groklaw is run by a paralegal. This is a legal history. All those diagrams of Unix, networking etc, are from a geek point of view. groklaw wants to make a history that concerns itself with patents and trademarks being declared, licensed, expired etc.