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50K Linux Man Bites At Merkey.net

magnany writes "In a recent article, former TRG CEO Jeff V. Merkey had offered to pay 50K USD for a BSD-licensed Linux. Groklaw did a followup on his offer, to which Jeff responded by notifying the FBI of Groklaw's 'hate crimes violation.' Merkey doesn't exactly have a great record, either, which is made even more apparent by his recent threats to file suit against Merkey.net for slander and trademark infringement, amongst others. In addition, he has also reported Merkey.net to the FBI's hate crime department. What could Merkey.net do to get Jeff V. Merkey off their backs?"

14 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Grammar in the Letter? by Gil-galad55 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are numerous spelling and grammar errors in the letter that Merkey supposedly posted, and note the blatant CC to Maureen O'Gara. I don't know, my troll alarm is going off. Is it legit?

    --

    To follow knowledge like a sinking star, / Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. ("Ulysses", Tennyson)

  2. Sue him for libel by n0alpha · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He's clearly trying to defame GrokLaw and put it's credibility into question. Why not sue him for libel, and tack on a charge that he's trying to con the Linux community into selling their nestegg to him for a mere pittance of what he would make if the deal went through?

  3. He does have a point by Monkelectric · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Groklaw is biased against bullshit. And this guy seems to be mired in it.

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

  4. -1 Troll - come on.. by Artega+VH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why are responsible slashdotters encouraged to ignore trolls but such a blatant one gets an entire story? After the very professional way the kernel developers tore him apart you'd think the issue would be over.

    Don't feed the trolls!

    --
    groklaw, wired and slashdot. The holy trinity of work based time wasting.
  5. Litigation. by colonslashslash · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Ahh, another step towards this lovely age of "if it moves, litigate it, if it doesn't, litigate its next of kin".

    It's so pathetic. When does it all end?

    --
    She's built like a steak house, but she handles like a bistro....
  6. 50k USD ?? too little .... by Gopal.V · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For a really BSD licensed Linux, I'd ask for a contract with Dell to ship Linux by default ...
    And AOL to add Firefox on their CDs ...

    And BSD a Linux 2.0 kernel ...

    After all I'm not in this for the money :)

  7. Re:Interesting Merkey Post by iota · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Interesting bit:

    Linus Torvalds (and myself) are entitled to apolgies from GrokLaw, and SCO regarding
    their false and misleading claims Linus missappropriated trade secrets or infringed their
    copyrights and that I was involved in a scheme with SCO to further their false,
    misleading, and libelous allegations. Groklaw has also posted numerous emails and
    comments attributed to me which I did not author which libel Linus and myself, and
    were designed to create and perpetuate animosity in the Linux Community.


    ... and ...

    I thank Linus Torvalds for being a true friend and working with me to resolve these
    issues, despite all the heat and mud flying around.


    Seems like he's just trying to associate his name as closely as he can with Linus (and thus represent an "official" linux line) ... Or maybe he and Linus really are buddies...

  8. Re:Interesting Merkey Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > Or maybe he and Linus really are buddies...

    Definitely not!

  9. No more violence, please by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful



    This world is too violent as it is, please man, no more bloodshed.

    Thank you !

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  10. What does the FBI do with time wasters? by cheros · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As far as I can see this guy appears to be seriously abusing the minorities aspect of the hate crime laws, but AFAIK there's only so often you can waste FBI resources before they want a small chat with you, in a nice room with little in the way of comfortable furniture.

    I mean, some of the hate crime work is really serious, what this guy is doing is almost insulting..

    And, (AFAIK, IANAL) isn't it illegal to repeatedly threaten legal action without following it up?

    Just musing ..

    --
    Insert .sig here. Send no money now. Owner may sue, contents will settle. Batteries not included.
  11. Solution: ignore him and stop "kill" comments by walterbyrd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Surprising that posters here don't know any better than to take the bait. These "kill Merkey" comments do not help. Some clown like Dan Lyons at Forbes may very well use those comments to prove that the linux lovers over at slashdot are actually a hateful, violent, crowd. Danny did that with comments from the yahoo boards - comments which were far more tame btw.

  12. Re:For the Love of God... by ameoba · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What makes you think this is going to work? The core of NT is stable & secure already, it's extensions and concessions that have been made towards being more 'usable' that bring the whole system down. How is reimplimenting everything on a new OS that has a weaker/coarser security model going to make things better?

    --
    my sig's at the bottom of the page.
  13. Just a nut case by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The guy had claimed to have a cure for arthritis, reguarly smokes and grows peyote and now this?

  14. Re:For the Love of God... by gordyf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How is this any different than booting off a Gentoo LiveCD, mounting the filesystem and modifying /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow directly?