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Groklaw Turns Ten
Founded just to cover the SCO/Caldera UNIX lawsuits back in 2003, Groklaw has proven itself a great place to read and discuss many of the major tech trials since. And today, it turns ten: "We made it. A decade of Groklaw as of today. Who'd a thunk it?
Not I.
When I started, I thought I'd do a little fiddling around for a couple of months to learn how to blog. But then all you guys showed up and taught me some important things that I didn't know, and vice versa I hope, and here we are, on our 10th anniversary, still going strong, together on a very different path than I originally imagined. The important moment for me was when I realized the potential we had as a group and decided to try to surf this incredible wave all of you created by contributing your skills and time. I saw we could work as a group, explain technology to the legal world so lawyers and judges could make better decisions, and explain the legal process to techies, so they could avoid troubles and also could be enabled to work effectively to defend Free and Open Source Software from cynical 'Intellectual Property' attacks from the proprietary world."
This despite a smear campaign by SCO and nearly shutting down in 2009. And it's archived in the Library of Congress.
"I can't believe that SCO bullshit went on for six fucking years."
The judicial process has a lot of say-so in our digital lives these days. Groklaw is and will remain an important bastion of freedom when there's an issue of dangerous legal precedent at stake. I think it's a much more powerful platform than WTP, because most of the petitions on WTP are ignored or answered with a form letter and put to bed. At Groklaw you can contribute to fighting the folks who want a quarter every time you make a device with rounded corners, or every time you call fopen() on a UNIX clone.
Oh, and: I hate software patents. That is all.
It's always nice to have someone follow and translate the legalese for the rest of us.
Here's to another 10 years!
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I read groklaw regularly and get a lot out of it. It chaps my ass that I feel like it is useful and helpful to know all that legal crap. (I just want to code.) There is a bit of a cult of personality over there on groklaw which can be off-putting at times, but Pamela has done a damn good job. Kudos to you Pamela. You have made a difference.
Anyone have a link to explain why she changed her mind and kept GrokLaw running?
http://www.nastyprisms.com/temp/cache/radio-weblogs.com/0120124/2003/03/16.html
Made mincemeat out of Daryl!!
I wish someone would put together a final analysis of the fiaSCO and all of the players. There was a lot of underground activity that Groklaw did not cover fully such as Yarro, Robbins, the 'suicides', the message board trolls (Merkey?) etc.
It would be great to see interviews from the perspective of the last rats off the ship and how they feel about the whole thing. By this time there has to be people ready to tell the real story.
There's a book waiting to be written here.
I'd love to see a good investigative reporter pick up and run with the story. I'm afraid, though, that the folks who "know where the bodies are buried" won't talk.
Perhaps if someone went at the story like they did in All The Presidents Men and just follow the money.
Amazing to see a decent company ruined by it's own management.
I liked Caldera and owned OldSCO stock before they made this ridiculous lawsuit happen. I got out before they killed the company.
Jesus, can we name it something else than a word that starts with "grok"?
That's such an ugly sounding word.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Linux zealots will vehemently mod down anything critical of Groklaw or "Pamela Jones", so I'll just simply say that nobody with more than 2 brain cells to rub together would buy her story about being a little missing working in a small law firm who cut her computing teeth on Windows 95 then became a super-hardcore FOSS advocate after booting a Knoppix CD.
Founded just to cover the SCO/Caldera UNIX lawsuits back in 2003,
Actually, that's not true. It was founded so that Pamela Jones could learn about blogging. It just happened to occur at the same time that the SCO debacle was starting.
~Loyal
I aim to misbehave.
When SCO attacked first I was furious. I knew they lied, but really didn't know any additional details how these guys can be beaten. IBM decided to charge back. And then when PJ with Groklaw appeared, it was like we saw the light. At the beginning there were some nervous times, but everything turned out well. Then she started to blog about software patents and other legalese related to open source - and it was clear for me that it's not just PJ, it's community project, and it's here to stay. She also made us geeks not to be afraid from courts and lawyers and understand our rights and how system works.
So, thanks PJ. Thanks community. IMHO without Groklaw idea of open source would be in much different place than it is now.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
I realize that this is a redundant post, but pj deserves accolades. The sheer volume on Groklaw is astonishing. She organizes and presents coherently, with a distinctive voice, a lot of dry, technical material. I have learned a lot.
Thank you pj.
Groklaw on the other hand combines a lot of hard work on fact-checking, reading the source materials, with actual knowledge of things legal and down-to-earth decency and simplicity in its choice of language.
It produces articles that are helpful, well-structured, well-written and devoid of unexplained jargon, and also don't look down on people with a "RTFM u N00B" attitude. It does admittedly take time and concentration to fully read Groklaw articles though: you can't just skim through and expect to understand what was being said.
No wonder it doesn't appeal to many people on Slashdot. It also happens to be *demonstrably* right most of the time, precisely because of the way it goes about its subject.
It also happens that a certain Maureen O'Gara (on a paid assignment from SCO) tried to 'unmask' Groklaw's PJ as an IBM think-tank, a lawyer collective and something else I can't quite remember. She didn't get anywhere I must say, and signally failed to even raise doubt about PJ being a private individual. So it will take more than a two-liner Slashdot drive-by comment to improve on that, dear Anonymous Coward.
And as to someone who isn't a pimply-faced teenager boy being unable to learn about computing, that's just about the height of stupidity. Especially when you consider that items like Linux, writing scripts, doing light programming, and blogging are basically accessible to *anyone* who's moderately smart got a good memory and is dedicated. Talent, in particular, is not involved at this level. There's nothing much to it really, apart from putting in some work. Teenagers tend, being largely unfamiliar with the concept, not to realise that.
It seems you rubbed your two braincells together once too often Anonymous.
Sad, little, lonely zealot. You'll believe she's exactly what she said she is, on the Internet. Nothing will change that. Thus, you aren't even who the post was directed at. Seems you aren't getting the attention you crave. Are you sure you're not a teenager? ;-)