Re: Linux 2.6.9 and the GPL Buyout

From: Timothy D. Witham
Date: Mon Dec 20 2004 - 16:43:34 EST


On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 15:27 -0600, Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
>
> This is the final post on this particular thread. I said I would
> reveal to LKML the purpose behind this original proposal when the time
> was right. The GPL buyout offer has now expired and is formally closed,
> now is the time to explian.
>
> The purpose behind the buyout was to convert as much Linux code over
> as possible to another open source operating system project which
> is sponsored at www.gadugi.org. This project is hosted by the Cherokee
> Nation and is sovereign under US Federal Laws. This project is merging
> the Linux Kernel with the Open Source NetWare project and distributing
> the operating system. The site is operational and the full code repository
> will be posted with the merged operating system after the Cherokee Nation
> Public License is published in January. Anyone who
> wishes to participate can email the site and get an account.
>
> Despite dubious reporting and wild conjecture, the buyout was not geared
> towards helping SCO, or in concert with M$ as some sort of grand
> conspiracy. It was geared towards creating a new licensing and legal
> model for open source development. The Cherokee Nation is enacting
> legislation to promote open source development. So the whole buyout
> was me and a few folks attempting to convert Linux GPL code into
> a licensing model and Cherokee Nation Copyrights that renders the
> code sovereign and immune from litigation outside of tribal courts
> and jurisdiction. So much for all the SCO and other legal wranglings
> regarding this effort and open source in general. We are immune from
> these people and so are any projects that use our licensing or host
> on our servers. I personally told Darl "Mad Dog" McBride at SCO
> good luck and to buzz off.
>
> We are adopting Federal Copyright and Trademark law, and Federal Patent
> law into our courts. We are also enacting trade secret laws that make it
> easier for folks to claim trade secrets on Open Source code for
> individual authors.
>
So am I reading this right. You are talking code that people have
written under various licenses and just putting your own license
on it?

Tim

> Whether anyone here bites at this or not neither adds or detracts from
> the opportunity and what we are doing. We have been around a long
> time in North America; over 7,000 years from our own
> recorded history, which is a lot longer than even IBM has been around. We
> will be here 1000 years from now (and hopefully so will our website and
> open source projects).
>
> Wa-Do
>
> Jeff V. Merkey
>
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Timothy D. Witham - Chief Technology Officer - wookie@xxxxxxxx
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