Re: Linux 2.6.9 and the GPL Buyout

["Timothy D. Witham" <wookie@osdl.org>]

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@osdl.org
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