You Can't Make This Stuff Up

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jim Thompson <jim () netgate com>
Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 05:30:58 -1000
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

For IP, if you wish


http://www.clientservernews.com/
#Cherokee%20Indians%20Encircle%20Open%20Source%20Or%20How%20the%20GPL%20
Might%20Wind%20Up%20with%20Arrows%20Sticking%20in%20It

Cherokee Indians Encircle Open Source Or How the GPL Might Wind Up with
Arrows Sticking in It
 By Maureen O'Gara

     Jeff Merkey, who used to be chief scientist at Novell and wrote
     NetWare's SMP kernel, calls open source a "socialist movement
     that's destroying the software industry in America."

     He's also convinced open source misappropriates other people's
     IP.

     But he thinks he's figured out a way to make it a commercially
     viable capitalist tool by letting the Cherokee Nation run it.

     Merkey has rewritten NetWare and merged it with Linux to create
     a distribution called GaDuGi, a Cherokee word for the work crews
     that used to engage in what we might call community service for
     the good of the whole tribe.

     He says he has turned GaDuGi over to the Cherokee Nation, which
     will hold the copyright. GaDuGi will be distributed under a new
     Cherokee Nation Open Source License that is still being written,
     but reportedly differs from other open source licenses in
     recognizing trade secret rights in the underlying code.

     In anticipation of the move, there is also draft trade secret
     legislation pending before the Nation, due to be submitted for
     ratification by the Full Tribal Council on February 14, that
     would recognize individual as well as corporate trade secret
     rights. Otherwise it reportedly apes the Uniform Trade Secret
     Act in effect in the United States.

     People who want to redistribute GaDuGi commercially would be
     required to do so under the Cherokee Nation Open Source License.


------ End of Forwarded Message


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