Groklaw Editors

by Pamela Jones Groklaw I stopped in at LinuxWorld just for a quick look around today, kind of unexpectedly, actually, and I learned some interesting things. First, I met Bill Claybrook, which was certainly an honor. I learned he works for Novell now. I hope he will write something for Groklaw some time. And I learned that HP's Martin Fink is a very clueful guy. He gave one of the keynote speeches, and as usual Stephen Shankland gets it right on the money, if you want to read his article [ http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5577604.html ]. Fink talked about license proliferation, OSI, the GPL, and patents, not in that order, and what I walked away knowing is that HP gets the GPL. I can't tell you how surprised I am to be writing that. Or, I guess I should say Martin Fink gets the GPL and how important it is to the success of Linux. He said it's the GPL that gave Linux its wings to fly. I asked Fink's PR assistant to please send me a transcript of his rem...

Grokdoc I asked a professional technical writer, to write about what would make this project really useful. Here is his response: Writing Technical Documents for Computer Beginners by Nicolas Richards The first rule of writing technical documents is to know your audience. This means more than a mental acknowledgement of who you are writing for, and then plowing ahead in your usual style. It means crafting your words to suit your audience, even if your audience thinks in wildly different ways from the way you think. Consider the plight of the help desk. The person manning the phone knows quite a bit about software and hardware, but the person calling in may not. How many times has a problem been reported to a help desk that couldn’t be solved until the person taking the call dialed down the probable causes to a level commensurate with that of the caller. “Is the monitor plugged in? No? Ah, well plug it in now. Is it in? It works now? Wonderful. You’re very welcome.” ...

By Pamela Jones Linux Journal One little Web site about a batty lawsuit became the tech news hit of the year. And Internet research can help clear the next legal minefield too. Open legal research isn't a phrase in law dictionaries. Law firms normally are secretive and keep everything very hush-hush. What we've been doing at Groklaw is pioneering work, what Open Source Risk Management's Daniel Egger called "a new kind of collaborative, real-time, you-can't-get-away-from-us legal resource". The Internet makes it possible. Like a lot of ideas that turn out really to work, it was supposed to be something else but morphed. When I started, it was only me, one geeky paralegal who didn't like what The SCO Group was trying to do to Linux and decided to help. SCO seemed to be pursuing a strategy of delaying any test of its claims in court, while at the same time maximizing fear, uncertainty and doubt about Linux. A lot of my early work was finding ...

By Pamela Jones Groklaw I mentioned a while ago that I was thinking of a project for Groklaw to tackle as a group. Here is what my idea has morphed into. I want to do a systematic, comprehensive, and carefully documented history timeline relating to Unix and the Linux kernel, based, with his kind permission, on Eric Levenez's Unix History timeline chart, but from the perspective of tracing the code by copyright, patents, trade secret, and trademark. The idea is that the final timeline will be a publicly-available resource, released under a Creative Commons license, that will assist the community in defending against - or better yet in deterring - future lawsuits against GNU/Linux code. I am convinced that we can make a difference, legally. I am also convinced that SCO won't be the last attempt to make money from GNU/Linux code, even if they fail, which I expect them to do. There are, sadly, always companies and lawyers willing to initiate a lawsuit if there is ...

Much press coverage has been given in the last months to SCO's press and legal attacks on Free Software and the GNU/Linux system. Even though these attacks have narrowed from a focus on the whole GNU/Linux system to the kernel named Linux specifically, FSF, particularly through our General Counsel Eben Moglen, remains deeply involved in strategic planning for the community's responses to SCO. Professor Moglen has been coordinating with IBM's lawyers on the matter, including both their inside and outside counsel. He has coordinated with OSDL, who employ Linus Torvalds, the original author and a key copyright holder of the kernel named Linux. Professor Moglen continues diplomatic efforts throughout the Free Software and Open Source Movements, and throughout the technology industry, to bring together a broad, coordinated coalition to oppose SCO, both legally and in the media. On this site, we will publish documents related to our work opposing SCO. SCO Scuttles S...

Michael J. Jordan, Staff Linux Online Linux Online is pleased to present our visitors with an interview with Pamela Jones who is responsible for a weblog, Groklaw, which deals with the SCO case. Her site is an excellent resource for those looking for a well-maintained and comprehensive guide to what's going on day-to-day surrounding the SCO controversy. Linux Online: First, I'd like to congratulate you on your excellent weblog dedicated to the SCO mess. "Mess" is probably the best word to use. I mean, I would say SCO "case", but it's pretty clear, at least from our side of it, that they haven't really got one. What motivated you to get started with your weblog. Were you a Linux advocate first? Pamela Jones: Thank you. I was an advocate only in the sense that I tend to give Windows people I really like Knoppix CDs. I did try to find a way to contribute in the past, but I am not a programmer and I could never find my niche or a place I...

by Pamela Jones Groklaw I've been following a number of online discussions on HIPAA, the new regulation requiring health care providers to provide privacy and security protections for our personally identifiable health information, and in more than one place I've seen people raise the question: Do Microsoft's current EULAs, their End User License Agreements, violate HIPAA? HIPAA requires you to prevent access to PHI; the EULAs in question say Microsoft has the right to access your hard drive at will -- their will, not yours -- and download updates and patches. It's a bit like arguing over how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.... it doesn't matter what you conclude, it is what it is (or isn't), no matter what you say. Most people use Windows products and they probably will continue to do so, no matter what you say. You can't escape the EULA, so you're stuck, some say. Examples of such online conversations here [ http://yro.slashdot...

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK, April 14, 2003 /PRNewswire/ -- MedAbiliti has been chosen to conduct all HIPAA compliance auditing, analysis and training for Exemplar International, Inc. MedAbiliti specializes in HIPAA compliance consulting and training, network security architecture / design and software engineering development services. Exemplar International, , markets occupational health and medical assessment products and services nationally, including data management, substance abuse, on-site medical evaluation, wellness and related health management services and programs and is the first company to provide a comprehensive web-based service environment for all of a company's occupational health needs. "This is a challenging HIPAA project," said Nicolas Richards, CEO of MedAbiliti. "Exemplar has two main offices with constant communication, a network of hundreds of remote data administrators, plus sophisticated data exchanges with third party medical cente...

Eben Moglen Conference on the Public Domain Eben Moglen talks about "From Anarchist Software to Peer2Peer Culture: the Public Domain in Bandwidth, Software and Content" at the Conference on the Public Domain, Duke University School of Law. Copyright 2001 Duke University School of Law