[IP] You Can't Make This Stuff Up
------ Forwarded Message
From: Jim Thompson <jim@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 05:30:58 -1000
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
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.
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