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Taking Techrights to the Next Level by Adding Video and Covering SCO

First dance



Summary: Although Techrights has been quiet by the appearance of the surface (especially in April and March), improvements are being made behind the scenes, so patience is required

TECHNOLOGY improves all the time and means of interaction advance accordingly. Techrights got involved in social networks and also fostered an IRC community because these work better than comments. Blogs in general are a poor form of CMS in which to organise data (reverse-chronological, no hierarchy, lacking structure), so we also added a wiki (for summaries/overviews which are concise for example, even regarding SCO) and recently we collaborated with OpenBytes to bring TechBytes to our readers. I was a smashing success with far more interest than we had ever expected.



If the site has been quiet recently, it's because of BT and also because of maintenance work, undertaken to improve access to older articles. It's an investment more than a waste of time. Tim and I spent 5 hours last night working to ensure that we can deliver future episodes of TechBytes also in video form (Ogg Theora and YouTube), in addition to 3 forms of audio.

"I code every day and I am aware of implementations of mine that violate one patent or another, e.g. the progress bars."The other day we explained what the site is not, even though it gave visibility to some libelous claims which had been made against us (then rebutting them, without getting emotional or pointing fingers). Sadly, there is a lot of new libel against Groklaw; it keeps being spread right now (we only mention it in IRC, in order not to confuse regular readers). The funniest claims say that Pamela Jones is male, multiple people, or that she does not exist (contradicting the former claims, even from the same source!) or that she is paid by big corporations, which is of course a lie. The whole thing is comical at best. For what it's worth, I do not need to be paid by anyone to oppose software patents and also write to the government or the EPO on the subject; I code every day and I am aware of implementations of mine that violate one patent or another, e.g. the progress bars. Groklaw is written from the eye of a paralegal, this site is not.

As a side note, the same source which slanders Groklaw has just brought to people's attention this piece from ZDNet UK. I don't know the author of this piece, but I appreciate what I consider to be a well summarised explanation of not just what was done to me, but also to Pamela Jones (even as far back 2003). It starts by stating:

From time to time, links will pop up on various Linux or open source related sites, pointing to articles written by Roy Schestowitz, mainly from techrights.org. The articles are very well written and all sources for the articles are documented. Sometimes the articles include references to highly confidential material. And so far everything I have read seems to be true with clearly documented evidence. The articles often involve controversial issues with open source, along with lawsuits and even happenings at Microsoft regarding its negative attitude towards open source. For instance, Roy has posted articles claiming to include internal memos within Microsoft that specifically state how they are targeting Linux head-on. When reading the articles and comparing to latest news, they actually coincide and make sense.

What I find more interesting though, is that there are posts and other articles written to try and defame or discredit him. And some use some very strong language. Simply doing a Google search for "Roy Schestowitz" comes up with some examples. What in the world is going on here, and why are people trying so hard to discredit him for his articles on techrights.org?


Well, they try to steer people away from the source of damning evidence by daemonising and defaming the messenger/platform; it's a lot simpler than having to deny (in vain) leaked documents which highlight criminal behaviour and activities which Microsoft paid a lot of money (settlement out of court) to conceal.

One reader has suggested approaching or posting an "invite" on another forum to readers of Groklaw -- an invitation which would describe the partial overlap between Techrights and Groklaw. There is a new article in Groklaw about the need to direct the community to some active forum where comments can be posted. Here is what Pamela wrote:



We hardly have any lawyers amongst us at Techrights, but if any are willing to help, IRC is the best place to start. We can always change focus and maybe even create another IRC channel. What Groklaw has done was a provision of peepholes into legalese in the context of Free software. Journalists need that for reference. Groklaw was crucial. A lot of people do not know this, but Groklaw almost came to an end 2.5 years ago (this was not publicly stated). Pamela Jones came back in a big way though, much to the disdain of those whom she criticised, including Novell at times.

Here are some more Groklaw-related articles that we found in the news recently (but have not referenced yet):



Needless to say, Groklaw has another month to go and it already explains why UnXis/SCO is (probably not "are") up to. Articles include:



We are already discussing this in IRC (morning and afternoon today). Ryan asks: "Why the hell would anyone buy SCO for their "UNIX business"? SCO UNIXWARE is laughably outdated. In fact, most proprietary UNIX systems are in that kind of shape, though maybe not as bad"

“[SCO's] "UNIX business" is "suing UNIX developers and users business"”
      --MinceR
MinceR responds: "their "UNIX business" is "suing UNIX developers and users business" (well, more like "FUDding" than "suing" now, since everyone who matters knows they're full of ****)"

Ryan responds with: "they claim the lawsuits remain with SCO and they only bought the UNIX business [...] anyone still using Unixware is doing it because they have legacy applications, not because they want to keep using it"

This discussion has carried on through the afternoon. To get involved, IRC channels should be considered the best route/channel for involvement. They are also logged to prevent information from getting lost.

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