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Groklaw Declares Victory, No More Articles 265

Posted by Roblimo from the mission-accomplished dept.
tomhudson writes "Pamela Jones announced that as of May 16th, she will no longer be updating groklaw: 'I have decided that Groklaw will stop publishing new articles on our anniversary, May 16. I know a lot of you will be unhappy to hear it, so let me briefly explain, because my decision is made and it's firm. In a simple sentence, the reason is this: the crisis SCO initiated over Linux is over, and Linux won. SCO as we knew it is no more."
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Groklaw Declares Victory, No More Articles More

Groklaw Declares Victory, No More Articles

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  • If PJ or someone else so chose, Groklaw could have a mission. I found the dissection of the legal ramifications of the moves by the various parties in the suit to be education and valuable information. There are many high profile suits for which this sort of information would be quite helpful. The suit by Sony, for instance, is one of these. Some sort of knowledgeable coverage of the various patent lawsuits going on in the smart phone arena would be interesting too.

    Good coverage of legal stuff and quality analysis is very hard to find. If a tip jar was put up, some of my money would likely find my way into it.

    • Re:Groklaw still could have a mission... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by _Sprocket_ ( 42527 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @06:46PM (#35770880)

      If PJ or someone else so chose, Groklaw could have a mission.

      I agree. However, I suspect that the job PJ volunteered for would be taxing after awhile; community wonks, ignorant "journalists" with an axe to grind, opposition trying to detract from the issue by making personal attacks from the shadows, etc. Groklaw could be more than just the SCO threat. But now that SCO seems to be well and finally done, it strikes me as a good time to slip away from the menacing limelight.

      • Yeah, I read the article, and it makes more sense. I still think PJ should hand it to someone else she trusts to carry on. I can understand being personally exhausted by the effort, and I applaud the job she's done and think she is greatly deserving of the rest and obscurity she desires (because she wants them, not because I personally want her to go away or be obscure :-).

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by MichaelSmith ( 789609 )

          I still think PJ should hand it to someone else she trusts to carry on

          Or sell the site. I never understood why Bruce shut Technocrat down. Why take your bat and ball and go home if you can get a few bucks for them?

          • I still think PJ should hand it to someone else she trusts to carry on

            Or sell the site. I never understood why Bruce shut Technocrat down. Why take your bat and ball and go home if you can get a few bucks for them?

            I bet Darl McBride would be interested...

          • Because then he'd lose control of the reputation of the name.

          • Technocrat was a great site, especially early on, but I recall Bruce saying it never made money. It was fun for a while, but it acquired a somewhat fringe group of supporters (quasi survivalists) that gradually became lunatic. I'm not sure what exactly was the tipping point that caused Bruce to shut Technocrat down, but there were problems with offensive commenters, and the way it was going, sooner or later there was going to be something of interest to the FBI ;-). Or maybe it just didn't end up what Br
            • Also, at one point Bruce started offering to pay small amounts for accepted stories, but out of the ten or so that I submitted and had accepted, not a dime was paid out.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by hitmark ( 640295 )

            Sometimes it is not for the money, but for the love of the topic. As such, one may not want to see it tarnished by future owners.

          • Re:Groklaw still could have a mission... (Score:5, Insightful)

            by nadaou ( 535365 ) on Sunday April 10, 2011 @12:42AM (#35772200) Homepage

            Or sell the site. I never understood why Bruce shut Technocrat down. Why take your bat and ball and go home if you can get a few bucks for them?

            I think it's called something like "integrity".

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by RichiH ( 749257 )

            > Why take your bat and ball and go home if you can get a few bucks for them?

            At a wild guess, the unwillingness to let something you built up transform it into something you don't want it to while losing all possibility to change anything.

    • Re:Groklaw still could have a mission... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by NoobixCube ( 1133473 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @06:53PM (#35770942) Journal

      Law is a never ending battle. If Groklaw expanded it's mission it would never end. PJ would have to be like the Phantom, passing the ring and title down, generation to generation. Every time we hear about a patent lawsuit ending, we've heard of a good two dozen start up at the same time. Groklaw will be a valuable resource, and should be archived, but let her rest, or she'll be writing until they nail her pine box shut.

      • I think she should pass on the mantle to someone she trusts. That person would not be PJ, and the sites flavor would change, but if the person were any good the coverage would still be there and valuable.

        • I think she should pass on the mantle to someone she trusts. That person would not be PJ, and the sites flavor would change, but if the person were any good the coverage would still be there and valuable.

          The Groklaw name isn't important. Anyone can pick up the mantle under a new name. Groklaw can settle in its place in history.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jd ( 1658 )

        Or after. There's bound to be zombie cases to take up.

    • Somehow, I don't think a tip jar on the Internet would be particularly enticing. Good on PJ for getting out while the getting is good. With the SCO thing out of the way, everyone with a cause would be battering down her door and then, knowing people, launching into character assassination when she chose to champion someone else's project.

      • I don't think PJ has to continue to run it. If she wants to go, I think she's done a fantastically amazing job, and I'm sad to see her go, but happy that she's making a good choice for herself. I'd rather someone who really wanted to do it than someone who felt burnt out.

        And maybe you don't find a tip jar enticing, but I've put a few bucks in more than one tip jar on the Internet.

    • There should be a link right there on the page, that you could click, and give it your credit card, and then you could leave a tip. Yeah, I know it was already pointed out, but you know, sometimes enough is not enough.

  • Twitch (Score:5, Funny)

    by msobkow ( 48369 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @06:37PM (#35770820) Homepage Journal

    "But I'm not dead yet!" -- Darl McBride

  • It was more than just SCO though (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 09, 2011 @06:38PM (#35770832)

    Groklaw started with the fiasco over SCO, but there was a lot more than just the Linux fight with SCO. It demonstrated to the entire Linux community the minefield that had been lurking: patents, copyrights, and the fiasco that is the American Intellectual Property Industry. Its far more destructive to innovation and advances in science, progress and technology now than at any previous period in history (although the early middle ages and alchemy come close). But with Alchemy, you could claim that what you created in your castle cellar is yours (and no one would try to stop you). Where we are now, if you create something new that you've never seen before, and isn't yet on the market, someone somewhere will claim that all your research, design and development belongs to them, and will insist that you turn over all your work to them (stuff they don't have) because they were granted a broad, general patent, claiming everything you have (so hand it over, and if you don't a judge will make you). People don't even want to do R&D because some company will claim everything. Groklaw showed us this (and I learned what 'with prejudice' means, what 'pink sheets' are, and what the abbreviation NASDAQ (N.A.S.D.A.Q.) stands for, among other things). Thanks P.J.

    • Re:It was more than just SCO though (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 09, 2011 @08:27PM (#35771370)

      Of course, and the flip side of the coin is, it was more than just SCO. Who FUNDED SCO? They stopped being the Santa Cruz Operation a looong time ago. The gutted corpse was resurrected as a shambling zombie. And who was the puppet master? We've heard the names. The Canopy Group. Microsoft.

      SCO and it's merry band of idiots with stupid names (Darl? Seriously?) were put in place as a cock-sure weapon against Linux. Too cock-sure, as they tripped up, and the community refused to put up with their bullshit. Remember the counter-protest? With the signs that had Linus Torvalds as a puppet of IBM? Those signs weren't drawn up at lunch break.

      SCO may be no more but the puppet masters are still out there. Throwing in the towel now and declaring "victory" is stupid. We have won absolutely nothing.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        PJ did a lot for quite a while. So to those bitching about the upcoming vacuum, step up or shut up. This thing worked because she took action. Now it's your turn, if you actually care.

        • I think that Groklaw might be watched well by the same corporate overlords in charge of sourceforge and slashdot, really.

          Maybe even the EFF.

  • Thanks from all of us! (Score:5, Informative)

    by pr0f3550r ( 553601 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @06:44PM (#35770866)
    Thanks for all your hard work Pamela. The open source community has benefited greatly from your efforts. Good luck in you future endeavors!

    • Re:Thanks from all of us! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jd ( 1658 ) <imipakNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Saturday April 09, 2011 @11:08PM (#35771938) Homepage Journal

      Hear hear!

      But if I could impress on PJ one thing, it would be to write a book on the case. What I'm picturing is a two-part book, the first basically a collection of her postings in order of publication together with the court's publications (copyright permitting) so that there's a single resource that can be referred to that isn't subject to servers being pulled or data being archived and taken offline. The second part would be a retrospective, an analysis of the analysis, so to speak, comparing hypotheses and expectations with actualities, illustrating what has been added to case law versus what was simply a restatement of existing case law.

      This would be of enormous benefit to armchair enthusiasts without doubt, but by being formally presented in such a manner it may also be of benefit to law shools as a case study.

      I don't know what PJ thinks on the matter, or if she'd take such an idea seriously, but in lieu of a decent honors system I'd argue she deserves professional recognition in some form or other and typically that means being referred to as an inspiring source.

  • badly needed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheSHAD0W ( 258774 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @06:50PM (#35770914) Homepage

    Although Groklaw was founded because of SCO's actions, it, or a site like it, is badly needed. We all need to grok law. I hope the site will be spun off to other writers, or another site will take its place.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by k8to ( 9046 )

      I think its the reverse.

      I think law needs to be understandable, and if it isnt accessible, its a failure.

  • Go leave a comment on groklaw people (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phayes ( 202222 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @07:01PM (#35770992) Homepage

    PJ deserves a thank you for everything she has done for us all. Show her that her efforts have been appreciated before it is too late!

    • Except by the disgruntled retards around here who bought SCO stock. They'll bitch and whine and claim PJ was a front for IBM's legal team until the end of time.

    • Bravo, phayes - that is exactly right. Everyone - post a thank you while you can (e.g. before May 16). It's a nice gesture.

      btw, the groklaw paypal-donation button still works.
      I tested it with a few bucks from my paypal account :-)
      PJ's hard work has made the world a better place - again, just a nice gesture.
  • to render more services to public in the same subject - copyrights, patents, i.p., trolls, and all those stuff hampering our civilization's development.

    • Maybe PJ would like to have a life after putting up with all this crap. If you want a site like what you're suggesting, why don't you make one?

  • Celebration in Chicago (Score:4, Interesting)

    by hackus ( 159037 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @07:31PM (#35771158) Homepage

    I have an idea.

    Why don't we have a party in Chicago to celebrate?

    We could have Pam come and all of us who work in Open Source could buy pizza, drink way too many sugary caffinated drinks!

    We could even have a pizza in the shape of SCO and slice the baby up and eat it!

    -Hack

  • with Novell selling the Patent portfolio off, we might need groklaw again......

    • That's Nortel selling its patent to Google, not Novell.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jd ( 1658 )

      Novell's sale to Microsoft of various technologies has come under investigation I believe. Nonetheless, we need something/someone to monitor events. However, I'd suggest that groklaw would be the wrong forum - for now. We need to know intentions, motives, attitudes, not whether it's actually legal or not. This needs more of a private investigator or investigative journalist. Sadly, those aren't the people who tend to be interested in open and honest. Unless you can find a way of bringing Jeremy Brett back f

  • RIP (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @08:15PM (#35771322)
    RIP Groklaw. You changed the world for the better.

  • I realize that PJ wants to move on. It is her life and she is free to do so. At the same time, I believe that Groklaw has a very solid place in technology media, and effort should be made to create an organization that can continue PJ's work. Incidentally, PJ's work has been helping technology people understand the law, and helping lawyers and judges understand technology and industry history.

  • It's too bad Microsoft didn't make this same decision after it won the desktop and browser wars.

  • Disappointed (Score:5, Funny)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) * on Saturday April 09, 2011 @09:12PM (#35771486) Journal

    When I first read the headline, I thought Groklaw had finally defeated "a", "an" and "the".

  • I'm sad to hear it, but my thanks to her for making the difference that she did.

  • ... some secret order, like the Knights Templar, tasked with maintaining the secrets of Groklaw? Will there be some closely held incantation that will resurrect it should Evil again walk the face of the Earth?

  • I perfectly understand PJ's right to privacy, but I have always been puzzled by the fact that nobody seems to have ever met her physically.

    • I perfectly understand PJ's right to privacy, but I have always been puzzled by the fact that nobody seems to have ever met her physically.

      I think at least a few people have met her (or at least have claimed to have doesn't and there doesn't seem to be any reason to doubt them).

      But the only one a quick Google search brings up is Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols [practical-tech.com] and he does admit that he didn't check her passport, and those can be faked anyway, so I guess there's still room for mystery if you're into that sort of thing.

  • Alas, Groklaw. (Score:3)

    by Lorien_the_first_one ( 1178397 ) on Sunday April 10, 2011 @07:11AM (#35773140)
    I found Groklaw in 2003. I can't even remember exactly how i found it. All I remember is that on the first article, I was chuckling to myself and then laughing out loud while reading Pamela's exquisite humor while recounting some absurd action on the part of SCO. Over the ensuing weeks, I became fascinated by this lawsuit and all it's gory details. By 2006, I was spending an hour or so everyday reading the pleadings, understanding the arguments and reading the comments.

    There was something that came out of that whole experience that I will never forget. The teamwork. Those guys were committed, totally committed to getting it done. People went to the courthouse, got the pleadings, scanned them, OCR'd them and checked for errors and then formatted them for ease of reading.

    Groklaw is also what pushed me over the edge away from Windows, forever. Their description of the Linux community, their enthusiasm and their sheer drive to make Linux a pleasing environment to work in just blew me away. I had to have this, I thought. By mid-2007, I was completely off Windows for my personal computing. I'm a late starter, but now I'm learning the shell, exploring regular expressions and basic bash programming. I'm learning more about how computers work with Linux than I ever have with Windows. I can even see the humor in the help files.

    Groklaw gave me a gift that I will never forget. So when Pamela says it's time to quit, I totally understand and wish her well in all her endeavors. They are still putting together the Comes exhibits and tracking lawsuits. There will be plenty of reference material to work with, and all of it will still be in the Library of Congress.

    Groklaw is also how I discovered Slashdot. I'm really happy to be a part of this community, even if only a very small part.

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