NetWare Rewritten, Merged With Linux, and Released Under Cherokee Open Source License

     Jeff Merkey, a former chief scientist of Novell, has rewritten Netware and merged it with Linux. The new operating system will be known as 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. Merkey plans to release the new software under the Cherokee Nation Open Source License, which is still being written, but which will reportedly recognize trade secret rights in the underlying code.
     Any Open Source License that incorporates Linux and recognizes trade secret rights is likely to be challenged on three fronts: first, it would violate the definition of Open Source, which is trademarked by the Open Source Initiative; second, it would violate Linux's own GPL and probably be illegal under US law; and third, under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, once a trade secret is published in public with good faith, it ceases to be a trade secret. [More] Posted by Chris Hodge at January 11, 2005 10:57 AM | TrackBack | Links to this post
Categories: Open Source