Groklaw – Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going 91 Groklaw – Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going Mark Webbink, Groklaw editor since May 2011 DOI: 10.5033/i osslr.v3i1.60 Abstract After 8 years documenting litigation, e !laining com!licated legal matters and de"unking uncertainty in the field of F$%%, Pamela Jones !assed the baton on the Groklaw.net news we"site over to Mark We""ink. Under his editorshi!, Groklaw 2.0 will remain committed to its values and accuracy in reporting, though it will increasingly engage with issues like patent litigation to reflect current market tensions and imperatives. Keywords -aw. information technology; Free and Open Source Software. Free %oftware community. patent litigation $n )ay 16, 2011, Groklaw1 celebrated its eighth anniversary, and on that same day something uni0ue ha!pened – &amela 'ones ste!ped down as the editor of Groklaw, a role she had held since she started the electronic !u"lication in +,,1( But Groklaw did not shutter its doors on )ay 16. 2ather, it entered a new era, what we are calling Groklaw 2.0, under the editorshi! of )ark We""ink, a name familiar to many in open source legal circles( When Groklaw started in 2003, it was focused almost e clusively on one thing: e posing the story behind the %4$ Grou! and its !ath of litigation( 5ay after day &am and her team of open source 6ournalists ferreted out the facts and told the story of %4$, a story that still has not concluded. As Groklaw !rogressed, readers would ask about other aspects of free and open source software( &am was always willing to o"lige, ta!!ing into a vast network of friends and e perts to e !lain the difficult legal conce!ts that sometimes underly open source( Along the way certain standards were esta"lished. #irst, Groklaw is a 6ournalistic enterprise, with interviews, research, and reporting of legal events important to the #$%% community. Groklaw is not 1 Groklaw, htt!377www.groklaw.net International Free and $pen %ource %oftware Law 2eview 9ol( 1, 8ssue 1 92 Groklaw – Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going without a point of view, "ut accuracy of reporting has always been the goal( %econd, while &am and )ark do most of the writing, they receive significant contri"utions from the many Groklaw volunteers, including research, reporting, document conversion, e pertise, or whatever we need. :hese volunteers are legal e perts, technology e perts, educators, and 6ournalists( :hey come from 6ust about every walk of life( As stated, Groklaw has a point of view that drives the stories and commentaries in which it has interest( Groklaw is a !roponent of free and open source software, a !ro!onent of truly open standards, an advocate against !atents related to software, an advocate for low;cost, wide;s!read access to the 8nternet, and an advocate for reasona"le !rotection of !rivacy( :hat isn't to say that Groklaw is against other forms of software develo!ment or licensing, 6ust that we believe the a!!roaches we su!port are superior( #inally, Groklaw is for fair competition in the market!lace, which means we do not look kindly on #*5 =fear, uncertainty and dou"t> as a tool to !romote one position over another( Groklaw is also a wonderful historical archive of information and documents( :echnologically su!ported "y and o!erating on the servers of i"i"lio+, all of the information that Groklaw gathers and !u"lishes remains accessi"le to the !u"lic( Groklaw has years worth of litigation history, transcri!ts, court documents, legal references, and !apers that may be of interest to either legal scholars or the average 'oe sim!ly trying to understand more about free and open source software and the "attles that have been fought on its behalf( And, while Groklaw provides a great deal of legal information, it does not dispense legal advice. There are plenty of e perienced open source attorneys for that( %o what is Groklaw +(, and what is changing? 8nitially, not that much( Groklaw is a tremendous enter!rise that has accumulated eight years of stories, technology, and !ractices, and you 6ust don't hand all of that off overnight. For the time being, we are in a period of transition and learning( However, anyone who has been around Groklaw for awhile is likely already seeing su"tle changes( )ark's style of writing is not the same as &am's( :hat is neither good nor "ad, it's 6ust different( %econd, Groklaw is focusing more and more on !atent litigation that either directly or indirectly im!acts the #$%% community( &art of that is because of )ark's "ackground and interests, "ut a larger !art of it is because that is where the information technology industry is today, dee!ly embedded in a morass of patent litigation( As Groklaw eyes the future, there are some things clearly on the hori@on( $ne is to e !and its sta"le of writers( While &am continues to write the occasional article and )ark is now doing the "ulk of the writing, we want to engage other writers in this enter!rise( %o we are reaching out to both law students and legal practitioners to partici!ate and contri"ute( A "it longer term, we are looking at a possi"le change in our technology !latform( While Geeklog, the "logging software on which Groklaw runs, has served us well, it is not as fle i"le as many of the tools now availa"le for we" !u"lishing( We will remain committed to open source tools, "ut 5ru!al may be a better long;term platform for us( Groklaw will also start to stretch its wings, moving from primarily covering U(%(;centric litigation to a + 8"i"lio, htt!377www.i"i"lio.org International Free and $pen %ource %oftware Law 2eview 9ol( 1, 8ssue 1 Groklaw – Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going 93 more international a!!roach( But that means we need legal e perts from around the world to su!port the work( We are ho!ing to work closely with the #reedom :ask #orce – -egal of the #ree %oftware #oundation Aurope( Just as the 8nternational #ree and $pen %ource %oftware -aw 2eview seeks to "ring periodical, scholarly work to the !u"lic on #$%% and the 8#$%% -aw Book seeks to !rovide a reference volume on technology law and its a!!lication to #$%%, Groklaw looks to "ring daily international news about F$%%. But that can only ha!pen with a broad international effort( $ne thing that won't change is the fact that Groklaw will continue to be what it always has been, a collaborative effort of volunteers( Come visit us, and sign u!( About the authors Mark Webbink is a lawyer with a strong foc%s on patent law and Free and O&en So%rce So tware. He is t#e for*er General Co%nsel at RedHat and one o t#e directors o t#e So tware Freedo* Law +enter. As visiting pro essor at New York Law, Mark r%ns t#e Center for Patent Inno!ations, and o!ersees t#e Peer To Patent pro3ect r%n with t#e U.S. Patent and Trade*ark O ice. He has been acti!e in seeking re orm o t#e U.S. patent syste*, and teac#es patent licensin$. In addition, Mark is a senior lect%ring fellow at D%ke Uni!ersity Sc#ool o Law w#ere he teac#es abo%t licensin$. %ee Jones, Pamela, 'As of Today, It's Mark We""ink's Groklaw 2.06, Groklaw, Monday, May 16 2011, #ttp://www.groklaw.net/article.p#p?story820110515173831922 International Free and $pen %ource %oftware Law 2eview 9ol( 1, 8ssue 1 94 Groklaw – Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going Licence and Attribution This paper was published in the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review, Volume 3, Issue 1 (September 2011). It originally appeared online at http://www.ifosslr.org. This article should be cited as follows: Webbink, Mark (2011) ©Groklaw ± Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going©, International Free and Open Source Software Law Review, 3(1), pp 91 ± 94 5$I: 10(5033/ifosslr(v3i1(/, Copyright © 2011 Mark Webbink. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons UK (England and Wales) 2.0 licence, no derivative works, attribution, CC-BY-ND. As a special exception, the author expressly permits faithful translations of the entire document into any language, provided that the resulting translation (which may include an attribution to the translator) is shared alike. This paragraph is part of the paper, and must be included when copying or translating the paper. International Free and $pen %ource %oftware Law 2eview 9ol( 1, 8ssue 1 .