Reporter Claims To Expose Groklaw Editor's Identity

Interest is swirling around the Linux-advocacy site Groklaw.net, following the weekend posting of an article by Linux Business News, which purports to uncover information about the identity of site editor Pamela Jones.

Jones has long cultivated her anonymity in the face of curiosity about her background. Interest in Jones has risen along with the profile of Groklaw, which has pointedly tracked SCO's ongoing Linux litigation with IBM, Novell, and Red Hat. While Jones has given interviews to several trade publications and Web sites, they have typically been conducted via e-mail, and her picture hasn't appeared. In postings, Jones has said she has a paralegal background.

The Linux Business News article claims that Jones is in fact a 61-year-old who lives in a garden apartment in Hartsdale, NY. The article publishes Jones's purported address and phone number, along with her religious affiliation.

"This person is somehow connected to Groklaw, but I don't know if this is the PJ who is supposed to be writing this stuff," said Maureen O'Gara, the author of the Linux Business News article, in an interview. "This person comes fully equipped with a fully developed open-source philosophy. I don't understand the reason for the anonymity. This is somebody who is shaping opinion. It seems strange that we have no face to put with this."

In an email interview, Jones fired back at the article. "Is such behavior not beyond the pale?," Jones wrote. "When General Motors hired a private detective to investigate Ralph Nader, they had to apologize publicly. This is no different. It's intended to intimidate and to make me fearful, so I will stop writing Groklaw. Shame on them. Anyway, I won't stop."

Jones said she's considering unspecified legal action. "I have been flooded with emails of support and donations ever since this article came out," Jones added. "I'd say whatever their intent, it boomeranged."

Asked to describe her duties at Groklaw, Jones replied: "I run Groklaw, but it's a group work. Literally thousands of people contribute to Groklaw. But I am the editor, by myself."

Jones's low profile sparked news in April, when SCO chief executive Darl McBride, during a conference call to discuss the company's first-quarter financial results, criticized Groklaw, implying that Jones might be acting as a front for anti-SCO forces. The company reiterated that position today. "We think there's a lot more to the picture than what's known about this PJ person and who posts on Groklaw," SCO spokesperson Blake Stowell said in an interview. "Nobody knows how it's funded, but the tenor of their postings is not in the form of objective media—it's anti-SCO."

Groklaw supporters are rallying to Jones's defense in a series of comments posted Monday on Slashdot.