It has been reported to me that a senior male PTFS employee told people at ALA that Horowhenua Library Trust (HLT) sold the Koha name and domain to Liblime and that we are now asking for it back for free.
This is a lie.
In 2007 three Katipo staff went to work at Liblime. The code that had been written by Katipo employees, the koha.org domain and Katipo clients went with them, including HLT. At that time Liblime had a good reputation in the community and it was believed that the domain would be held in trust for the community, exactly as Katipo had done.
HLT had nothing to do with the sale apart from being one of the clients transferred to Liblime. A number of NZ and Pacific Koha clients were treated very badly by Liblime with support contracts not honoured, commissioned enhancements not delivered and significant amounts of money lost. None of the libraries involved have ever talked publicly about this, choosing instead to act with discretion and integrity.
The trust in Liblime was misplaced and after 2 years of shameful behaviour the global Koha community asked HLT, as a trustworthy charitable trust, to seek the return of koha.org to community hands. We asked Liblime, and then PTFS, what would be required for the return of the domain.
HLT have never asked for it to be given back for free.
In asking PTFS what would be required to bring koha.org back into community hands we were acting under directions of the wider community. PTFS have a total misunderstanding how FLOSS works, and seem to think they have bought Koha, or that Koha was something Liblime could sell to them, or that Katipo could sell to Liblime. HLT has been asked by PTFS to move the community back to koha.org. This is not something HLT can do even if we were prepared to be blackmailed - which we are not.
Please judge HLT on our actions not on malicious and untrue rumours designed to cause dissent in our community.
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5 comments:
Well said!
It is now time for PTFS to "put up or shut up." Get in or get out. And if they expect the wider community to believe that they are "not" the authors of this maliciousness, then they should stand up publicly and deny it point by point in clear and unmistakable terms under the name of someone with authority to speak for them.
I agree, well said Jo.
Perhaps if you state your source and when this supposedly took place someone could react to it. It's funny, I was at ALA, but the only time I've heard these statements was Chris on Twitter and now this blog post.
I have an email from the person who was spoken to by the PTFS staff member directly. I do not believe their is anything to gained by naming names Vicky, but I can assure you I have not made this up and neither has Chris. We do not lie. At the end of the day karma will out and it behoves us all to remember we are judged by those we associate with.
I apologize. I did not mean to imply that you or Chris made this up. I thought that your post was referencing statements that were made at a meeting I attended. Obviously I cannot address conversations that were had been PTFS representatives and individuals.
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