Putting the Open Source Community to Work on MyDoom

Recently, the MyDoom virus affected the sites of two of the biggest opponents to the Open Source community: SCO and Microsoft. While Vigilante action is plain wrong (a message that few in the open source community seem to be sending out), there are opportunities for the open source community to shine. Here’s how.

As many people in the net community know by now, SCO has posted a reward of $250,000 for information leading to the arrest of the MyDoom author. In parallel, Microsoft has posted a reward of $250,000 to people that will help find the creator of MyDoom.B That’s a total of half a million dollars.

Earlier this year, the OSDL created a Linux Legal Defense Fund to fight SCO’s claims.

Let’s imagine for a second that the open source community use its effort to find the person responsible for the MyDoom virus and its variant. What if the community then picked up the purse from SCO and Microsoft? What if it then gave that money to OSDL as part of the fight against SCO? Wouldn’t that be the sweetest irony?

I think it’s a good idea and that’s why I’m issuing a call to the community to fight against vigilante behavior by finding the guilty party. That’s also why I’m asking whoever finds the guilty party to send the money to OSDL.

The open source community can do great things when it comes to developing software. How about using the open source approach to tracking down the guilty party and then using Microsoft and SCO’s money to help defend Linux?