Chip Salzenberg
Encyclopedia
Chip Salzenberg is an American
programmer
mostly noted for his involvement in the Perl
and Free Software
communities. Salzenberg has been involved with Perl development for over 15 years, and with Free Software for more than 20 years.
In 1996 and 1997, he was project manager
for Perl 5.004, a Perl release widely praised for its high quality.
Salzenberg went on to teach Perl and write professionally
.
He was one of the founding board members of the Open Source Initiative
, which approves Open Source licenses. At VA Linux Systems, Salzenberg was Linux kernel
coordinator and wrote software for the manufacturing line. He also became a Debian
developer in 1999.
Salzenberg has been published on the subjects of Perl and Usenet
. He used to be the Architect for the Parrot
virtual machine
project.
. The response by HMS was to file a police report alleging Salzenberg of a felony disclosing private company information. This resulted in a seizure of his personal computer assets. However, the district attorney did not file any criminal charges and instead attempted to return the seized property back to Salzenberg. In a last ditch effort by HMS to keep Salzenberg's evidence from going public, HMS' attorneys filed an emergency motion to preserve evidence and re-seized the property for a civil suit. As of October, 2009, Salzenberg's computers sit under lock and key at Capsicum Group LLC, a digital forensics consultancy, paid by HMS, awaiting release pending a civil hearing. Friends of Salzenberg since has initiated a "geeksunite" website, soliciting donations for the legal fees he incurred due to the wrangling of court system by HMS.
Salzenberg's whistle-blowing was the result of the "HMS Harvester Tool" hijacking "open proxies
" on the web (a term used to describe unprotected public computers) and using these open proxies to power their harvesting.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
programmer
Programmer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
mostly noted for his involvement in the Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
and Free Software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
communities. Salzenberg has been involved with Perl development for over 15 years, and with Free Software for more than 20 years.
In 1996 and 1997, he was project manager
Project manager
A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers can have the responsibility of the planning, execution, and closing of any project, typically relating to construction industry, architecture, computer networking, telecommunications or software...
for Perl 5.004, a Perl release widely praised for its high quality.
Salzenberg went on to teach Perl and write professionally
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
.
He was one of the founding board members of the Open Source Initiative
Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product...
, which approves Open Source licenses. At VA Linux Systems, Salzenberg was Linux kernel
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
coordinator and wrote software for the manufacturing line. He also became a Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
developer in 1999.
Salzenberg has been published on the subjects of Perl and Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
. He used to be the Architect for the Parrot
Parrot virtual machine
Parrot is a register-based process virtual machine designed to run dynamic languages efficiently. It uses just-in-time compilation for speed to reduce the interpretation overhead. It is currently possible to compile Parrot assembly language and PIR to Parrot bytecode and execute it...
virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
project.
Legal issues
In the spring of 2005, Salzenberg became recognized as a "whistleblower" by calling out the unethical processes of Health Market Science (HMS), a company in King Of Prussia, PennsylvaniaKing of Prussia, Pennsylvania
King of Prussia is a census-designated place in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 19,936. The community took its name in the 18th century from a local tavern named the King of Prussia Inn, which was named after...
. The response by HMS was to file a police report alleging Salzenberg of a felony disclosing private company information. This resulted in a seizure of his personal computer assets. However, the district attorney did not file any criminal charges and instead attempted to return the seized property back to Salzenberg. In a last ditch effort by HMS to keep Salzenberg's evidence from going public, HMS' attorneys filed an emergency motion to preserve evidence and re-seized the property for a civil suit. As of October, 2009, Salzenberg's computers sit under lock and key at Capsicum Group LLC, a digital forensics consultancy, paid by HMS, awaiting release pending a civil hearing. Friends of Salzenberg since has initiated a "geeksunite" website, soliciting donations for the legal fees he incurred due to the wrangling of court system by HMS.
Salzenberg's whistle-blowing was the result of the "HMS Harvester Tool" hijacking "open proxies
Open proxy
An open proxy is a proxy server that is accessible by any Internet user. Generally, a proxy server allows users within a network group to store and forward Internet services such as DNS or web pages to reduce and control the bandwidth used by the group...
" on the web (a term used to describe unprotected public computers) and using these open proxies to power their harvesting.