Evolution is dead, long live ... Maltego
Roelof
A lot of people have been asking me about the status of Evolution. For
those that offered support, alternative hosting, their press/
underground connections, tea, suggestions and even just concern -
thanks so much. To most of you I said - "watch the mailing list, I'll
soon give an explanation". So after 10 days I guess the time has come
to explain...
On Thursday August 30, soon after the linux.com article, I received an
aggressive mail from someone (that will remain unnamed) that told me
I'll be hearing from Novell lawyers real soon - because of alleged
trademark infringement on Novell's Evolution. Note - this person was
not actually from Novell, but did CC three addresses at novell.com. I
responded to the email, and CC-ed the 3 other email addresses saying
that I never intended confusion (and doubt it very much), have no
intention of stealing Novell customers, and if they have a problem
with the name they should let me know and I'll make a plan to change
it. I have not heard from either Novell or the individual that wrote
the email. But - this is not the reason why I took down the system or
changed the name.
Later the same day, I received a letter from a lawyer representing a
large social network.The letter was very official looking and said
'cease and desist'. I had to Google it - but from the tone of the
email it was clear that they were not pleased with what I did with
Evolution. They had a couple of demands - one being that I stop the
offending transform immediately. This was a wakeup call - and I
pulled the plug. It was indeed a tragic day and I taught me a great
deal about what the Internet has become.
So - what's the status now? Currently beta II (and I for that matter)
of the GUI is no longer available for download. I encourage users
(that downloaded it) to no longer use it - as it breaks certain terms
of some providers. If you keep on using it, you do so completely at
your own risk. However, not all is lost...
The 'cease and desist' and the nasty email about the name prompted me
to look at alternative data sources (as well as changing the name -
all in one go). As a start all Google related transforms have been
removed and replaced with transforms that use the Yahoo API. It
appears that the Yahoo TOU allows for automation without heavy
restrictions. Currently the queries from the web interface are limited
to a couple of thousand a day but I'll apply at Yahoo for more queries
in a bit (so if you don't get any results it might be that we're out
of queries for the 24h period). Many of the social networks transforms
are currently removed - but don't despair - a lot has happened behind
the scenes to restore them. I'll keep you posted.
Meanwhile version 1.0 of the GUI is taking shape - hopefully when it's
all wrapped and ready the social network transforms will also be
sorted out again and can be plugged in. Version 1.0 of the GUI will
include a LOT of features that were not available in beta1 or beta2. I
am terribly excited about the release of version 1 - it's going to
totally rock.
Finally - the name (and font/colors/logo) has been changed. It's now
called Maltego - pronounced "maal tee goh". It does not mean anything
special, and if you want to remember it try 'My Alter Ego'. There are
still a few hiccups with the new system but I'll fix those as we go
along rather than delay the release any longer.
So, all in all it seems that the concept and the app will keep on
going despite the all the challenges. :)
Thanks again for all the support from everyone and enjoy the new
system!
Regards,
Roelof.
PS: the new interface lives at http://www.paterva.com/web/Maltego/Web/