As stressed many times before, IANAL, but based on the consensus of opinions in Groklaw, the GPLv3 is bound to bite companies that sold out to Microsoft in the rear. Several of these companies knew very well what they were getting into, or maybe they just weren’t concerned.
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Litigating against innovation: Legal attacks on Linux
http://www.itpro.co.uk –
Patents and how they're controlled are damaging the way technology is developed - and the Linux case is a key example of this.
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Red Hat Network to be open-sourced
http://www.linuxworld.com –
Red Hat plans to announce Thursday that it is open-sourcing Red Hat Network (RHN), its Web-based Linux infrastructure management platform, according to CEO Jim Whitehurst.
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Darl's Dreams for the Future Amplified
http://www.groklaw.net –
Yesterday, we reported that Darl McBride said that the plan for a reorganization is to spin off the "Unix assets" and leave him behind as CEO of the remnants of the company, that is, of the litigation. There are more details in the Daily Herald today, and apparently that is only one possibility...
Read more »Conflict of interest
http://lehors.wordpress.com –
I wish I knew how to fix it but I don’t. What I do know however is that the ISO/IEC process is severally broken in that it is riddled with room for game play. I guess ISO/IEC managed to get away with it for a long time but things have changed now that Microsoft has shown how to use every loophole in the process to get to its end.
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The silver lining in OOXML approval
http://blogs.the451group.com –
I kept waiting to weigh in on the ISO approval of Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) format, searching for some kind of silver lining for open source. Sure, there are those that say technical and interoperability issues will limit uptake of the standard. But this is Microsoft and Office we’re talking about, so it seems clear that there will be some pretty widespread adoption.
Read more »Neelie Kroes: "Choosing open standards is a very smart business decision"
http://www.groklaw.net –
Neelie Kroes just gave a speech at OpenForum Europe today on standards, "Being open about standards". I put it in News Picks, but I wanted to be sure you didn't miss it, so I am putting it here also.
Read more »Microsoft's open-source patent threat still intact
http://www.news.com –
Microsoft made major concessions Thursday that should make it easier for open-source software to dovetail with or even replace Microsoft products, but a major caveat means the company's legal threats remain alive and well.
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USB drivers going GPL-only in 2.6.25
http://www.linuxworld.com –
Here's one from the file of random stuff you see when you put a new machine on the upstream kernel instead of the distro kernel. USB drivers for Linux will be GPL-only with the release of the upcoming kernel 2.6.25.. USB maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman writes: "Over two years ago, the Linux USB developers stated that they believed there was no way to create a USB kernel driver that was not under the GPL. This patch moves the USB apis to enforce that decision."
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Ubuntu’s Shuttleworth blames ISO for OOXML’s win
http://blogs.zdnet.com –
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth said the approval of Microsoft’s Office Open XML is a “sad” day for ISO and the computing public.
Read more »Something Odd about Stephen Norris & Co Capital Partners
http://www.groklaw.net –
Now this is interesting enough to highlight. It's about the private equity firm looking to loan SCO money so they can sue Linux users again full speed ahead, Stephen Norris & Co Capital Partners, or SNCP. Timothy Prickett Morgan on ItJungle wrote a glowing piece about their connection to military contractors and Middle Eastern money and retired general Wesley Clark, and then something peculiar happened
Read more »++ New petition calls for open standards in the European Parliament
http://www.openforumeurope.org –
At a time when the EU Commission investigates the anti-competitive behaviour of a market-dominant player, the European Parliament (EP) still imposes that same specific software choice on both the European Union's citizens and its own MEPs.
Read more »There can be only one
http://www.piana.eu –
There cannot be two International Standards. Indeed in the past we had two or three different industry standards. But what has happened? Only one has survived. The better? Not always, and what a waste of resources in the process. The clear example of VHS surviving over Betamax, expunging the better standard to the benefit of the worst one, should be indicative. And when I say the worst, it is not just a matter of taste!
Read more »Squaring the Net, op-ed by Christophe Espern
http://www.laquadrature.net –
"The French parliament will soon debate a draft law "about the High Authority for the dissemination of works and protection of the rights on the internet". The project incorporates the recommendations made by the then CEO of FNAC (biggest CD and DVD retail stores in France), Denis Olivennes. One of the key measures is to sanction a violation of copyright by cutting access to the Internet.
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IP Issues with OOXML (DIS 29500)
http://brendanscott.wordpress.com –
Out of all the free and open source licences which are available, there are two which are disproportionately chosen by FOSS developers when licensing their software. Those two are the GPL and the LGPL. Of these, the GPL is disproportionately favoured over the LGPL.* If there are issues with GPL implementations then there are IP issues with OOXML. Any assurance that excludes implementation under these licences is just cause for the FOSS community to voice concern.
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