A couple of days ago we included a link to this exploration of Douglas Goodyear and that connection to Microsoft. We have also been exploring Microsoft’s use of the United States government to push software patents into the European Union.
Read more »Latest Attempt to Expand Software Patents to Europe; Microsoft Shenanigan Revisited
http://boycottnovell.com –
Louis Suarez-Potts: OOXML Has Zero Effect On ODF
http://www.efytimes.com –
ODF as a default format was first adopted by OpenOffice.org (OOo). Naturally, when OOXML’s approval cast a doubt on ODF, we sought reactions of the OOo team, on how they viewed the future of OOo, ODF and OOXML. Thus, this interview, which was conducted over a series of e-mails, with Louis Suarez-Potts, community manager, OpenOffice.org.
Read more »
New attempt to brin software patents to Europe
http://press.ffii.org –
European Commissioner McCreevy is pushing for a bilateral patent treaty with the United States. This Tuesday 13 May in Brussels, White House and European representatives will try to adopt a tight roadmap for the signature of a EU-US patent treaty by the end of the year. Parts of the proposed treaty will contain provision on software patents, and could legalise them on both sides of the Atlantic.
Read more »
Patents in a Standard and Standards That Won’t Inter-operate
http://boycottnovell.com –
Digistan has just published an open letter signed by some high-level figures. It calls for people to adopt the right approach in the embrace of open standards. It’s worth a quick glance.
Read more »Google’s open source problem is Affero
http://blogs.zdnet.com –
The best open source protection for “the cloud,” as Gordon Haff notes today, is the Affero GPL license. (Picture from our Tech Republic’s GeekEnd blog, written by Jay Garmon.)vv
Read more »
MySQL backtracks on closed-source plan
http://www.zdnetasia.com –
Sun Microsystems has backtracked on previous plans to release important backup features for its MySQL database under a proprietary license, following widespread criticism from the open source community.
Read more »
Software Patents, Microsoft Trolls and Intellectual Monopoly Miscellany
http://boycottnovell.com –
The intellectual insanity resumes. Let’s take a quick look at some highlights from the news.
Read more »U.S. lawmakers introduce new net neutrality bill
http://www.infoworld.com –
Two Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would subject broadband providers to antitrust violations if they block or slow Internet traffic.
Read more »Behind or ahead
http://lodahl.blogspot.com –
The problem with Alex Browns validation test is, that he is using a document from OpenOffice.org 2.4 and validates it against the ISO-approved standard. Jesper Lund Stocholm claims that he has created some documents with various versions of OpenOffice.org that doens't validates correctly.
Read more »AGPLv3 Keeps Open Source Vibrant in Age of SaaS
https://fossbazaar.org –
Software as a service (SaaS) entered the IT landscape in 2000 and has revolutionized the deployment models of many software companies and even entire industries, such as Internet search. It has also becoming an increasingly popular form of consuming applications within enterprises of all shapes, sizes and geographies.
Read more »Creative Commons promotes standard license expression
http://www.linux.com –
If Creative Commons (CC) has any say in the matter, the Web will soon have a standard machine-readable notation for licenses. Named the Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (ccREL), the notation has been under development for the last few years, partly with the cooperation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3).
Read more »gpl vs. skype back in court
http://www.hackaday.com –
"tomorrow the high district court of munich will hear skype argue against the validity of the gpl."
Read more »Thousands of patent decisions might be invalid
http://www.livemint.com –
Law Professor John F. Duffy discovered that thousands of patents in the US might be unconstitutional. The government has no comments at this moment.
Read more »ODF Validation for Dummies
http://www.robweir.com –
Alex Brown has a problem. He can't figure out how to validate ODF documents. Unfortunately, when he couldn't figure it out, he didn't ask the OASIS ODF TC for help, which would have been the normal thing to do.
Read more »MSN Music Debacle Highlights EULA Dangers
http://www.eff.org –
"When Microsoft announced that it will no longer support former MSN Music customers who want to play their DRM disabled music on new computers, DRM-hating consumer advocates justifiably cried out, “I told you so!” But this debacle is not just another example of the dangers of DRM: its also a reminder of the danger of overreaching end user license agreements, or EULAs..."
Read more »
