There's a long standing argument over the differences between "open-source" software and "free" software. But, a more common error outside of software ideology circles is that you can use open-source software anyway you please. Nope. Wrong. It's never been that way.
Read more »Open source isn't free software
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GPL Compliance Engineering Guide Released
This guide presents a practical guide to ensuring GPL-compliant code, especially in embedded devices.
"Today Loohuis Consulting (LoCo) has released the first version of its comprehensive GPL Compliance Engineering Guide. LoCo is one of few companies in the world that offers commercial GPL license compliance engineering services.
Read more »Linguistic Problems of GPL Advocacy
Reader Chemisor advances a theory in his journal that a linguistic misunderstanding is at the root of many disagreements over different licensing philosophies, in particular BSD vs. GPL. The argument is that GPL adherents desire the freedom of their code, while those on the BSD side want freedom for their projects.
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GPL Project Watch List for Week of 06/13
The GPL v3 Watch List is intended to give you a snapshot of the GPLv3/LGPLv3 adoption for June 7th through June 13th, 2008.
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GPLv3 Watchlist update
The GPL v3 Watch List is intended to give you a snapshot of the GPLv3/LGPLv3 adoption for May 31st through June 6th, 2008.
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AGPLv3 Keeps Open Source Vibrant in Age of SaaS
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.
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Creative Commons promotes standard license expression
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).
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Microsoft gouging Brazilians for 20 percent of income
Ever wonder why Brazil and other BRIC countries are so hot on open source, including Linux? Gustavo Duarte gives several reasons, not the least of which is the punitive pricing that Microsoft inflicts on these developing markets.
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Ubuntu launchpad for Affero?
The controversial Affero general public license could get an unexpected boost from Ubuntu developer Canonical. Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical's chief executive, has said AGPL is "a strong candidate" for the eventual open source release of Launchpad, Canonical's developer collaboration tool.
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Google's festering problem with the AGPL
Google apparently likes open source that lets it "borrow" open-source software while giving comparatively little back, and always on Google's terms.
Read more »New license logos
"Let users know they're protected by GNU licenses. Have you released some software under one of the new GNU licenses? If so, you might be interested in our license logos..."
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GPL vs BSD, a matter of sustainability
If you haven’t been living under a rock the past decade (I suppose Stonehenge qualifies) you may have walked in on some incarnation of the famous GPL vs BSD flamewar. It’s up there with the most famous flamewars (now *there’s* a research question for a brimming sociology student!) of our beloved Internet society.
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Going online, public TV chooses different licensing paths
On Wednesday German public TV broadcaster NDR launched a pilot service offering free internet access to selected TV news and satire content, apparently under a "no derivatives" Creative Commons license.
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Closing open source loopholes
Say what you want about GPLv3, but the update to the most popular open source software license continues to close loopholes that have been used to avoid sharing source code, patent protection and other freedoms that the authors intended. Still, we have yet to see whether this closes off any appeal of the GPL and even open source in general for vendors, developers and users.
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Is Xming Another Example of Misunderstanding Libre Licenses?
Xming appears to be a useful program for accessing and running your GNU/Linux applications remotely from a Windows computer. It is licensed under the GPLv2. But just how free is it, really?
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