I loved this version of the BSD open source licence in rhyme so much that I thought I would have to reproduce it here. NOTE: The author does not like the poem to be reproduced anywhere other than in his page (the poem is ironically posted with All Rights Reserved). Read more
Last Wednesday I attended Professor Eben Moglen’s lecture in Edinburgh, he is presenting here for the second time in two years. Here are some notes. (Full lecture here). Defining the problem: Software is everywhere, it’s in cars, hospitals, in buildings, and in all other sort of devices. “There is software Read more
As mentioned in earlier posts, Yours Truly presented at a conference in Rwanda a couple of weeks ago. The conference was attended by African IP officials, and dealt mostly with software protection topics such as software patents, open source software and standards. However, I was surprised to find that one Read more
This is a great video about what makes people perform better and be more creative: One of the questions asked over and over again about open business models is precisely what makes open source work. How can Wikipedia exist? Who programs open source software? There is growing empirical evidence that Read more
As usual, Randall Munroe at xkcd gives us a terrific insight in the latest privacy developments: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. xkcd is a work of unadulterated genius.
Very interesting discussion here about the defence of Free Software using Socrates. This dialogue between Socrates and sophist Antiphon can be found in Xenophon’s Memorabilia (Book I, Part VI): Antiphon. Socrates, for my part, I believe you to be a good and upright man; but for your wisdom I cannot Read more
I’ve finally watched the excellent video “Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system”, and I highly recommend it. It contains several interviews surrounding the Bilski case in the U.S. Supreme Court, with commentary from some of the biggest names in the software patent debate. I will let the video Read more
Last week several news sources reported on the publication of a patent on news feeds granted to Facebook, but I didn’t want to comment until I had read it in full. Behold US Patent 7,669,123, protecting a system that dynamically provides “a news feed about a user of a social Read more
As mentioned earlier, the COMMUNIA European thematic network for the public domain released the aptly named Public Domain Manifesto some weeks ago. This is an important, valuable, and vital document that enshrines some of the most basic principles in the protection and safekeeping of a public sphere in copyright works. Read more
Just when I am feeling like some people in the copyright industry are getting their act together, there are news that make me rethink my patient and measured approach to the issue of global intellectual property. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has submitted this year’s Special 301 recommendation list Read more