Creative Commons FUD

It was meant to happen sooner or later. Creative Commons is now a target of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD). The Register has this interesting comment on a panel debate discussing CC licences. According to the report, the ex-chairman of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Fran Nevrkla, described CC licences Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Update on GPL case

The case reported two days ago about the GPL has been settled, and Fortinet has agreed to comply with the GPL. This means that Fortinet’s software will be distributed with the GPL, the standard terms of agreement will be changed, and the source code will be offered upon request for Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

DVD protection ruled illegal in France

The Paris Court of Appeals has ruled against the copy protection mechanisms included in DVDs, called Content Scrambling System (CSS). Not too long ago the same mechanism was being enforced in American and Norwegian courts, and now they are declaring that the technology is a bit dodgy. The case was Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

GPL granted an injunction in Germany

German courts continue to give credence to the GPL. A software company called Fortinet developed several security products, including firewall and anti-virus software. This was supposed to run on something they called “FortiOS”, which they claimed was their own operating system. The problem is that this operating system was actually Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Nigerian scams go glurge

This is probably not a Nigerian scam, but I don’t know how else to call it. I received it yesterday, and was struck by the change of tactics from scam writers. People are now better informed and will instantly be suspicious of any offer from dodgy bank officials from Ouagadougou, Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Virtual Worlds, New Worlds?

(N.Y. Times article, you know what to do). This article deals with the making of Tho Fan, a new language created specifically for the computer game Jade Empire. The language joins Klingon and Elvish (sorry, Quenya, Sindarin and Telarin) as one of the growing number of invented languages created to Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago