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
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
Sony is about to open Station Exchange, a shop for virtual goods in Everquest, one of its most popular online computer games. The idea behind the website is that users will have a sanctioned site where users can exchange their game goods. For example, if you buy a level 50 Read more
When did Google join the Dark Side? It is difficult to say. One could argue that they took the first step with GMail, but I think that it happened when it became the de-facto internet search engine and obliterated its competition. Now Google has a new service that should send Read more
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
Colleagues Charlotte Waelde and Lilian Edwards were the keynote speakers at WIPO’s Seminar on Copyright and Internet Intermediaries. The preliminary reports from the seminar are quite interesting. For example, EDRI-Gram has a comprehensive review of the proceedings (not online yet at the time of writing this), but it has a Read more
This is a call to arms to all of those who have ever downloaded content from the internet not to buy any music or movies during the last week of April (25-30 April). The intended outcome is to demonstrate that music downloaders are a powerful buying force, and that if Read more
(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
The advertisement of the Creative Archive has raised a bit of a stink amongst certain circles. There are some neutral reports, like this one in Wired, or the one in The Guardian. The CC-UK list has given the licence a lukewarm reception, with downright negative vibes coming from the Friends Read more
There are several links that I want to highlight about open source software in general. First there is the ongoing “A history of Free and Open Source by Peter H. Salus, who is serialising the book in Groklaw. Here is the introduction. Then there is a good article about the Read more