Habitual readers may have noticed that one of the repetitive memes in this blog is that copyleft licences are contracts. In Jacobsen v Katzer, and American court has agreed. The case involved Robert Jacobsen, an open source developer participating in an open source project called Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI), Read more
(via Groklaw and Nicolas Jondet) Those not familiar with the SCO v IBM case, you can find some basic information here. Last week Groklaw reported on a ruling that single-handedly dismantled SCO’s copyrights claims. SCO based their suit almost entirely on the assumption that they owned rights over UNIX code, Read more
As I mentioned earlier this week, the GPL version three is finally out. Richard Stallman read a statement yesterday announcing the much-awaited launch, which will undoubtedly be met with both trepidation and caution in software development circles. The text will maintain some of the more controversial features present in the Read more
Last night I attended Professor Eben Moglen’s lecture at the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh, organised by the Scottish branch of the Society for Computer and Law. The first thing I noticed was that that the audience present in the lecture theatre was starkly divided between the Read more
Fortune Magazine has published an interview with Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, where he has made the comment that Linux infringes 235 of its software patents, and it will be looking for licences from developers and corporate users. As your friendly neighbourhood Prophet of Doom, I have been announcing the advent of Read more
(via House of Commons and Groklaw) The third draft of the GPL version 3 is now available for comment. I haven’t had much time to go through it in detail, so I will be making comments later, mostly building on previous praises and criticisms here, here and here. However, one Read more
(Via David Berry) The Conservative Party has turned open source, according to their website: “Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has promised that an incoming Conservative government would create a level playing field for open source software in the UK, in a move which could save taxpayers more than £600 million a Read more
A follow up on the Blackboard patent story. Blackboard has seen the writing on the wall and has issued an enforcement promise for open source software projects. According to the terms of this pledge, Blackboard will not enforce U.S. Patent 6,988,138 against software released with an open source licence. According Read more
(via Ashley Theunissen) The European Commission has released a report on the impact of open source software for the ICT sector in Europe. The report has been authored by a group of top researchers in the field, including Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Paul David, and Philippe Aigrain. The study analysed six Read more
I’ve finally got around reading the nitty-gritty of the much publicised move by Linden Labs to release an open source version of Second Life. In case you have been living in a cave without a broadband connection, Second Life is a virtual world, more like a giant chat room than Read more