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
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
This is a dreadful article by yet another software patent lawyer in Linux Insider. It praises software patents American style, without shame, just like that, as if the system in the U.S. was not broken! Only a software patent lawyer can state such idiocy and claim that the system in Read more
Robert Terry, the Senior Policy Adviser of the Wellcome Trust, has written a paper in PLoS stating that the Trust will require the publication of all work that is funded by them through open access journals. This is a great boost for the open access movement, because it means that Read more
Lawrence Rosen cannot be accused of being an outspoken attacker of open source. He is one of the main advisors for the OSI, and has written a very good book on open source licences. However, he has recently expressed some lingering concerns about this licensing scheme. He describes some problems Read more
eBay is thinking about opening its source code under some sort of open licence to allow faster development. eBay currently has a proprietary/closed code software developer’s kit(SDK) that they provide to programmers that want to create applications that interact with eBay’s interface and enhances its current use. Currently, 42% of Read more
John Swainson, the CEO for anti-virus and security products producer Computer Associates will announce a donation of some of its software patents to open source software developers. It will be good to see the shape that this offer takes. IBM’s offer took the shape of a legally binding non-assertion promise Read more
Software patents are a serious problem for open source developers according to Linus Torvalds and other open source superstars, despite IBM’s legally binding pledge not to enforce 500 software patents against OSS companies. This should not surprise anybody. With almost every single obvious element of software already patented in the Read more
In a similar move to IBM’s much talked about patent handout for OSS developers, Sun Systems are offering more than 1,600 patents that they own for open source developers in Solaris projects. Although many will complain that this is another PR exercise, it must be said that there seems to Read more
Firefox is increasing its market share in detriment of Internet Explorer, an increase that has been fueled by security fears in Microsoft products. Firefox is said to have taken 5% of the market, as opposed to a 1% during Mozilla times. I can say that I have noticed that Firefox Read more