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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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EFF urges judge to dismiss MySpace case
3 days, 5 hours ago
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is opposing the prosecution of a Missouri mom who allegedly created a fake MySpace account to harass a teenage neighbor, saying the prosecutors' misuse of a federal law that targets computer fraud could turn millions of Americans into criminals. -
U.S. Agents Can Seize Travelers' Notebook PCs
4 days, 1 hour ago
New Department of Homeland Security policies clear federal agents to hold travelers' laptops without suspicion of wrongdoing, according to a report. -
Check Up on Your ISP with Switzerland
4 days, 3 hours ago
The FCC voted this morning to tell Comcast that they'd been bad boys for blocking some traffic on their network. Unfortunately, as our parent blog GigaOM covered, they chose not to make any sweeping rules about the matter. So how do you know if your ISP is playing fast and loose with your packets? That's where Switzerland, a new tool from the EFF, comes in. -
Microsoft, its time to officially rescind the Linux lawsuit threats
1 week, 1 day ago
At this point in the game, Microsoft should really come clean with a statement that rescinds its Linux/patent/suing threat altogether. Granted, Microsoft put itself in a hard spot with this one, since it had its channel singing the same tune for those murky months after the threat. If it stands up says, "Sorry, just kidding!" that won't make the channel partners happy, particularly if they used the threat to convince customers they must buy SUSE or Windows over Red Hat and other distros. But the fact is, we are seeing actions by Microsoft that indicate that the "suing Linux users" jig is up. -
BusyBox Developers and Supermicro Agree to End GPL Lawsuit
2 weeks, 2 days ago
The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) today announced that an agreement has been reached to dismiss the GNU General Public License (GPL) enforcement lawsuit filed by SFLC against Super Micro Computer, Inc. on behalf of two principal developers of BusyBox. -
SF's silent sysadmin pleads not guilty
2 weeks, 4 days ago
The sysadmin accused of locking the San Francisco city council out of its computer network was back in jail yesterday after pleading not guilty to four counts of computer tampering. -
Google, Viacom now clashing over YouTube employee records
3 weeks, 4 days ago
Viacom wants to know whether YouTube employees watched or uploaded pirated clips of TV shows or movies, CNET News has learned. The information could prove central to its lawsuit. -
Sun invalidates the Firestar patent
3 weeks, 5 days ago
Mike Dillon, Sun's general counsel, has put up a weblog entry describing that company's efforts to invalidate the Firestar patent - the one Red Hat just licensed. "These things take time, but last week, we received a response from the PTO in the form of an office action rejecting all of the claims in the patent based on the prior art submitted by Sun .... " -
Antitrust hearing to draw Yahoo, Microsoft, Google legal eagles
3 weeks, 6 days ago
Top legal counsel will testify before Congressional antitrust hearing next week, as lawmakers consider potential anticompetitive effects of a Yahoo-Google search ad deal. -
Wife-killer leads cops to body in deal with D.A.
1 month ago
Convicted killer Hans Reiser led police Monday to what he said was the body of his wife in the Oakland hills just two days before he was to be sentenced for first-degree murder, authorities said. -
Tech giants form group to buy patents
1 month, 1 week ago
Group plans to buy up key intellectual property before it is obtained by parties who might use it against them, The Wall Street Journal reports. -
The Pitfalls of Patent Searches
1 month, 2 weeks ago
You can learn a lot by searching patents, but what you learn can sometimes be dangerous. If a court should ever find that you infringed on a patent knowingly, you might have to pay triple the damages, together with attorney fees. -
Red Hat settles 2 patent lawsuits - 1 more to go
1 month, 4 weeks ago
In March of this year Red Hat expanded its legal firepower by hiring lawyers Rob Tiller and Richard Fontana. Three months later it's evident that these two have been busy as today Red Hat announced that it has settled two of three outstanding patent lawsuits. -
The back and forth of the PSI-IBM lawsuit
1 month, 4 weeks ago
IBM is trying to prevent Platform Solutions (PSI) from selling computers that can mimic its mainframe, and its principal method is a lawsuit filed on November 29, 2006, alleging that PSI's product illegally uses IBM technology. IBM amended its complaint recently, adding assertions that PSI had misappropriated IBM trade secrets. PSI has struck back, asking a New York Federal Court to toss out these claims. The issue raises the stakes, because PSI's request for a ruling impugns IBM's reputation as a tough litigant but a fair player nonetheless. IBM now has a different battle on its hands than the one it started in 2006. PSI might not be selling a compatible mainframes as long as IBM can frighten customers, but it does look like it has enough backing to keep up its courtroom battle. While IBM's lawyers almost certainly have a basis on which to argue their interpretation of the law and facts in this matter, it remains to be seen how the court will treat this skirmish. Even if IBM can hold on here, early indications are that its grip on this case may not be as tight as it would wish. -
Hans Reiser Offers To Lead Cops to Nina's Body
1 month, 4 weeks ago
Hans Reiser, the Linux programmer facing a mandatory 25-to life term for killing his wife, might disclose the location of Nina Reiser's body in exchange for a reduced term, Alameda County District Attorney Thomas Orloff told Threat Level on Friday. - More News
Linux.com : Legal
Meet the people behind the Open Source Initiative (video)
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the group that decides whether a software license merits a seal of approval as actual, genuine open source software. It has never been a secret group -- its license-discuss email list has always been open to all comers, for example -- but not many open source users or developers know who belongs to the board or what they do. This impromptu, hand-held video -- shot at OSCON 2008 -- is, we believe, the first time the OSI board has been introduced to the public on-camera as a single body. We may have missed a member or two, but this is still a valuable introduction to the people who run OSI and how their meetings work.
Is OpenSolaris in hot water?
Here's how it works: Novell owns Unix's IP (intellectual property). SCO sold Unix's IP to Sun. Sun then included some Unix IP into Solaris. Finally, Sun open sourced Solaris as OpenSolaris. Sounds like trouble, doesn't it?
FSF organizes against Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
Nobody knows yet what the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will consist of, but the few available indications are so ominous that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has started a campaign to raise public awareness of the possibilities. According to Matt Lee, an FSF campaign manager, ACTA threatens to "create a culture of fear and suspicion," and, in the worst-case scenario, undermine and demonize free software.
Is SCO finally dead?
Even though SCO has suffered another legal defeat, the company looks like it has enough willpower, if not sense, to keep its legal losing streak going.
OpenDomain.org owner: Selfless FOSS helper or domain squatter?
OpenDomain.org is an organization that offers to provide free use of certain domain names to worthwhile open source projects. Ric Johnson, the leader of OpenDomain.org and the owner of dozens of domain names, says he has spent thousands of dollars registering those domains in order to prevent "squatters and phishers" from snapping them up. He's keeping them safe so you can have a chance to use them. However, to some people, based on Johnson's past practices, it's not clear how OpenDomain.org differs from other organizations that buy up domain names in the hopes of future gains.
Web apps: the next battleground for FOSS?
Concerned about the increasing popularity of Web applications, Marco Barulli of the Clipperz project has written one of the first detailed suggestions about how free and open source software (FOSS) should respond to the trend. Although neither Barulli nor Clipperz is well-known, his ideas are being listened to by such figures as Richard M. Stallman of the Free Software Foundation and Fabrizio Capobianco, the CEO of Funambol and a long-time advocate of FOSS in Web applications.
Canadian open source community upset over proposed copyright law
The Government of Canada has angered those who believe that a proposed copyright law threatens the country's open source business model.
How to risk your project and your livelihood with sloppy licensing
Recently the makers of the free-as-in-cost iPhone jailbreaking utility PwnageTool discovered that someone was reselling their creation -- without permission, under a new name, and for profit. That's a situation no software developer wants to be in, but the PwnageTool team was in an even tougher position because of the license under which it released its code. It didn't have one.
Barracuda launches reluctant legal offensive against Trend Micro
The already vicious lawsuit involving Barracuda Networks and Trend Micro that is currently in discovery in front of the American International Trade Commission (ITC) just turned nastier. Barracuda has filed its own patent infringement claim against Trend Micro, based upon three recently acquired patents. The suit is in response to Trend Micro's allegation that its patent is being infringed by Barracuda shipping Clam Antivirus (ClamAV), the popular free software application, and appears designed to pressure Trend Micro to reach a negotiated settlement.
GPLv3, one year later
After 18 months of widespread consultation with community and corporate interests, the third versions of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) were released one year ago on 29 June 2007. In November, they were joined by the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). Looking back at these licenses today, observers of free and open source software (FOSS) judge them a modest success, and credit them with continuing to educate people about free software.
Deposition challenges Trend Micro patent on virus scans
Goran Fransson, a Swedish developer and entrepreneur, has given a deposition in the Barracuda-Trend Micro case that appears to seriously undermine Trend Micro's patent on gateway virus scanning.
Barracuda CEO Dean Drako explains why his company is publically fighting Trend Micro patent suit (video)
It's unusual for companies engaged in patent litigation to comment on how the fight is going. But Barracuda Networks CEO Dean Drako has openly sought FOSS community support for his company's defense again a Trend Micro lawsuit that, while filed against his company, is really about ClamAV. We've written about this before, as have others. In this video, however, we'll let Dean tell you in his own words what's going on -- and why.
Creative Commons promotes standard license expression
If Creative Commons (CC) has any say in the matter, the Web will soon have a standard machine-readable notation for licenses. Named the Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (ccREL), the notation has been under development for the last few years, partly with the cooperation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3). It is described in a paper by four Creative Commons employees and published by Communia, a European site that explores the relationship between technology and the public domain. Creative Commons plans future presentations of ccREL, and is also actively explaining the need for it -- which is what CC's Chief Technology Officer, Nathan Yergler, was doing when Linux.com caught up with him at the recent Open Web Conference in Vancouver.
As the SCO rolls
Reality, as good writers know, is sometimes stranger than fiction. SCO's recent performance in the U.S. District Court in Utah is a perfect example. With years to prepare, SCO executives made some remarkable statements in their attempt to show that SCO, not Novell, owns Unix's copyright.
Software Freedom Law Center spins off law firm for profit-making clients
The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), which provides legal representation for free and open source software (FOSS) projects, is extending its services with the creation of a new law firm called Moglen Ravicher LLC. Named after the SFLC's legal directors, Eben Moglen and Dan Ravicher, the new firm will offer the SFLC's existing services to for-profit clients.
End Software Patents project comes out swinging
Four months after being announced, the End Software Patents project (ESP) is launching a new Web site with arguments for economists, computer scientists, lawyers, and lay people about why they should support the project. Prominent on the site is the publication of a report on the state of patents in the United States during 2006-07, and a scholarship contest that will award $10,000 for "for the best paper on the effects of the patentability of software and business methods under US law."
Inside the SFLC's guide to legal management of FOSS projects
From the concept of copyleft to the status of community projects, free and open source software (FOSS) raises endless legal issues, many of which are subject to rumors and misconceptions floating around the community. To help reduce the confusion for those managing software projects, the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has released a freely distributable guide entitled "A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects." Although only 45 pages long -- shorter if you don't count the front matter -- the primer still manages to provide a highly structured introduction to these issues that carefully outlines options and is full of practical advice.
SCO acquisition wrap-up
The SCO Group was offered a sweetheart of a deal on Valentine's Day last week when Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners (SNCP) gave the embattled Unix vendor $100 million to bail itself out of bankruptcy. The company's CEO, Darl McBride, isn't feeling the love, however. When the deal closes, he'll "resign immediately."
Trend Micro patent claim provokes FOSS community, leads to boycott
Trend Micro might insist that its patent case against Barracuda Networks isn't about free software -- but try telling that to the free and open source software (FOSS) community. Since Barracuda Networks went public about the case last month, it has heard from "a tremendous number of individuals" according to Dean Drako, Barracuda's president and CEO. Even more significantly, announcement of the case has led to a boycott against Trend Micro.
Software patent case defendant seeks support of FOSS community
Barracuda Networks is actively seeking the support of the free and open source software (FOSS) community in its battle against a patent suit brought against it by Trend Micro. The suit revolves around Barracuda's distribution of Clam Antivirus (ClamAV), the well-known FOSS security software, with its firewall and Web filter hardware appliances.
