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Free Software & law related links 15. I. 2011 – 21. I. 2011

Copyright & Copyleft¶

CC licenses are enforced in Israeli court for the first time. The article also mentions an Israeli variation of fair trade and why the court didn't apply it in this case. The reason is that fair use does not apply to moral rights and is not all about economic interest.

  • Stanford Law School, CIS: Israeli Court Enforces for the First Time a Creative Commons License

Google and EFF both support MP3tunes in its legal battle against EMI in order to keep online music/file lockers legal.

  • the 1709 Blog: The cloud is the future – Google joins the EFF in MP3tunes' battle against EMI

Short post on copyright in China.

  • China Media News: Copyright development in China: writers transferring digital copyright

Two weeks ago I reported about rumours regarding Brazil's copyright reform. This week it seem the rumours have some solid ground. Lately Brazil's Ministry of Culture also relicensed its website from CC to a (similar) verbatim license, which may not be a good sign.

  • Pedro Paranaguá: Brazil’s Copyright Reform: the tip of the iceberg?

Patents¶

In the Microsoft vs. Salesforce lawsuit, it shows that Microsoft holds a "Network Software Update Patent", which may be a problem for Linux distributions. I skimmed through it (and Alexandre Oliva did as well) and it seems like distros could be on the safe side.

  • Linux Patents: Software Updates Infringe on Microsoft Patents

Intel has settled with WiLAN over alleged infringement of WiLAN's WiFi, CDMA, Bluetooth and DSL patents. It is predicted that others will follow suit.

  • the Inquirer: Intel settles WiLAN lawsuit
  • Reuters: Intel settles with WiLAN over patent litigation

The EU is coming closer to a common patent system. The EP committee on Legal Affairs has just released its positive draft report on the Commission's proposal for an Enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection. The report is due on 27th of January and mid-February the EP plenary sitting is scheduled.

  • EuroParl: Enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection

The USPTO issued more utility patents in calendar year 2010 than in any year in history (31% more then in 2009). Although also more patents have been rejected then ever before, this does raise concern whether they lowered their standards for patentability.

  • Patently-O: USPTO Patent Grants

A similar trend is reported in China by SIPO (Chinese patent office) which has officially announced that the number of patents granted in China in 2010 was 40 percent higher than in 2009.

  • the 271 Patent Blog: China Patent Grants up 40%, Filings Up 25% in 2010

In related news IBM has more US patents then anyone else.

  • JDJ: IBM Scores Record Patents

The threat of CPTN acquiring Novell's assets (incl. patents) is so threatening that for the first time ever FSF and OSI have written joint statements and requests to battle it.

  • Computer World UK: OSI And FSF In Unprecedented Collaboration To Protect Software Freedom

Google's decision to drop support of h.264 in its Chrome browser and concentrate on WebM as the video format of choice has spurred critique. But it remains true that WebM is a more open format then h.264 ever was. It would be great if WebM would be developed by a consortium though, to make it trully open. Some myths that Ars Technica follows are taken appart by the other two links below.

  • Ars Technica: Google's dropping H.264 from Chrome a step backward for openness
  • Carlo Daffara:On WebM again: freedom, quality, patents
  • AdamW: Some patent reflections on WebM

More critique on broadening the scope of open standards in EIFv2 to include (F)RAND patents. Post also points out that PCAST which "is not the government but it is the highest private sector advisory body on science and technology [whose] views are taken seriously" think that RF licensed patents are part of the open standard definition and the only way to go.

  • OpenSource.com: Open standards and the royalty problem

Privacy & Data Protection¶

European Comission launched a new consulation on IPRED, a directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, adopted by the EU in 2004. The report – whose logic is similar to ACTA – is based on an analysis of the application of IPRED. It calls for the massive filtering of the Internet to tackle file-sharing: according to the Commission, ISP should "cooperate" in the war against sharing to avoid the threat of litigation.

  • La Quadrature du Net: EC Plans for All-Out War Against Sharing
  • IPtegrity.com IPRED review: alarm bells for those who care about the 'Net

FFII analyses what is wrong with the resolution on ACTA that the European Parliament adopted in November. Also European academics start signing a public opinion on/against ACTA.

  • FFII: ACTA resolution contains fundamental flaw
  • Institute for Legal Informatics, Leibniz University Hannover: Opinion of European Academics on ACTA

New Zealand unions are demanding that the country’s government tell people what is being proposed under the US-led TPPA negotiation. (ACTA déjà vu anyone?)

  • the Register: Kiwis Demand: Talk TPPA turkey to us, Prime Minister
  • TPP Watch

Verizon sues the FCC over its "net neutrality lite" rules, claiming FCC is not the one who should be making the rules, but the US Congress.

  • Ars Technica: Verizon sues FCC, says "net neutrality lite" rules illegal
  • Ars Technica: Why is Verizon suing over net neutrality rules it once supported?
  • the Inquirer: Verizon sues FCC over net neutrality rules

Business¶

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin instructed the federal government agencies to switch to Free Software by 2015. The transition will start this year with a federal support centre and the first to make the switch is Ministry of Communications. Sources state this decision may not be just economically motivated, but based on distrust of the securty of foreign proprietary software.

  • OSOR: Federal administrations in Russia told to move to open source

Surprisingly Microsoft started a gratis web development tool based to run Free Software web solutions (e.g. Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla etc.) on Microsoft's IIS Express server.

  • the Inquirer: Microsoft releases an open source web development suite
  • Microsoft: WebMatrix

OpenGamma, a financial startup, which has an "open core" analytics and risk management platform for the financial services industry, has completed a $6 million Series B round of equity financing led by FirstMark Capital, a New York-based VC

  • TechCrunch:OpenGamma secures $6 million Series B to power open source for financial markets

Google has announced that its co-founder Larry Page will take over as CEO from Eric Schmidt.

  • the Inqurier: Larry Page becomes Google chief, Schmidt booted off
  • the Guardian: Google shuffle: why Eric Schmidt had to be pushed from the top
  • Google Blog: Update from Chairman

An independent IT analyst company has written a short post about successful Free Software companies and asks for any it has missed to raise their hand.

  • 451 CAOS Theory: Who is profiting from open source?

More about OpenStack that Rackspace and NASA have published under the Apache 2.0 license.

  • Computer World UK: Rackspace's CEO on Open Source and OpenStack

Misc.¶

What Sony could have learned from Microsoft and its XBox to avoid its own PS3 DRM fiasco. It's specially sad that PS3 was actually promoted with the possibility to run GNU/Linux. After Sony turned off that option with a firmware upgrade, hacks to bypass this DRM were inevitable.

  • Slight Paranoia: The costly anti-piracy lesson Sony failed to learn from Microsoft

Microsoft's Kinect is some nifty piece of hardware, for which enthusiasts soon made Free Software drivers and a whole bunch of inventive uses. Microsoft doesn't seem to know what to do with them – embrace or prosecute them.

  • Open IT Strategies: Microsoft vs. Open Kinect
  • Bloomberg Businessweek: Microsoft's Ambivalence About Kinect Hackers

Law students in India now have a free knowledge and documet repository and legal search tool.

  • Legalsutra

IETF celebrates its 25th birthday. Ars Technica writes a brief summary of IETF's accomplishments in that time.

  • Ars Technica: 25 years of IETF: setting standards without kings or votes

AGIMO decided that the Australian government will standardise on using OOXML as their default document format.

  • iTNews: Australia mandates Microsoft's Open Office XML
  • Gartner:Transparency is Never Enough: The Strange Case of Australia and OOXML

hook out → making my own QtCurve theme and color scheme for KDE (purple all the way!)

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Related Posts

  • Free Software & law related links 8. I. 2011 – 15. I. 2011
  • Free Software & law related links 12. II. 2011 – 18. II. 2011
  • Free Software & law related links 19. II. 2011 – 25. II. 2011
  • Free Software & law related links 5. III. 2011 – 13. III. 2011
  • Free Software & law related links 23. V. 2011 – 29. V. 2011

  • « Reading patents made easier
  • Publishing my dot files »

Published

Jan 21, 2011

Category

Ius

Tags

  • Competition law 41
  • Copyright / Droit d’auteur 72
  • Hardware & infrastructure 56
  • Patents 44
  • Privacy & security 62
  • Standardisation 49

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