United States (change)
Shortcuts: Downloads Fedora Red Hat Network
Account Links: Cart Your Account
Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally » Blog Archive » A note to Nancy Pelosi regarding the PRO IP act
To The Honorable Nancy Pelosi,
This morning I read about Chairman Conyers’ proposed PRO IP act, and as others in the technology industry have, I lowered my head sadly. While I only recently became an American citizen, it seems quite clear to me that this is yet another sad sign of how our government continues to lose its way. Instead of taking the clear, high road and working to protect the needs of its citizens, the government is instead taking the low road and protecting the needs of big business. I call this the low road as it is the only one paved with the campaign contribution dollars represented by big media.
In the aftermath of the $222,000 jury verdict that the Recording Industry Association of America recently won against a Minnesota woman who shared 24 songs on Kazaa, the U.S. Congress is preparing to amend copyright law.
Politicians want to increase penalties for copyright infringement.
It’s no joke. Top Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced a sweeping 69-page bill that ratchets up civil penalties for copyright infringement, boosts criminal enforcement, and even creates a new federal agency charged with bringing about a national and international copyright crackdown.
“By providing additional resources for enforcement of intellectual property, we ensure that innovation and creativity will continue to prosper in our society,” Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich) said in a statement.
Q&A: Open-source backer Eben Moglen says software a ‘renewable’ resource
Q: What about Microsoft and its occasional patent threats to Linux?
A: My job has been preparing for those activities for more years than Microsoft has been preparing. I have been thinking about how their patent portfolio might be used against the free world since long before the bulk of the free world was my client. I have spent more time studying that problem than Microsoft has spent creating that problem. It doesn’t keep me awake at nights but it keeps me at work during the day. If in the process of irreversible change, Microsoft launches its missiles, which other dying empires like the Soviet Union, have managed not to do, but if as a dying empire Microsoft launches its missiles, we will protect our clients. If they die without launching their missiles, it will be better for everyone.
Q: Do you personally use much proprietary software today?
A: No, none. I have never been a Windows user. I have never used the Macintosh OS.
MPAA’s University Toolkit hit with DMCA takedown notice after GPL violation
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently released a software toolkit designed to help universities detect instances of potentially illegal file-sharing on school networks. The toolkit is based on the increasingly popular Ubuntu Linux distribution and includes the Apache web server as well as custom traffic monitoring software created by the MPAA. Although the toolkit was previously available from a web site set up by the MPAA, the software was removed last night after the organization received a request from Ubuntu technical board member Matthew Garret to take it down due to GPL violations.
Apparently, this blog has been around for awhile, although it is new to me.
Oh yeah, it’s great. Check it out.
Groklaw - The Nigerian OLPC Dispute - How Does It Look? - Updated
So, if Nigerian law is anything like US patent law, the accusation will have to be that OLPC looks too much like KONYIN’s keyboard. The keyboard OLPC has “uses a keyboard programming technique developed in 1996″, long before the Nigerian keyboard was filed for registration, according to Nicholas Negroponte, quoted in the same Boston Globe article, which also tells us that Peru just signed on the dotted line for 260,000 of the laptops, and that the Give One Get One program is going great, with OLPC receiving around $2 million a day in orders. There is also a Give Many program now, where charities can buy hundreds or thousands of laptops to give away.
Quicktime | Real
Real Stream | Ogg Theora
The death of software patents?
Wikipedia Tries Approval System to Fight Vandalism
More on GPL-compliant patent settlement
Red Hat Press
Red Hat Magazine
Dev Fu
Red Hat People
