The advertisement of the Creative Archive has raised a bit of a stink amongst certain circles. There are some neutral reports, like this one in Wired, or the one in The Guardian. The CC-UK list has given the licence a lukewarm reception, with downright negative vibes coming from the Friends 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…
There have been claims by the music industry that suing users works, and that there has been a decrease in P2P use. This is not supported by the facts. According to a new study, P2P network traffic rivals normal web browsing, and the P2P traffic in North America has been Read more…
The Creative Archive Licence(CAL) is now online. This is an open licence from the BBC, the BFI, the Open University and Channel 4, and it covers a large amount of works owned by those four institutions which are offered for the purpose of reuse and adaptation, in other words, they Read more…
(NY Times link, remember to use Bugmenot). IBM is opening up its intellectual property. Yes, this is similar to the much publicised legally binding promise of non-enforcement issued last January, but it goes further, and it provides a serious philosophical shift about how companies should use their intellectual property. IBM Read more…
The internet is all about the content. This seems like a bleeding obvious statement, but it is amazing how little understood this is. Content is difficult to create. Sitting every morning looking for today’s post is in fact a bit difficult, and I guess that it would be incredibly easy 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…
There has now been a result in a WTO dispute between Antigua and Barbuda and the United States regarding restrictions to online gambling. The two Caribbean countries brought the dispute against the United States because they claimed that its restrictions towards online gambling included in three pieces of legislation (the Read more…
I have just returned from sunny Belfast, where this year’s BILETA Conference was held (BILETA is the British and Irish Legal, Education and Technology Association). I must say that this was an excellent conference, very good quality of papers all around, with enough discussion in most of the sessions. I Read more…
Johnnie Cochran died last week. He may be better known as one of the defense attorneys in the OJ simpson trial, but he has a much larger claim to internet fame: he is the inspiration for the Chewbacca Defense, which is used (and abused) in internet forums (and universitites) around Read more…