Free Software Linux

If you use open source, you have no respect for intellectual property. Or at least, that’s what the International Intellectual Property Alliance seems to think. According to this article, the lobbying group is asking the US Trade Representative to put Indonesia on its "Special 301 Priority Watch List,” in part because of its policy encouraging the adoption of open source software by government agencies.

• Government

In 2008, the open source community saw the year end with a headline catching lawsuit, the Free Software Foundation files suit against Cisco for General Public License (GPL) violations. Not to be outdone, 2009 also ended with a bang.

Best Buy, Samsung, JVC and eleven other consumer electronics companies were named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed on December 14, 2009, by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) on behalf of the Software Freedom Conservancy. The scope of this lawsuit is unprecedented as it includes fourteen defendants.

Users of free and open source software (“FOSS”) have little to gain and much to fear from the patent system. The patent system poses two major threats to users: First, the software itself can be burdened or extinguished altogether by “software patents', that is, claims over basic techniques used in computer programs or common features of programs. Second, the use of computers to perform basic business functions traditionally performed in other ways, can be monopolized as a result of patents on computer enabled “business methods”.

• Law

Last Thursday the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSS L. Rev.) released its second issue on-line in HTML and PDF format. This was not on the front of Slashdot or The Register, but it was one of the more significant developments so far this year in Free Software governance.  IFOSS L. Rev.

• Law

I am pleased to officially announce the 2010 revision of Nuxified.org, an alternative outlet for all Free Open Source Software users and fans. This revision proves that there's still plenty of life behind this site and is a token of my continued interest in maintaining and improving it.

The slogan marking this revision is a "FOSS Clique" translating perfectly to a "community of people interested in Free Open Source Software".

Here is an overview of all that is new or changed.

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A Comprehensive review of Compiz Fusion 0.76 .. In the mid 2007 it was decided to merge Compiz and Beryl projects to release a much better,stable and sophisticated product .. Earlier named Compcomp but later on named Compiz Fusion.

Over the years, I came to appreciate a number of organizations that although not directly linked to free software and open source are of interest to the FOSS community. Pretty much everybody knows the free software foundation, the software freedom law center, the Linux foundation, The GNU project, the open source initiative, Creative Commons or Groklaw.

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Well folks, it's that time to announce a new stable Slackware release again. So, without further ado, announcing Slackware version 12.1!

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If you are anxious to get your hands on some nice CDs with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) as soon as possible, then you should pre-order them right now from Ubuntu's ShipIt service, FREE of charge.
They have started taking the orders a few minutes ago, so hurry up!

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Nine months following the heralded official release of the GPLv3 licenses, and with the more recent addition of the Affero GPLv3, adoption has surpassed 50% of my projections.

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Dries' blog notes a great video interview with Sun's Scott Mattoon on "What Makes Drupal Special".

Scott is a good friend of the CivicActions crew, and we've been privileged to work with him recently on Architecture of Humanity's Open Architecture Network project, along with SUN.

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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.

The Saigon Linux Group added PC-BSD to it's Vietnam BSD/Linux Public Mirror in efforts to promote open source technology in Vietnam.