06 Feb 2005
Legal Victories, Present and Future
Good news has been springing up all over for the free software movement in the last few weeks. In Europe, the Free World has again demonstrated its political strength in the controversy over software patenting. In the US, there are powerful new indications that the leaders of the IT industry regard free software production as an indispensable contribution to their own long-term welfare.
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columns/lu |
2005.02.06-00:00.00
24 Dec 2004
Europe Breaks Windows
The year is coming to an end on an amazing note. The decision of the European Court of First Instance to deny Microsoft a stay of the relief ordered by the European Commission, as a result of its findings of competition law violations, is a demonstration of European determination not to surrender to Microsoft as two successive US administrations have done.
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columns/lu |
2004.12.24-00:00.00
24 Nov 2004
The UK Stake in the European Patent Crisis
The events coming to a boil in the European Council and Parliament this month are a sign of the global maturation of the free software movement. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the EuroLinux Alliance and the individual programmers and small to medium-size software businesses who have joined with them, have established our view about the dangers of patent law to innovation and freedom as a real force in European politics.
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columns/lu |
2004.11.24-00:00.00
06 Nov 2004
Security
One thing that can be confidently predicted in the wake of the US presidential election is that we’re going to hear more about “cyber-terrorism” in the near future. The politics of fear that re-elected George W. Bush has other instrumental uses. And, as Henry Kissinger famously pointed out, even a paranoid can have enemies: the need for a more secure network, though overhyped, is real.
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columns/lu |
2004.11.06-00:00.00
06 Oct 2004
Microsoft’s Evaporating Patents
I have been writing recently about the problem of defending free software against the threat posed by patents on supposed software “inventions,” particularly when those patents are in hands hostile to the very existence of the Free World. This past summer was a period of intense rumors, fear, uncertainty and doubt. But with the cooler weather in the US comes also some refreshing news. Fighting back is effective.
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columns/lu |
2004.10.06-00:00.00
05 Sep 2004
Patent Defense
As I wrote last time, this summer is seeing another round of concerns about the vulnerability of free software to patent infringement claims. But the free world is assembling the machinery with which to meet the risks posed by patents on software inventions. Rapid developments are occurring in the area, so it can be hard to interpret what the news means. In the last few weeks, for example, part of the solution has widely been reported on as though it were part of the problem.
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columns/lu |
2004.09.05-00:00.00
30 Jul 2004
Rumors of Patent War
Last time I pointed out the developments that show that the tide has turned against the legal attacks on the GPL, with German judicial enforcement of the license, and SCO’s retreat from its absurd claims that the license violates copyright law and the US Constitution. The signs this summer are that the anti-freedom strategists working for Mr Gates agree that attacking the GPL has failed; the rumors of war have shifted to the arena of patent law.
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columns/lu |
2004.07.30-00:00.00
31 May 2004
V-Days for the GPL
You wouldn’t have known it from reading the mainstream press coverage, but the last month has marked an epoch in the legal history of free software. The GPL has been the object of Microsoft-inspired attacks of every kind since Mr Gates and his colleagues woke up to its transformative power to remake the global software industry in a permanently unmonopolized image. Last month dissipated all the FUD that has been thrown at the GPL.
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columns/lu |
2004.05.31-00:00.00
10 Apr 2004
Coexistence
In the course of several public appearances this past month, I’ve found myself being asked about “coexistence” surprisingly often. “Can free and proprietary software work together?” seems to be the question of the day.
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columns/lu |
2004.04.10-00:00.00
13 Mar 2004
Microsoft and SCO: A Beautiful Friendship
This last week brought confirmation of the large financial stake Microsoft has taken in the SCO Group’s legal attack on the freedom of free software. Eric Raymond first published at opensource.org a leaked memo to SCO’s Chris Sontag from one Mike Anderer of S2, a “strategic consulting” firm, detailing $86 million of investments in SCO arranged or facilitated by Microsoft, including a $50 million investment by Baystar Capital. The memo was subsequently acknowledged by SCO to be genuine; Baystar Capital conceded that it had been advised or encouraged by Microsoft to make the investment, but said that neither Bill Gates nor Steve Ballmer had been the Microsoft executive who made the call, as though there weren’t anyone else at Microsoft fool enough to have gotten involved in such a risky move.
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columns/lu |
2004.03.13-00:00.00