• 

• Linux Foundation Legal

  The Linux Foundation's legal program provides the Linux ecosystem with important information on licenses, standards and patent issues, reducing confusion and fostering further innovation and adoption of Linux.

• Categories

  • Legal

• Archives

  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • September 2007

• Subscribe RSS

At 9:00 AM EST today, the parties to Jacobsen v. Katz filed a settlement agreement with the U.S. Federal District Court for the Northern District of California. In doing so, they brought an end to one of the most important legal cases to date affecting the continued success of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The terms of the settlement mark a complete victory for Jacobsen.

More importantly, the rulings in the case establish several important FOSS license terms and remedies for the first time in the U.S.: the right to prevent a developer’s copyright and authorship acknowledgements from being removed from their code, and the right to collect damages if the terms of a FOSS license are violated. Absent the ability to collect damages, as a practical matter there would be little to prevent commercial software vendors from incorporating FOSS software into their proprietary products in violation of FOSS license terms.

Read the rest here

Popularity: 6% [?]

I don’t usually post twice a day, but today was opening day in Barcelona of the Mobile World Congress, the biggest mobile show of the year, and the announcements were popping thick and fast.  One of those announcements unveiled a new mobile platform called MeeGo - a new open source contender in the race to power the broad array of devices that are rapidly proliferating in the mobile marketplace.  And, I’m happy to say, MeeGo will be hosted by The Linux Foundation.  We’ve been working for some time on this,  and we’re very pleased that the project has now gone public.

Read the Rest Here

Popularity: 6% [?]

In which Frank exposes The Truth about venture capital, and the secret of the Perpetual Kitten.

Excerpt:

“Frank snorted with derision.  iBalls!  What a lame concept!  He thought he’d seen everything during the madness of the Internet bubble years – companies formed to sell dogfood over the Internet; year-old startups spending millions on 30 second Super Bowl ads; companies going public without a dollar in sales.  After the bust, he had assumed it would be decades before high tech saw that type of insanity again.

But no - things seemed to be heating up once more, and maybe worse.  Now that Twitter had re-legitimated the no-revenue business model, the venture capitalists were charging back in, hoping to raise mega-funds once again that were far too big.  Too big, that is, unless they started firehosing money down the maws of companies with nonsensical business plans, just like before.”

Read the Rest Here

Popularity: 6% [?]

Our story so far:  Security expert Frank Adversego comes under suspicion when the Library of Congress is hacked by a mysterious cracker with motives unknown and a taste for the bizarre; to protect himself, Frank had better get to the bottom of things.

Back in his cube again, Frank powered up his computer and reflected on what he’d just learned, which was both not much and a lot. Not much, in that he still had no idea who was behind the attack, or what he was trying to accomplish. But a lot because the only people targeted besides himself were George and Rick, and because only the files in one directory had been affected. That meant that what had hit the Library of Congress was no virus unleashed against Web sites generally, bent on spreading random mayhem. Instead, it was obviously an attack targeted just at the LOC. And once it had made its way through the LOC firewall, the attack had been manually controlled rather than automated.

Read the Rest Here

Popularity: 8% [?]

As you may recall, the CodePlex Foundation indicated in January that it expected to name a permanent Executive Director within a few weeks’ time. That has now happened, and in the “small world” department, the new ED happens to be Paula Hunter - someone I’ve known for years, and worked with several times in the past. The full press release is below. Paula is someone I like and respect a lot, and a great choice for CodePlex.

As you’ll see from the announcement, one of Paula’s prior jobs was as the Executive Director of UnitedLinux. UL was a client of mine, and that’s where I first met Paula. And if you’ve never heard the saga of UL, it’s a rather fascinating story.

Read the Rest Here

Popularity: 8% [?]

…Sure enough, as Frank strode up the half-lit corridor in Cube City, there was Rick standing next to his cubicle, coffee cup in hand.  His face lit up as soon as he saw Frank.  “Morning, Frank,” he called out.  “Recovered from your big Saturday night yet?”  He raised his coffee cup in a mock toast and leaned casually against his cube so Frank could barely squeeze past. 

But to Rick’s surprise, Frank gave him a hearty welcome as he wedged past.  “Great to see you, Rick, ‘ole fella!  Only 70 more security-filled days till February 28, huh?”  Frank smiled as he sauntered down the aisle to the sound of coffee spraying from Rick’s mouth.  Frank wondered just how long it would be before Rick showed up, shamefaced, to ask for help.  A week at most, he thought.

Read the Rest Here

Popularity: 9% [?]

The last issue of Standards Today focused on XML - the underpinning of ODF and hundreds of other standards - and one of the most important standards ever developed.  Here is the editorial from that issue.

One of the many intriguing concepts mooted by Pierre Tielhard de Chardin, a French philosopher and Jesuit priest with polymathic insights (his academic explorations range from paleontology to the meaning of the Cosmos) is the “noosphere.” In de Chardin’s vision, the reality of the world encompassed not just the geosphere (inanimate matter) and biosphere (all forms of life), but an ever expanding nimbus of knowledge representing the fusion of the minds and knowledge of all humans….

With the advent of the Internet and the Web, de Chardin’s noosphere seemed to have become real rather than abstract….

Read the Rest Here

Popularity: 11% [?]

The second chapter in this online cybersecurity mystery novel

Frank wondered how long his phone had been buzzing.  He was about to turn it off when he saw that it was his daughter Marla calling.

“Hi Kid,” he said, “Listen…”

His daughter jumped in.  “Hey, Dad, thanks for picking up.  I considered worrying about you for a second, and then figured you’d never really jump out the window – you’re only on the second floor, after all, and broken bones don’t solve anything.  I mean, you’re just much too logical not to think of that.  

“So how’s your big morning-after-the-night-before coming along?”

Frank tried to escape again, “Listen, Marla, this just isn’t a good time.  I’m in the middle of something, and…”

“Right.  Fat chance YOU got lucky last night.  I’ll be right over.”  She hung up.

Frank looked helplessly at the phone.  He started to call her back, and then snapped the phone shut.  She wouldn’t answer anyway. 

Read the rest here

Read Chapter one here

Popularity: 11% [?]

This is the first chapter in my new cybersecurity eBook in which you’ll meet Frank, our erstwhile hero, and get your first clue about the tangled train of events yet to unfold. Here’s an excerpt:

Frank snapped open his laptop and punched the keys with fury, rushing through the complicated log in sequence that would take him into the heart of the LOC’s security system, where his proposal was archived. Highlighting the file name, he hit the entry key, leaned back, and waited for it proposal to display.

Except it didn’t. Frank leaned forward and hit the enter key again. Still nothing. Perhaps his laptop had frozen. But no, when he down-arrowed, his cursor moved.

Then Frank noticed that something on the screen was changing: the background color was beginning to warm up, turning reddish, orange and yellow, as if the sun was rising behind it. Now that was different! Frank watched with growing astonishment as the colors began to shimmer, and then coalesced into shapes that might be flames. Yes, flames indeed – but not like a holiday screen-saver image of a log fire – this was a real barn-burner.

Frank wondered what kind of weird virus he’d picked up, and how. After all, he was an IT security specialist, and if any laptop was protected six ways to Sunday, it was his. So much for whatever he had planned for today; he’d have to wipe his disk and rebuild his system from the ground up.

He was about to shut the laptop down when he noticed that the flames were dying away. Now what?

Read it here

Popularity: 12% [?]

Those that know me know that I firmly believe that there is a Monty Python vignette, or at least a catchphrase, for every occasion. And on this occasion, that catchphrase is, “And now for something completely different!”

How completely different, might you ask, as if on cue? Glad you asked. Quite completely different. More specifically, I’m in the process of writing a cybersecurity novel called The Alexandria Project, and I’m going to share it here in serial form, in the grand tradition of yesteryear, when authors like Charles Dickens presented their latest works in weekly or monthly (often cliff hanging) chapters.

Except in this case, there will be a few twists. For one, in between installments you’ll be able to follow Frank Aversego, our erstwhile cybersecurity hero, on Twitter. He’ll share his mordant view of the day’s events (real and fictional) with you, and perhaps provide the occasional clue as to what might happen.

Read the Rest Here

Popularity: 13% [?]

• Andy Updegrove

  

  Andy Updegrove is a partner and founder of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a Boston-based technology law firm, and has represented and helped structure more than 100 worldwide standard setting, open source, promotional and advocacy consortia over the past 22 years. He has also represented hundreds of both emerging as well as established technology companies, and is the founder and editor of both the popular website http://www.consortiuminfo.org and the widely-read Standards Blog

• Karen Copenhaver

  

  Karen Copenhaver is a partner in Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP ‘s Business & Technology practice focusing on technology transfer and licensing of intellectual property with a specific emphasis on open source business models. Most recently, Copenhaver was executive vice president and general counsel at Black Duck Software, Inc.