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The Open Source Law Weekly Digest or OSWALD first launched late in 2002. Since then it has been regularly providing updates on all things open source related. The focus of this newsletter is on business, rather than technical developments in open source. Another strong component of the newsletter is IP news, as it is of interest to me and has an effect on open source.
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Welcome to the Open Source Law Weekly Open Source Digest (OSWALD)
More on the TouchPad and also more on Apple v Samsung in Europe. A couple more stories on the 20th Anniversary of kicking off Linux. One report suggests South Korea are off developing their own open-source smartphone operating system.
>From my blog: http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/gov-2-0-open-source-wrongness/
http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/iinet-disturbed-by-full-federal-court-decision/
http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/cablegate-shows-copyright-as-the-emporers-new-clothes/
Verbatim distribution with attribution ok.
Other distribution - email me.
Regards
Brendan
Brendan Scott
Open Source Law
***** Off Topic
Samsung says not interested in HP's PC business http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/25/samsung-hp-idUSL4E7JP27A20110825
Samsung Electronics Co reiterated on Thursday it is not interested in buying Hewlett-Packard Co's PC business, shooting down persistent market talk the South Korean firm may snap up the unit to become the world's top PC maker.
Torture in Bahrain Becomes Routine With Help From Nokia Siemens http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-22/torture-in-bahrain-becomes-routine-with-help-from-nokia-siemens-networking.html
In the hands of autocrats, the surveillance gear is providing unprecedented power to monitor and crush dissent -- a phenomenon that Ben Wagner of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, calls “push-button autocracy.”
***** Government/Policy
South Korean government to come up with their own smartphone platform http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/08/south-korean-government-smartphone-platform/
Smartphone users will probably be more than familiar with brands such as Samsung and LG and possibly even Pantech, phone brands which have come out of South Korea. It appears that the South Korean government have decided to start developing their own open-source smartphone operating system.
What would you like to see most in minix? http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2011082501341OSKN
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/08/march-of-the-penguin-ars-looks-back-at-20-years-of-linux.ars
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/blogs/browse/2011/08/what-we-know-sure-linux%E2%80%99s-20th-anniversary
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.
Finnish City of Kankaanpää Cuts Project Hardware Costs with Linux http://www.redhat.com/about/news/prarchive/2011/Finnish-City-of-Kankaanpaa-Cuts-Project-Hardware-Costs-by-50-Percent-with-Red-Hat-Enterprise-Virtualization
Cabinet Office builds open source strategy on proprietary software http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/public-sector/2011/08/cabinet-office-builds-open-sou.html
The Cabinet Office has chosen a proprietary software system to implement the keystone of its policy to create a level playing field for open source.
***** Patent/CR/DRM News+Policy
[US] Federal Circuit Rules Beauregard Claims are Unpatentable http://inventivestep.net/2011/08/22/federal-circuit-rules-beauregard-claims-are-unpatentable/
Last week in Cybersource Corp. v. Retail Decisions, Inc. , the Federal Circuit panel of Judges Bryson, Dyk, and Prost overruled a large amount of precedent in holding that claims to computer-readable media are directed to non-patentable subject matter if the media contain code for methods that themselves are non-patentable subject matter.
Panasonic Ducks Samsung Antitrust Suit Over Patent Deal http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/267594
The Patent Lawsuit Economy [Inforgraphic] http://www.focus.com/fyi/patent-lawsuit-economy/
Judge Upholds German Preliminary Injunction; Final Ruling Sept. 9 http://www.osnews.com/story/25101/Judge_Upholds_German_Preliminary_Injunction
http://www.osnews.com/story/25098/Apple_Scores_Meaningless_Dutch_Court_Victory_Against_Samsung
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/samsung-uk-not-affected-by-galaxy-ban-998694?src=rss&attr=all
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/24/139925696/samsung-objects-to-ipad-patent-saying-stanley-kubrick-came-up-with-it-first
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/communication-breakdown-10000030/samsung-galaxy-android-ban-does-not-affect-whole-eu-10024196/
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2104501/android-update-save-samsung-apples-claws
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/25/us-samsung-court-idUSTRE77O0OU20110825
http://jan.wildeboer.net/2011/08/samsung-v-apple-in-nl-happy-selling-samsung/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/08/24/why-apple-went-to-dusseldorf/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219455/Dutch_court_bans_Samsung_Galaxy_S_SII_and_Ace_in_Europe_starting_Oct._15
http://www.zdnet.com/photos/apple-ipad-design-its-been-done-before-images/6284204
http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/23/samsung-kubrick-2001-apple-patent-war/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/23/businessinsider-samsung-shows-that-the-ipad-first-appeared-in-the-movie-2001-2011-8.DTL
The hearing regarding the preliminary injunction in the German Apple v. Samsung case is currently under way. Biggest revelation so far? Samsung is accusing Apple of 27 (!) cases of altering pictures, all done to make Samsung's products appear more similar to Apple's than they really are.
'What Idiot Wrote The Patent That Might Invalidate Software Patents? Oh, Wait, That Was Me' http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110822/13094215621/what-idiot-wrote-patent-that-might-invalidate-software-patents-oh-wait-that-was-me.shtml
Google Reports to Ct. on Reexam by USPTO: All claims of Oracle's '205 patent rejected. http://www.groklaw.net/pdf3/OraGoogle-363.pdf
Judge upholds DMCA safe harbor protection for MP3Tunes http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2011/08/judge-upholds-dmca-protection-for.html
In Capitol Records v. MP3Tunes, Inc. , District Judge William H. Pauley has ruled that the digital music locker business of MP3Tunes is protected from copyright infringement claims by the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
When Are Patents Obvious? http://www.juliansanchez.com/2011/08/15/when-are-patents-obvious/
http://opensource.com/law/11/8/speaking-software-patents
Platform wars: software patents in a new light http://opensource.com/law/11/8/platform-wars-software-patents-new-light
The value of these patents is not in the technology. These prices are being paid for the power to block others from using technology they have developed independently.
Beware: Europe's 'unitary patent' could mean unlimited software patents http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/22/european-unitary-patent-software-warning
Just as the US software industry is experiencing the long-anticipated all-out software patent wars, the European Union has a plan to follow the same course. When the Hargreaves report urged the UK to avoid software patents, the UK government had already approved a plan that is likely to impose them.
Google: Just In Case [Motorola acquisition] http://www.thinkipstrategy.com/ipthinktank/7052/google-just-in-case/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-22/motorola-s-value-for-google-found-in-18-patents-used-against-apple-tech.html
http://www.economist.com/node/21526385
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/technology/a-bull-market-in-tech-patents.html
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/26/139924549/patent-wars-could-dull-techs-cutting-edge
Google, I imagine, faces the reality that wars are often caused by undefended wealth, and that in many ways Android was/is undefended by patents when compared to the patent portfolios available to competitors.
RIAA Files Expected Appeal Over Judge's Decision To Decrease Jury Award In Jammie Thomas Trial http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110822/12384515619/riaa-files-expected-appeal-over-judges-decision-to-decrease-jury-award-jammie-thomas-trial.shtml
Now is when the case finally starts to get more interesting. The RIAA is actually challenging three parts from the three prior trials (as you may recall, the first two were tossed out).
Microsoft Says Motorola’s Android Phones Infringe Its Patents http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-22/microsoft-says-motorola-s-android-phones-infringe-its-patents.html
MP3tunes Wins Copyright Case Against EMI, For The Most Part http://paidcontent.org/article/419-mp3tunes-wins-on-dmca-but-founder-robertson-may-take-a-hit/
More API Copyright Nonsense http://people.gnome.org/~michael/blog/2010-10-29-api-copyright.html
Oracle now have amended their complaint to include this: Android includes infringing class libraries and documentation. Approximately one third of Android's Application Programmer Interface (API) packages . . . are derivative of Oracle America's copyrighted Java API packages . . . .
SIGGRAPH keynote review: Cory Doctorow discusses copyright laws http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/siggraph-keynote-review-cory-doctorow-discusses-copyright-laws/
Google Takes on Lodsys Patents at USPTO http://www.patentspostgrant.com/lang/en/2011/08/google-takes-on-lodsys-at-uspto#more-6751
Late Friday, Google announced that it had filed inter partes patent reexamination requests against two of the now infamous Lodsys patents, 7,222,078, and 7,620,565.
BitTorrent users don't "act in concert," so judge slashes mass P2P case http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/bittorrent-users-dont-act-in-concert-so-judge-slashes-mass-p2p-case.ars
Steele Hansmeier, the antipiracy law firm that has been routinely hammered by judges in Illinois, is now getting hammered by judges in California.
***** Applications/Gadgets
Remote access, share desktop and transfer files with TeamViewer http://www.unixmen.com/linux-tutorials/1869-remote-access-share-desktop-and-transfer-files-with-teamviewer-
TeamViewer is excellent software for allowing the control of your computer from remote places, sharing the desktop and transferring the files between Teamviewer the computers or compatible devices all through the internet. TeamViewer is available not only for computer operating systems like Windows, Mac and Linux, but also for mobile operating systems like Android and iOS.
Gluster Goes After Hadoop Big Data http://www.infostor.com/storage-management/gluster-goes-after-hadoop-big-data.html
"GlusterFS 3. 3 brings two new protocols into the file system," AB Periasamy, CTO and co-founder of Gluster told InternetNews. com. "One of them is the object protocol so you can access the data as objects, similar to the Amazon S3 protocol. "
$25 PC alpha board successfully runs Linux http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/25-pc-alpha-board-successfully-runs-linux-20110824/
Late last month we reported that the $25 PC had gone into alpha production. That meant the spec of the board had been finalized by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and they wanted hardware to start testing. Now they have an alpha board to play with.
***** Reports
Rapid7 Commits $100,000 to Open Source Security Projects http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=11500
Any security-related open source project - with a preference for BSD-compatible licensing - is applicable and encouraged to submit a "Magnificent7" application.
Microsoft mounts campaign to win webOS developers http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2011/08/23/microsoft-mounts-campaign-win-webos-developers.htm
Combined with efforts to woo Android supporters who may be nervous about Google's plans for Motorola, the WP7 team has a busy few months ahead, but it has lost no time in targeting webOS refugees. It has announced a program to offer these developers free handsets, software tools and training in return for creating new WP7 applications.
VMware's open source doppelganger gets cloudy http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/23/convirture_enterprise_cloud_tool/
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/so-want-to-manage-a-cloud-with-open-source-software/9453
Oracle Takes on VMware with Oracle VM 3.0 http://www.serverwatch.com/server-news/oracle-takes-on-vmware-with-oracle-vm-3.0-.html
The Oracle VM is based on the open source Xen hypervisor. Oracle provides the VM for free and then charges enterprises for support contracts. While Oracle is providing its own value adds on top of Xen with the Oracle VM management layer, Hawley stressed that Oracle is committed to Xen.
Using Linux to Improve Energy Efficiency and Productivity http://www.datamation.com/open-source/using-linux-to-improve-energy-efficiency-and-productivity-1.html
HEYU is designed to schedule lighting events based on time or dates provided by the end-user. Using inexpensive X10 components, a company is then capable of handling their lighting needs automatically. And unlike many tools that handle lighting for dawn/dusk events only, HEYU also allows for holiday schedules to be handled automatically. This is a very nice little bonus for a command line program.
Has Microsoft's Patent Deal with Novell Hurt Red Hat? http://www.datamation.com/open-source/has-microsofts-patent-deal-with-novell-hurt-red-hat.html
In November of 2006, Microsoft entered into a patent covenant and interoperability deal with Novell. In 2011, Microsoft has renewed and extended that deal to SUSE Linux, which was spun off from Novell as part of Attachmate's $2. 2 billion acquisition of the company.
Eucalpytus 3.0 Advances Private Cloud Availability http://www.serverwatch.com/server-news/eucalpytus-3.html
Mickos explained that in Eucalyptus 3. 0 there are now multiple controllers for high-availability. The controllers are web services that help to orchestrate the real time operation of a Eucalyptus cloud.
The HP TouchPad homebrew community is already alive and well http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/the-hp-touchpad-homebrew-community-is-already-alive-and-well/3164
http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/mobile-cloud-view/hps-webos-decision-sends-shock-waves-through-developer-community/
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2103913/hp-ship-bargain-touchpads
http://moconews.net/article/419-one-crazy-touchpad-weekend-measured-in-tweets/
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/22/hp.fire.sale/
http://www.crn.com/news/client-devices/231500447/hp-gm-hp-remains-committed-to-pc-business.htm
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Palm-Pre-3-TouchPad-webOS-Stephen-Dewitt,13267.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391519,00.asp
http://www.pcworld.com/article/238621/huh_touchpads_now_selling_for_almost_300_on_ebay.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20095396-1/touchdroid-bringing-android-to-hp-touchpad/
http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/08/21/hp-what-leo-apotheker%E2%80%99s-decisions-mean/
I have only owned my TouchPad for a couple of days but am happy to report the TouchPad homebrew community is active and producing good stuff.
HP Touchpad running Android for sale on eBay http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/hp-touchpad-running-android-for-saleebay_580319.html
Microsoft to help sell Hyper-V infused Linux distro in China http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2184796444.html
http://geekwire.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7d9669cf206fb932dea38e25e&id=bcbe3b6a04&e=c31e96422a
Microsoft and China Standard Software Co. (CS2C), announced a deal -- complete with a "legal covenant agreement" -- through which CS2C's Linux-based NeoKylin Linux distribution will be matched with Hyper-V Open Cloud. Designed for cloud solutions in China, the offering would put Microsoft in the unlikely business of selling Linux.
Mozilla Launches WebAPI Effort to Free Apps from Vendor Chains http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/08/mozilla-launches-webapi-effort.php
The WebAPI is part of Mozilla putting serious effort into mobile devices through its Boot to Gecko (B2G) initiative. With B2G, Mozilla is trying to reverse the trend of developers having to target multiple devices and mobile operating systems for development, rather than simply writing for the Web.
HTC unlocks its phones, but probably not just to irk Google http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219336/HTC_unlocks_its_phones_but_probably_not_just_to_irk_Google?source=toc
HTC views unlocked OSes as a way to encourage both ISVs and owners to get more involved developing apps and mods for the phones, according to an interview in the WSJ with HTC CEO Peter Chou.
How Open is Open? A PaaS Scorecard http://olex.openlogic.com/wazi/2011/how-open-is-open-a-paas-scorecard/
In addition, most of these PaaS offerings were tied to a particular IaaS provider, creating lock-in for those that chose them. As a result, developers and users gravitated towards more open IaaS offerings that let them pick and choose stacks and languages to meet their particular needs.
***** Snippets
Google Music: Music in the cloud http://linuxcritic.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/google-music-music-in-the-cloud/
First Look at Poseidon Linux, the Linux For Scientists http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/487152
Twitter open sources Bootstrap web front-end toolkit http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Twitter-open-sources-Bootstrap-web-front-end-toolkit-1328065.html
Linux 3.1 Kernel Draws More Power With Another Regression http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?item=linux_31_power_regress&num=1&page=article
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5.7 review http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/reviews/red-hat-enterprise-linux-server-5-7-review/
Malware Targeting Android Jumps 76 Percent http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1812
Linux Hardware Support Better Than Windows 7 http://blog.eracc.com/2011/08/24/linux-hardware-support-better-than-windows-7
#LinuxCon: Linux 3.0.3 Released in front of Live Audience http://www.internetnews.com/blog/skerner/linuxcon-linux-3.0.3-releases-in-front-of-live-audience.html
Why Mozilla's Firefox Rapid Release Cycle Works and Why it Doesn't. http://www.internetnews.com/blog/skerner/why-mozilla-firefox-rapid-release-cycle-works.html
Motorola's Influence Wanes as Android's Share Strengthens http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391575,00.asp
Android bakes bitter 20th birthday cake for Linux http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/26/linux_20_anniversary_google_threat/
How Free Software Contributed to the Success of Steve Jobs and Apple http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/08/how-free-software-contributed.html
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