Copyleft Currentshttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/en-US2010-07-30T13:17:07ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.5 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Linking Documenthttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/7/23/linking-document.htmlHeather Meeker2010-07-23T14:18:38ZThe European Legal Network has released a document addressing what kind of software interactions create derivative works -- primarily relevant to the interpretation of the General Public License.  "The aim of this document is to provide some general guidance to lawyers and developers working with free software to understand the technical and (potentially) legal effects of the interaction or interoperation of two programs together."  The document was created by a Special Interest Group made up of delegates from the European Legal Network, which is "a neutral, private network of legal professionals facilitated by FSFE."

]]>Lobbying Effort Favors Open Source in EU Government Procurementhttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/7/22/lobbying-effort-favors-open-source-in-eu-government-procurem.htmlHeather Meeker2010-07-22T22:18:34ZA recent story in the New York Times discusses the lobbying efforts of Open Forum Europe.  The lobbying effort focuses on the issuance of the European Interoperability Framework, which contains recommendations by the European Commission regarding the purchase of software by EU national and local governments -- which constitutes an estimated market of over $15 billion.   The release of this document is scheduled by the end of 2010.   Several drafts of the document are available on FSFE's web site.  The NYT article also discusses the effect on Microsoft's effort in Europe.

]]>Mozilla Submits iPhone Apphttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/7/7/mozilla-submits-iphone-app.htmlHeather Meeker2010-07-07T19:34:58ZMozilla has submitted an iPhone App that is not Firefox, exactly, but dovetails with Firefox features.  One of the cooler features, discussed at the Summit today, was Firefox Sync, which lets Firefox users access the history, bookmarks, and open tabs across stationary computers and mobile computing devices.  Apple has previously had a policy that effectively excluded browsers as apps, but it nevertheless approved an Opera app.

]]>Mozilla 2010 Summit Promises a New World of Whizbang Browser Featureshttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/7/7/mozilla-2010-summit-promises-a-new-world-of-whizbang-browser.htmlHeather Meeker2010-07-07T19:29:38ZJust a quick post to say that I am at the 2010 Summit and it is very exciting to see what is on the drawing board at Mozilla -- which is metophorical of course, because it is really the drawing board of a huge community of worldwide developers.  If you want a little bit of vicarious participation, check out the Twitter Flickr etc. feed.

]]>DC Plans "Vote by Mail" Pilot Using Open Source Digital Voting Foundation Softwarehttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/6/28/dc-plans-vote-by-mail-pilot-using-open-source-digital-voting.htmlHeather Meeker2010-06-29T02:37:28ZWashington DC will launch a test of OSDV's software, for overseas voters.    The District of Columbia’s Board of Election and Ethics (BOEE) announced that they will adopt OSDV's TrustTheVote technology as part of a digital “Vote by Mail” ballot transport service pilot project for overseas ballots.  OSDV's John Sebes blogs about it here.   Sebes explains that the D.C. pilot is not “online voting” per se, but a test of an additional form of digital transport for return of blank ballots.   Absentee ballots can already be obtained digitally via email or web, and returned via email or fax. 

The Navy Times reports, "During the November 2008 election, some 2,800 D.C. voters were sent ballots overseas, but fewer than half were actually returned and counted. Almost 300 were not counted because of problems like a voter forgetting to sign the envelope, and 36 were too late. The new system could help fix some of those problems."

If I may be allowed a brief editorial comment -- mindful that I have worked with OSDV as a client -- Yay, team!

]]>GNU GO Gonehttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/6/21/gnu-go-gone.htmlHeather Meeker2010-06-22T00:16:10ZI hate to say I told you so; see post of 6/1.  GNU Go was pulled from the iPhone app store.

]]>Quebec Court Requires Alternative Linux Bidhttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/6/4/quebec-court-requires-alternative-linux-bid.htmlHeather Meeker2010-06-04T16:14:58ZA Quebec Superior court ruled that a provincial agency should have solicited other altenatives before spending 720,000 Canadian dollars (686,000 US) on Microsoft software.  This was required by the agency's own rules, which required such a process for expenditures over Canadian 25,000 dollars.  The lawsuit was filed by Montreal-based Savoir Faire Linux.

]]>Free CLE Webinar -- How to Create an Enterprise Open Source License Compliance Programhttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/6/1/free-cle-webinar-how-to-create-an-enterprise-open-source-lic.htmlHeather Meeker2010-06-01T22:21:34ZSponsored by Open Logic

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

11:00am Pacific / Noon Mountain / 1:00pm Central / 2:00pm Eastern / 7:00pm GMT
Duration: 1 hour
1.0 CLE General hours pending approval in CA and CO
Register for this webinar

Open source license compliance has emerged as a critical issue for businesses seeking to take advantage of the cost and technical benefits of open source software. Non-compliance can result in legal action, monetary damages, negative publicity, and compromised intellectual property.

In this webinar sponsored by OpenLogic and Greenberg Traurig, attorney Heather Meeker will discuss how to create an enterprise open source license compliance program that will help you guard against potential risks. Attendees will learn about best practices for complying with different types of open source licenses – including GPL, permissive, and Affero-type licenses – as well as how to maintain ongoing license compliance. Other topics to be covered in this webinar include:

]]>FSF Takes on Applehttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/6/1/fsf-takes-on-apple.htmlHeather Meeker2010-06-01T20:57:03ZIn a recent blog on the Free Software Foundation's web site, which describes itself as part of "a series of articles detailing threats Apple's iPhone poses to free software and user freedom," John Sullivan takes issue with Apple's practices relating to iPhone app software.  Among the complaints are "Tivoization" and possible incompatibility with the GPL.

The blog generally lays down a gauntlet: "The Free Software Foundation will be treating this new proprietary platform as another threat to user and developer freedom, in the same way that we have worked to counter the threats posed by every other proprietary operating system, from Microsoft Windows in all its forms, to Apple's OS X and other proprietary Unix variants."

The "Tivoization" problem is explained as follows: "In order for any program to be installed on the iPhone, the program must be cryptographically signed. When a user attempts to install software on her iPhone, the iPhone's...system checks to see if Apple considers the signature on the software to be valid. If there is no signature or if the signature is invalid, the iPhone will refuse to install the software. If the software has been modified in any way, the signature check will fail. The signature check is also tied to the user's specific device, which means that she is not permitted to transfer or copy downloaded programs directly between iPhones, and any other copying is permitted or not permitted at Apple's whim."

Although the blog says that "Apple's approach runs headlong into...the GPL's copyleft approach..." it stops short of claiming the iPhone store delivery system violates GPL version 2; it does state that it violates version 3.  It states that the GPL v3 and Apple's iPhone Developer Program License Agreement "are incompatible. Apple's license says that to write and distribute software for the iPhone, developers have to agree that any freedom users should have to modify and share their software is secondary to the paramount requirement of observing and protecting Apple's DRM system."

If this is so, then GPLv3 is not an available licensing choice for iPhone apps.  But it's unclear whether that will be a net benefit to free software.  The most likely result is that developers will use other licenses for their apps -- a result far more likely than Apple changing its policies.  Given the generally slow adoption of GPLv3 since its release, it's not clear that prohibiting iPhone app developers from using GPLv3 would be a win for FSF. 

Of course, the issue of whether it is best for mobile apps to be available only via official sources is a broader, more interesting, and more complicated one.  Mobile phone manufacturers want to control the content available for their phones to manage their brand (primarily by excluding offensive content), minimize security issues (primarily by excluding apps that promulgate violations of netiquette or the law), and improve user experience (primarily by excluding apps that don't work).  But the price of a warm, comfortable user experience is accepting censorship.  In this sense, the larger issue is yet another example of the age-old debate between freedom and safety.

 

]]>Yahoo!'s Open Source Cloudhttp://www.heathermeeker.com/news/2010/5/12/yahoos-open-source-cloud.htmlHeather Meeker2010-05-12T14:39:07ZInteresting article in the Register about Yahoo!'s strategy in releasing cloud computing open source software.  My favorite line: ""We don't bless the language, We bless the container."

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