Legal Archive

Reacting to US and Apple positions about the copyright law, french deputee Christian Paul, who worked hard to defend Free software during the debates, explains the parliament position. "We want to protect consumers' freedom of choice and privacy. We oppose the idea that the seller of a song or any other kind of work can impose on the consumer the way to read it, forever, and especially in consumer's home. It is essential to assure that the consumer can choose whatever device she likes, just as she can use her favorite hi-fi today and does not have to buy a new one for each vendor."

French lawmakers approved an online copyright bill Tuesday that would require Apple to break open the exclusive format behind its market-leading iTunes music store and iPod players. The draft law - which also sets new penalties for music pirates - would force Apple, Sony, and others to share proprietary copy-protection technologies so that rivals can offer compatible services and players. An analyst expects that Apple is more likely to leave the French market, than to open its format in France. My take: Just buy CDs. They play in every CD player, and have no weird restrictions. In case you forgot, CDs look like this.

This is your daily IT Lawsuit News Feeder. Groklaw reports that IBM has subpoenad Microsoft in its enduring legal battle with SCO. IBM is demanding Microsoft delivers all communications between Microsoft and SCO, since June 28th 2002, including conversations Darl McBride may have had with Steve Ballmer. But no worries, that ain't all! IBM, Red Hat, Sun, and Real have filed a complaint with the European Commission because Microsoft unfairly scotches competition. That was your daily IT Lawsuit News Feeder, end transmission.

This week, one of the most-commented stories on OSNews was the story about how 'Maxxus' cracked/hacked (take your pick) the Intel version of Apple's OSX once again. This sparked a lively debate over whether we should encourage Maxxus, or condemn his actions. I made myself clear from the get-go: I condemn his actions. Note: This is the Sunday Eve Column of the week.

Cambridge University's Ross Anderson has given parliament advice on how to protect the UK from the excesses of technology. An influential security researcher has urged members of parliament to tighten up the law to prevent technology and media companies from abusing patents and digital rights management applications.

European Commission antitrust head Neelie Kroes told EU lawmakers on Tuesday that Microsoft cannot charge a licensing fee for the Windows source code it has promised to share, unless it can prove such code is "innovative." Microsoft made the offer last week in order to comply with a 2004 court ruling.

Microsoft said on Monday it had been given extra time by the European Commission to respond to the threat of a $2 million-a-day fine over allegations that it has failed to comply with a landmark EU antitrust ruling. "We have been granted an extension to February 15," a spokesman for the company said. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, Microsoft is falling behind in meeting certain obligations under its antitrust agreement with the US government, the Bush administration said Monday.

"DRM is a lie. When an agenda driven DRM infection peddler gets on a soapbox and blathers about how it is necessary to protect the BMW payments of a producer who leeches off the talented, rest assured, they are lying to you. DRM has absolutely nothing to do with protecting content, it is about protecting the wallets of major corporations. The funny thing is they aren't protecting it from you, they are protecting it from each other."

IP attorney Thomas Carey shoots down SCO's cases against Linux, Linux users, IBM and Novell, but predicts that "SCO will follow Hitler's example and go on fighting a losing battle".

Some five months after Google announced plans to open a product research and development center in China, and said it was appointing former Microsoft vice president Kai-Fu Lee to head the operation, the parties have settled the matter. In a brief statement released late Thursday, Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said the parties had entered into a private agreement that resolved all issues to their mutual satisfaction.

Microsoft argues that revealing its server protocols would violate its intellectual property rights, but the Free Software Foundation Europe believes that the software giant's 'secret' information is just a messy implementation of standard technologies.

A database containing more than 500 software patents and backed by big-name vendors has been posted online to foster development of litigation-free open source. Open Source Development Labs has launched its Patent Commons Project with backing from IBM - the industry's largest holder of technology patents - Computer Associates International, Novell, Red Hat, Intel and Sun Microsystems.

Microsoft is nearing a settlement of RealNetworks' long-running antitrust lawsuit with a deal valued at $750 million (E624 million), according to reports. Under terms of the settlement, which could still fall through, Microsoft would offer a combination of cash and promotions for RealNetworks' music and game services through Microsoft's online services and software, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. In addition, the newspaper said, the two companies would collaborate on technology initiatives in the future. Update: It's official.

In a recent interview, ESR shocked a lot of people when he said, "We don't need the GPL anymore." Federico Biancuzzi recently contacted RMS, founder of the Free Software Movement and initial developer of the GNU system (the G in "GLAMP"), to talk about the past, the present, and the future of the GNU GPL. Among other things, they discussed the new clauses of the upcoming GPL version 3.