Legal Archive

The Council Presidency today declared the software agreement of 18 May 2004 to have been adopted, in violation of the procedural rules and in spite of the evident lack of a qualified majority of member states and the requests of several states to reopen negotiations. More here.

Groklaw is reporting that the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament has decided today to apply the article 55.1. of the Rules of Procedure and ask for a new first reading on the Computer-Implemented Inventions directive. The decision was reached with an overwhelming majority of the Committee, and with the support of all major political groups.

Although it appears in a "Mainstream" (non-technical) publication, this lengthy indictment of Bill Gates and software patents from 'The Guardian' is another interesting indicator of how the public's view of the issue is shifting.

Apple is suing thinksecret over recent stories, including the proposed headless Mac. Apple sites specific articles in the suit. It's not crazy to assume the speculative articles are based on good information.

Microsoft is to start shipping a cut-down version of Windows in Europe from January, following the failure of its appeal to the European Court of First Instance over penalties imposed by the Commission earlier this year. Microsoft hasn't run out of appeal routes, but the Court ordered the company to begin carrying out the Commission's decision immediately. Also see eWeek coverage.

There's been an important development in the EU software patents story we've been covering.Poland refused to go along with the software patent rubber stamp: "The Software Patent Directive has been withdrawn from the Agenda of the Agricultural Council. Poland's minister Marcinski requested it firmly at the beginning of the meeting. The Commissioner expressed regret, but the A-item has been deleted and will not be decided this year."

Federal and state police now have the power to use computer spyware to gather evidence in a broad range of investigations after legal changes last week. The Surveillance Devices Act allows police to obtain a warrant to use software surveillance technologies, including systems that track and log keystrokes on a computer keyboard. The law applies to the Australian Federal Police and to state police investigating Commonwealth offences. Read More ("smhguy/pass" to access)

The AT&T (USL) vs BSDi (and UC Berkeley) settlement agreement has finally been unsealed thanks to California Public Records Law.

When Sun Microsystems releases Solaris as open-source software, it plans to provide legal protection from patent-infringement suits to outsiders using or developing the operating system--one of several ways Sun hopes to make Solaris more competitive with Linux. Elsewhere, Microsoft's Ballmer warns Asia of Linux lawsuits.

The SCO Group's legal actions against Linux have shed light on the inner workings of the open-source programming project and on the operations of a company desperate to survive. They've also created a cottage industry for conspiracy theorists over Microsoft's role in the affair.

SCO has been seeking more time for its Unix intellectual property case against IBM, while IBM strives to end the case quickly. The SCO Group Inc. and IBM are locked in a blizzard of claim and counterclaim paperwork in the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. Matters reached a climax Wednesday as the court heard arguments on four motions.

DVD copying software maker 321 Studios has closed its doors, driven out of business by a succession of court decisions that said its most popular product was illegal to distribute. Several courts subsequently ruled that even if consumers might have a theoretical right to make their own personal DVD copies, 321 Studios could not sell tools that would help them break through that copy protection.

Open source appears challenged by patents but that fear is often exaggerated. Lawrence Rosen, technology attorney and author of "Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law" (Prentice Hall, 2004), offers a calming view of the patent situation. He describes reasonable steps we can take to prevent patents from interfering with software freedom.

BTG Plc., a West Conshohocken, Pa.-based company, has filed patent infringement lawsuits against both Microsoft Corp. and Apple Computer, Inc. The firm claims that Microsoft and Apple has infringed its patent for web-based software updating technology. Our Take: Hey, they forgot to sue most Linux distros and... SkyOS.