law

Argentina considering going 100% open source

Argentina's congress is actively considering a bill that would require all government offices to use open-source software. It's partly a cost-saving move, and partly a way to bring the Argentine government into compliance with its software licensing:

The measure is sponsored by representative Marcelo Drag?n as part of a national campaign against rampant software piracy in the South American country....

[T]he government itself is one of the worst copyright violators. The [Software Legal trade] association has pending lawsuits against several bureaucratic agencies, including the Secretariat of Tourism, the Federal Radio Committee and the Social Security Administration.… Read more

Thanks, Rambus

Second only to Moore's Law as a source of story ideas for pundits in the computer industry, Rambus was back in the news again last week.

This particular verdict was favorable to Rambus, but it wasn't the final word, nor was it exceptionally important. CNET News.com didn't even publish a news article about it, though Tom Krazit did write a pretty good blog post on the subject and it inspired a good post on intellectual property development from former Rambus exec Steve Tobak on his blog. Rambus has been involved in a great many lawsuits. Some … Read more

OSBC Report: Microsoft attempts to cross the chasm to open source

Tonight Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, delivered the "footnote" address at the Open Source Business Conference 2008. I asked Brad to speak because I figured it was the shortest path to getting clarity from Microsoft vis-a-vis open source and the nettlesome legal issues that have plagued Microsoft's relationship with open source.

Brad spoke for 30 minutes, and then participated in a follow-up panel with an A-list group from the open-source community, including Mark Shuttleworth (Ubuntu), James Bottomley (CTO, SteelEye and Linux kernel maintainer), Andrew Updegrove (standards lawyer extraordinaire), and Stephen O'Grady (Redmonk co-founder). The audience then had the opportunity to ask him questions for another 30 minutes. It was no doubt a grueling "opportunity" for Brad, and he represented himself and Microsoft well. (See also Charles Cooper's report.)

But it didn't result in any great "Ah ha!" moment, unfortunately. There are serious chasms between Microsoft's position(s) and the open-source community's position(s). It's very possible that both sides will have to compromise. What would compromise entail?

Brad talked around this in his opening remarks:… Read more

Inventions in outer space

The goal of BLIP is to keep the non-patent lawyer apprised of recent developments in the world of intellectual property law. This post is not directed toward that goal. Today's post is devoted to raising awareness about the patent law with the coolest title: "Inventions in outer space."

The collection of laws that govern patents can be found in Title 35 of the U.S. Code. Anyone having any familiarity with patent laws knows about sections 101-103 of 35 U.S.C.--these sections deal with what is patentable and how you judge if a patent is in fact novel or not obvious. But unbeknownst even to most practicing patent lawyers is that two sections later--in section 105--Congress has enacted a law specifically directed to extraterrestrial patents:

Court upholds ban on Minnesota video game law

The video game industry and free-speech proponents landed yet another legal victory on Monday, when a federal appeals court affirmed a 2006 rejection of a Minnesota law restricting minors' access to violent titles.

The Minnesota law would have imposed up to a $25 fine on minors younger than 17 caught buying or renting video games rated "M" for mature or "AO" for adults-only, under the video game industry's rating system.

But a U.S. district judge blocked the new policy the day before it was scheduled to take effect. The judge cited constitutional concerns and &… Read more

Poll: Do you ever listen to music, without also doing something else?

The iPhone commercial parody on YouTube with genius filmmaker David Lynch hit the mark for me. His insight about people watching movies on iPhones, I'm paraphrasing--"You think you've seen the movie after watching it on your iPhone, but you'll be cheated. You haven't seen the movie."--could also be applied to music.

Just because you were listening to music while text messaging your boy/girlfriend doesn't mean you've actually heard the music. Exposure to music, art, film, what have you, is not the same as active engagement. It's kind of … Read more

Free-software lawyers: Don't trust Microsoft's Open XML patent pledge

Prominent legal counsel the Software Freedom Law Center said that the legal terms covering Microsoft's Open XML document formats pose a patent risk to free and open-source software developers.

The SFLC on Wednesday published a legal analysis of Microsoft's Open Specification Promise (OSP), a document written to give developers the green light to make open-source products based on specifications written by Microsoft.

The OSP is meant to allay concerns over violating Microsoft patents that relate to Open XML, Microsoft's document specifications that the company is trying to have certified as a standard at the ISO (International Organization … Read more

An Internet sans anonymous posts?

A Kentucky lawmaker is pushing for a Web free of anonymous posts through a bill he filed that would require anyone who contributes to a Web site to register his or her real name, address, and e-mail. Under the proposed law, the site operator would be fined for violations, according to a Kentucky TV news site.

The story is from last week, but it was posted on the Drudge Report on Monday and, as a result, is still creating some noise in the blogosphere, particularly given the related First Amendment issues.

U.S. and Germany want to share fingerprint, DNA databases

About six months ago, German police reported disrupting a terrorist plot against U.S. installations in their country, thanks in part to intelligence tips from American agents. Now officials in the two nations have hatched a formal plan to share more information about known and suspected terrorists.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and their German counterparts--Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries--initialed an agreement on Tuesday to swap fingerprint and DNA data.

At a Tuesday press conference at German government headquarters in Berlin, Mukasey hailed the proposed cooperation as a &… Read more

Newsom: 'Green' tech promises not good enough

San Francisco may have shaken some flowers from its hair since hosting the first Earth Day 38 years ago, but the city continues to be named one of America's greenest. Satirists mock its politically correct "smug cloud" of eco-hipness, but many other regions tend to follow the city's environmental lead. For instance, more than a handful of U.S. cities are now mulling a ban on plastic grocery bags, first passed in San Francisco last March.

Fresh into his second term, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newson in January set goals for the city to become carbon-neutral … Read more