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Software groups warn of FTA dangers By Online Staff August 6, 2004 The US-Australia Free Trade Agreement poses a grave threat to the entire Australian software development industry due to the legal framework on intellectual property which is required upon adoption of the pact, the Open Source Industry Association and Linux Australia have warned. In a statement issued in Melbourne today, both organisations said the FTA would hamper Australia's ability to efficiently compete in global markets. "Much like the introduction of a flawed patenting regime for pharmaceuticals, adoption of a flawed patent regime for software is not in Australia's interests,"...

Munich puts Linux project on ice because of the software patents The city Munich have their consider project LiMux , which plan, the city administration on Linux change over, on ice put. The German Federal Government, that occurs in the European Union for the disputed software patents and thus against open SOURCE often commodity and the middle class, is jointly responsible is called it in a report SWM software marketing GmbH. In the evening of yesterday the highest EDP responsible person of the city communicated Munich, Wihelm Hoegner, on a mailing list that could not for the time being start...

Linux potentially infringes 283 patents, including 27 held by Microsoft but none that have been validated by court judgments, according to a group that sells insurance to protect those using or selling Linux against intellectual-property litigation. Dan Ravicher, founder and executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, conducted the analysis for Open Source Risk Management. OSRM is like an insurance company, selling legal protection against Linux copyright-infringement claims. It plans to expand the program to patent protections.

A Seattle labor group said it has new evidence that Microsoft is shifting high-level work to foreign contractors, including work on the next version of Windows. But the company said nothing has changed, and its core products are still built by company employees. Microsoft has long hired outside companies to supplement its labor force and develop partnerships in the technology industry, but its activities in India are being scrutinized amid the national debate over the outsourcing of technology work to developing countries such as India. A concern is that even the highest-skilled and best-paying work, such as software development, is...

Inadequate Security Poses National Security Threat Dan O'Dowd, CEO, Green Hills Software Inc.Design NewsJuly 19, 2004 Linux is being designed into future U.S. defense systems, including the Army's Future Combat System (FCS), the Land Warrior, and the Global Information Grid, which will connect future military systems into one network. This spread of Linux into defense systems is cause for serious concern. Linux security is inadequate for defense use. The operating system used in defense is the foundation of its overall integrity. The operating system controls all of a system's functions, communications, and security; if it is compromised, an enemy can...

neilgunton.com / open_source_myths / Open Source Myths Thoughts on some frequently-stated dogma promoted by the Open Source community Copyright © 2004 by Neil Gunton Last updated: Mon Jul 26 08:43:56 2004 CDT This document collects some of my thoughts regarding some of the "conventional wisdom" that people seem to take as Gospel Truth about Open Source software (OSS) and software development in general. This is NOT intended to be "anti-OSS", but rather to generate real thought and discussion as opposed to the constant mindless re-iteration of the same old tired dogma. I fully realize that this will be controversial...

You might not think that Citizens Against Government Waste would be playing up the cost benefits of proprietary software for use by government, but the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization did just that with a recent press release. Praising the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its memorandum urging agencies to consider the total cost of ownership including lifecycle maintenance, risk, and ensuring security when acquiring software, CAGW indicated that open source can cost more. CAGW President Tom Schatz said people mistakenly refer to open source as free software because it can be freely altered and distributed, yet while the...

PARIS, Jul 13 (IPS) - Many European public administrations are distancing themselves from the U.S. software giant Microsoft and turning to free software. The Paris city administration has announced it is considering replacing its Microsoft systems with public domain software such as Linux, OpenOffice and Mozilla. The overhaul of the city's data processing systems would entail acquiring some 15,000 new computers with the new software by 2008. Microsoft said in January the change would cost Paris 15 million dollars, and offered a 60 percent discount on its own systems. That reduction would bring costs down to less than seven million...

According to the French publication Libération, the objective of Microsoft is clear: at the time when an increasing number of public administrations around the world are choosing to use free and open source software, Microsoft considers losing the City of Paris to open source out of question. And they'll do anything they can to prevent it. According to a document to which Libération had access, Microsoft proposed a price reduction of almost 60% to the Paris city leaders for the 15,000-computer city contract. The battle around the city's software was precipitated by the arrival of Mayor Betrand Delanoë's team at...

Open source has expanded into the political world, with open software powering the online operations of the Democratic National Committee and Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. The DNC has embraced open source to run its online operation, including outreach and fund raising, and has been working on this front since 2001 with New York-based consultant Plus Three LP. This week, the DNC will launch, at www.democrats.org, the third version of its Web site, which is designed to mobilize voters on a national and grass-roots level, grow the party's online database, and raise funds, said David Brunton, Plus Three's vice president...

Mozilla 1.7 Web-browser built for 2004, advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple -- all your Internet needs in one application. Navigator Tabbed browsing gives you a better way to surf the net. You no longer have to open one page at a time. With tabbed browsing, open several pages at once with one click. And now your homepage can be multiple tabbed pages.Popup blockerlets you surf the web without intrusion. Advanced popup blocker notifies you when popups are blocked. You can also block pop-ups on a site per site basis.Image Manager lets you...

Mozilla is a web browser that is essentially what used to be Netscape. There are many reasons to dislike Mozilla. The fact that it is slow, hogs up resources and is unusable is probably enough of a reason not to use it. You can also add promotion of mass murder to the list. At the Mozilla Party website you get a good look at their logo. I suspect the only way to make the developers of Mozilla realize there is nothing cool about communism is by sending them to North Korea to die. Not to many people actually use Mozilla,...

A Really Open Election By CLIVE THOMPSON Published: May 30, 2004 This fall, as many as 20 percent of American voters will be able to cast their ballots on A.T.M.-style electronic voting machines. But to put it mildly, these machines -- where you simply touch a screen and a computer registers your vote -- have not inspired much confidence lately. North Carolina officials recently learned that a software glitch destroyed 436 e-ballots in early voting for the 2002 general election. In a Florida state election this past January, 134 votes apparently weren't recorded -- and this was in a...

On Monday, 24 May 2004 I found the following note in my inbox: Justin Orndorff : > Attached is an upcoming book to be put out by the > Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (www.adti.net). If > you're receiving this mail then we've probably been in > touch before now, regarding our research. > > Questions / comments / concerns should be directed to > Ken Brown - kenbrown@adti.net > > Have a great weekend, > Justin Orndorff Attached to it was a 92-page PDF that described itself as excerpts from Samizdat: And Other Issues Regarding the `Source' of Open Source...

Man AdTI Hired to Compare Minix/Linux Found No Copied Code Thursday, May 27 2004 @ 05:01 PM EDT Andrew Tanenbaum has published the most remarkable email from the man hired by Ken Brown to do a line-by-line comparison of Minix and Linux, Alexey Toptygin, who summarizes his findings and posts them on the Internet: "Around the middle of April, I was contacted by a friend of mine who asked me if I wanted to do some code analysis on a consultancy basis for his boss, Ken Brown. I ended up doing about 10 hours of work, comparing early versions...

Ken Brown's forthcoming book, published by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, is embarrassingly mistitled Samizdat: And Other Issues Regarding the 'Source' Of Open Source Code. No doubt you've heard of it by now, although more than likely you've only heard Andy Tanenbaum and others respond to it more than anything else. It's basically the world's largest troll, seasoned with more than a hint of flamebait. In the history of publishing there has never been a less scrupulous work than this book. It's a stinging insult to real books and genuine authors everywhere, harming the credibility of all of us who...

The copyright laws give an author exclusive rights to make derivative works. Creating a derivative work is a copyright infringement absent some license from the author -- or current copyright holder -- of the original work. Software is no different. Most of us are afraid of getting infected with a virus, whether it comes from a common cold or an attachment in our e-mail. Are open-source licenses viral in nature? Can they infect downstream users? The question is the subject of considerable debate. Companies refer to open-source software as "potentially viral software" in the end-user licenses that accompany their proprietary...

For the second time in as many months, Microsoft (Quote, Chart) has published source code for one of its projects on SourceForge, the world's largest open-source software development repository. The software giant announced plans to release the Windows Template Library (WTL) project on SourceForge under an externally created open-source license. The idea is to encourage a larger pool of developers to tinker with the code and improve the bug-finding process. The WTL is a lightweight windowing C++ (define) template library that allows the creation of simple Windows GUI interfaces on Windows applications. According to Jason Matusow, manager of the Microsoft's...

Why The Markets Still Don't Trust Linux Linux has only recently begun to regain credibility in the financial markets since its speculative debut. However, its licensing model, hefty competition, and lack of maturity still worry investors. Companies such as Red Hat, long past its 1999 speculative highs, are slowly gaining ground while other Linux companies, such as Linspire, are planning initial public offerings. Is Linux finally becoming a viable alternative to proprietary operating systems, or is this rise simply a byproduct of a mini-tech bubble? The past and present of Linux in the markets The infamous Linux debut came from...

Microsoft's Australian MD Steve Vamos has revealed the latest line in its battle against Linux: Linux, it seems, is not open source. As the concept of open-source takes hold, not only with fanatical individuals but with governments across the world who like the idea of a freely accessible source code, Microsoft is attempting to drive a wedge between the idea of open source and the reality of Linux. Stressing that Linux is "not free", Vamos said open source is a development methodology that should not be confused with the commercial nature of Linux distributions. "Open source is not [solely] Linux,"...