Do you find open source licenses a puzzle? Does reading stories about the legal side of open source give you the heebie-jeebies? If so, then we have the document for you.
A couple of years ago, I was bemoaning the fact that I’d gone from writing about technology to the law. Lord knows I hadn’t planned on it. I’d come into technology journalism by being able to translate from techno-babble to English.

Patents? Copyrights? Trademarks? Ten years ago, I knew next to nothing about IP (intellectual property) law. Today, well I still don’t know that much, but at least I know who to ask to get the right information, anyway.Unfortunately, today, if you do anything with open source, you really need to know a little something about IP law. Or, at least, you need to know a bit about the GNU GPL (General Public License).More on LinuxWatch

Ubuntu fans rejoice! The first beta of the next Ubuntu 7.10, aka “Gutsy Gibbon,” arrived on Sept. 27, complete with corresponding releases of its variants: Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu desktop editions, as well as a server edition.

Gutsy Gibbon continues Ubuntu‘s tradition of combining its own code with Debian, by integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a cutting-edge user-friendly Linux distribution. While best known as a desktop distribution, Ubuntu 7.10 also includes significant improvements to its server side.

Starting with the desktop, though, Ubuntu has moved to the brand spanking new GNOME 2.20 for its primary desktop environment. Ubuntu developers have also decided to enable Compiz Fusion, with its 3D desktop and translucent windows visual effects, by default. Ubuntu 7.10 tries to automatically detect whether the hardware is capable of running compiz; if not, it falls back to the normal GNOME desktop. You can also disable the effects entirely, or enable additional effects can be enabled in “System/Preferences/Appearance” under the “Visual Effects” tab.

Compiz Fusion is a very new open-source project. It builds on top of the Compiz compositing windows manager foundation. To this, Compiz Fusion adds features from the, now merged with Compiz, Beryl composite window manager and Compiz Extras, a community set of improvements to Compiz.
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Google has secret plans to put out its own open source software license, according to this story in The Register. Apparently, Google’s efforts will center around developing a simplified open source license that makes it easier for developers to stay “within the spirit” of the license in addition to the law. Chris DiBona at Google was asked about the plans but won’t budge with details yet. Still, The Register claims that Google’s efforts could improve the license proliferation issues facing the OSI.”
More on the podcast at The Register

Novell have relaunched the Linux Driver Project by dedicating well-known kernel developer Greg KH to work on the project full-time. Greg KH writes: ‘My employer, Novell, has modified my position to now allow me to work full time on this project. Namely getting more new Linux kernel drivers written, for free, for any company that so desires. And to help manage all of the developers and project managers who want to help out…They really care about helping make Linux support as many devices as possible, with fully open-source drivers.’”

More on Greg’s Blog

As part of a PR stunt, a Washington Linux user group is holding a “Nerd Auction” and appealing to local sororities to exchange dates and makeover advice for their computer skills and homework assistance. ‘The problem is that we’re all still nerds. Let’s face it, guys. If anyone’s going to bid on us, we’ll need some spicing up,’ writes Washington State Linux Users Group president Ben Ford on the group’s website. ‘And who better to help with that than sorority girls who like nothing better than a makeover?’ So far there has been no comment on how a Linux user group is going to help sorority girls with their Windows machines

Novell’s Linux business has soared 243 percent since last November when the company signed its controversial deal with Microsoft.

“The affect on sales year over year, for Novell’s first three quarters of our fiscal year, which ends Oct. 31 — our Linux business was up 243 percent year over year,” said Justin Steinman, director of marketing at Novell, who, along with executives from both companies, spoke at a program hosted by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.

And, that growth doesn’t seem to be short-lived.

“We’re continuing to see above market growth year [over] year and that clearly has resulted in the 243 percent Justin alluded to,” said Susan Heystee, general manager, Global Strategic Alliance, at Novell.

Last November, the two companies struck a collaboration deal under which Microsoft is supporting SUSE Linux on systems that run Windows to make it easier for users to incorporate both operating systems. As part of the deal, Microsoft is offering sales support for SUSE Linux and will also co-develop technologies with Novell.

Steinman said part of its growth was directly related to the Microsoft deal, adding that Novell has billed more than US$100 million in business through its Microsoft relationship. He added that the growth was also due to the halo effect of the arrangement.

“When we’re out there competing with Red Hat, [our salespeople] are saying, ‘Our Linux is recommended by Microsoft,’ and customers that already have a Windows investment say it seems to make sense to pick the Linux that works with Windows.”

Microsoft, however, wasn’t quite ready to declare financial victory.

Peter Rodriques, director of intellectual property and Licensing at Microsoft, said he wasn’t prepared to say that Microsoft has generated more revenue than it would have without the agreement with Novell. But he said he was declaring victory in terms of the partnership in general.

Source: PCWorld

Very few people lie awake at night fretting over their choice of mobile operating system. In fact, very few people even know what operating system their handset uses.

Yet, despite this (probably healthy) level of ignorance, a quiet revolution is taking place in the mobile industry. Linux, the platform of choice for servers and geekier desktops the world over, is slowly winding its way onto the high-end smartphone, although no-one is really certain what it will look like when it gets there.

Part of the problem — although some would no doubt view it as a strength — is the number of organisations pushing mobile Linux. There are two main industry groupings dedicated to the cause: the Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation and the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum. Some companies are members of both. Others belong to one of the groups, but are implementing their own flavours of mobile Linux. It is little wonder that mobile Linux’s chances of making inroads in the enterprise space have been played down by some very vocal critics.

Symbian, which does have a foothold in enterprise, thanks largely to its work with Nokia, took aim at the open-source operating system in July, when its head of enterprise business market development, Andrew Moran, dubbed mobile Linux “fragmentation city” and claimed it was “completely unfeasible” for business use. But then, Symbian is hardly likely to welcome Linux with open arms.

More on ZDNet

Contrary to previous reports, it would seem the lawsuit against Monsoon Multimedia for violating the GNU General Public License (GPL) in its distribution of BusyBox may not be headed for a quick settlement. Nor will the settlement necessarily be out-of-court.

Yesterday, Monsoon issued a news release that announced that the company was in “settlement negotiations with BusyBox.” Graham Radstone, Monsoon chairman and chief operating officer, said, “Since we intend to and always intended to comply with all open source software license requirements, we are confident that the matter will be quickly resolved.”

However, Daniel B. Ravicher, legal director of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), which filed the suit on behalf of BusyBox, is more cautious.

“I can confirm that we are discussing settlement,” Ravicher says, “but — contrary to what many in the press seem to believe — no agreement has been reached. Simply coming into compliance now is not sufficient to settle the matter, because that would mean anyone can violate the license until caught, because the only punishment would be to come into compliance.”

In the past, both the Free Software Foundation and the SFLC, the two main defenders of the GPL in North America, have preferred working with companies found in violation of the license to taking them to court. However, now that a case has actually gone to court, the SFLC is apparently less forgiving.

“I can’t discuss the details of what additional things are being sought by our clients, but hopefully we’ll be able to shed light on that if and when we do reach an agreement,” Ravicher says.

Source: Linux.com

The first U.S. GPL-related lawsuit appears to be headed for a quick out-of-court settlement. Monsoon Multimedia admitted today that it had violated the GPLv2 (GNU General Public License version 2), and said it will release its modified BusyBox code in full compliance with the license.

Monsoon Multimedia has stated that it is currently in settlement negotiations with the BusyBox project to resolve the matter without going to court. The company also said in a statement that it intends to fully comply with all open-source software license requirements. The company plans to make its modified BusyBox source code publicly available on on its website in the coming weeks, it said.

This matter came to the public attention when the SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) announced on Sept. 20 that it had just filed the first-ever U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of the GPL on behalf of its clients, BusyBox’s two principal developers. GPLv2-licensed BusyBox is a small-footprint application that implements a lightweight set of standard Unix utilities. It is commonly used in embedded systems.

Monsoon makes consumer devices primarily for home multimedia users. Its line includes such products as Hava, a place- and time-shifting TV recorder. This is an embedded Linux device that’s similar to the Slingbox. The company also offers SnappySoft, Windows Media Center video capture software.

Source: LinuxWatch

Last week, AMD released register specifications for the RV630 and M56 parts into open source, thus allowing the OSS community to develop 2D (and theoretically 3D) drivers, given time. Current documentation for the project is available over at X.Org.

Now, eight days later, Novell has released an alpha-quality driver for the R6XX and R5XX series of cards. The current alpha allows for initial mode settings, and the devs plan to add support for additional hardware, RandR 1.2, video overlay support, and 2D acceleration. More information is available at the openSUSE blog, and the driver is available for multiple distribution packages—Fedora, Mandriva, and SUSE Linux Enterprise. The Linux userbase has called for open sourced drivers from the major manufacturers for years. Obviously AMD/ATI’s source code release is only one step towards such a development, and current work is focused on 2D, rather than 3D acceleration, but this type of information sharing could conceivably lead to an OSS 3D driver, given enough time and effort.

Given that ATi users generally have had problems under Linux due to ATi’s non disclosure of hardware details, and volunteers having to reverse engineer to get ussable drivers, this should hopefully reduce ATi users’ frustrations.

Source: Joel Hruska from Ars Technica