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Filed under: Video, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Microsoft, Open Source, DLS Interviews, DLS Podcast, Podcasts

DLS Interview: Free Software Foundation's Peter Brown



As we mentioned on Monday, the Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design campaign against DRM paid the U.K. a visit yesterday with protests outside the BBC's London and Manchester locations against the use of Microsoft DRM technology in their highly debated iPlayer software.

The BBC iPlayer has been in development for a number of years now, costing the BBC public £130 million (nearly $260 million) to date. The use of Microsoft's DRM technology has been highly contentious, especially with the appointment of Erik Huggers (previously director of Microsoft's Windows Digital Media division whose technology the BBC now employs in their iPlayer software) as controller of the BBC's future media and technology group which is managing the iPlayer project.

The BBC is a publicly funded body, governed by the BBC Trust who protect, amongst other things, open access and independence form corporate influence. The BBC has been told to make the player platform independent, however Mac and Linux users are likely to be out in the cold for some time.

Download Squad decided to visit the protest and spoke to Peter Brown, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, about the reasoning behind the protests and what the campaigns hopes for the future. We've made the interview available either as a text transcript after the break, or via the Download Squad podcast feed.

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Filed under: News, Linux, Microsoft, Open Source

Microsoft: open source software infringes on 235 patents

PC v LinuxFortune Magazine has a detailed article examining Microsoft's relationship to free and open source software. Although the story reads mostly as a history of Microsoft, Linux, and GNU, there are a few interesting new tidbits, including the number of patents Microsoft claims Linux and other free software infringes on: 235.

Microsoft holds thousands of patents for its software, and won't say exactly which bits of code violate which patents. But apparently the Linux kernel alone violates 42 patents, while the Linux graphical user interface infringes on another 65. Microsoft says Open Office violates 45 patents.

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