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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.

Filed under: Text, Video, Freeware, Open Source

Free Me! free culture primer available as a DVD ISO

Free MeSay you want to introduce people to the benefits of free (as in speech and sometimes as in beer) culture. What better way than to take a whole bunch of freely distributed files, pack them together onto a DVD and give it away?

The Free Me! DVD packs an awful lot onto a single disc. You get:
  • An Ubuntu Linux LiveCD
  • A bunch of movies that will play in a DVD player
  • A whole slew of public domain ebooks that are no longer bound by copyright
  • Several eBooks that are distributed with a Creative Commons license, including works by Richard Stallman and Lawrence Lessig.
Hard copies of the DVD will eventually be available for limited distribution, but a downloadable ISO is already available.

[via Boing Boing]

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Apple, Microsoft, Open Source

Interview with DefectiveByDesign on TDMW

DefectiveByDesign protests at the Apple Store in Boston, MAThe Haz-Mat suited activists of DefectiveByDesign gained quite a bit of exposure when they waltzed into Apple stores across the country carrying signs and informing customers about the rights they give up when buying DRM controlled music from the iTunes Music Store.

Our sister site, The Digital Music Weblog (she prefers to be called TDMW for short) caught up with the crafty folks at DefectiveByDesign for an interview about Digital Rights Management. DefectiveByDesign is an offshoot of the Free Software Foundation, the non-profit organization that maintains and defends the GNU General Public License, better known for providing the legal framework under which the myriad Linux distributions exist.

If you have any concerns about your rights in a digitally encoded future, you should read this interview. The folks at DefectiveByDesign aren't alone when they predict a bleak digital landscape ahead, where the content providers and device manufacturers are able to lock you in, and keep you from buying competing products by holding your media hostage.

Filed under: Open Source

First draft of GPL version 3 available online

GNUAs reported last month, this year will see the first update of the GNU General Public License—the license employed by, depending on who you ask, half to three-fourths of all free software—since 1991, and the Free Software Foundation has posted the first draft of the new GPLv3. It's no easy read, but luckily there's a Rationale Document that describes all of the changes in the new version of the license and the rationale behind them. The GPLv3 attempts to fill the gaps that were beginning to show as the march of technology, and even moreso, law left the fifteen-year-old document behind. The FSF is soliciting comments from the public on the changes in GPLv3, so go ahead and tell them what you think.

[Via Slashdot]

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

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