Tech Update

The climate is dismal...

The mainstream media continues to pretend that the biggest media issue of our day isn't newsworthy. Why? Hmmm... because it's not in their best interest to report on it? Maybe?

openTV of One-Click fame may have found a new IP fight. According to Dan Gillmore, the FSF claims they are violating the GPL.

I can relate to and completely agree with his last 2 paragraphs:

Some people I respect say the GPL is a bad idea, period. They say it's too restrictive of programmers' rights, in the sense of forcing them to open what they've done to the world. Fine: If you don't like the GPL, don't create software from code that used it in the first place. Then put different licensing terms on what you've done.

But legal agreements are supposed to matter in our system. Just because the GPL turns the idea of intellectual property somewhat around doesn't make it less valid.

Of course, as a GPL fan, I would almost like to see this go to court so that the GPL could be legitamized. But, I'm also fearful that our courts may let me down.

I can't write about courts letting me down without thinking of Microsoft, and how their new friendship with SCO is ridiculously suspicious, in light of the history between SCO(Caldera) and Microsoft.

The bright spot today is that the good people at the W3C have done something to stop the egregious abuse of the patent system in conjunction with standards committees.

Back to work.