A new show called “Questions Please…” has distributed episode #1 in Ogg Vorbis format under a license that allows verbatim distribution (“Verbatim copying and distribution of these entire recordings are permitted worldwide without royalty provided this notice is preserved.”). Jonathan Roberts, the host, interviews Richard Stallman, Jeremy Allison and Jeff Waugh in this episode.
There [...]
Ubuntu GNU/Linux’s Benjamin Mako Hill writes that he’s “perplexed by the recent fracas around the possibility of Ubuntu shipping non-free drivers by default as part of the feisty release goal to bring the bling“. “Feisty” is the codename for the next major release of Ubuntu GNU/Linux and “bring the bling” refers to splashy video [...]
Three times a year the US Copyright Office reviews applications for exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This time, the office has granted 6 new exemptions, the largest number they’ve granted so far. EFF has the details on the new exemptions.
One new exemption I’d like to draw your attention to:
Computer programs and [...]
Read this article on the myths Americans spread about the Canadian health care system.
One of these myths reminded me of a response I gave to Rep. Timothy V. Johnson (R-IL) a few years ago on a call-in TV talk show when I heard him spreading the lie that hospital waiting lists are so horrible they [...]
Sun Microsystems says they’ll release their Java runtime software under the GPL. They haven’t done this yet, so there isn’t much to celebrate now. But in 2007, Sun’s Java ME, Java SE, and Java EE should be released under the most widely used free software license.
If this happens, many thanks are due to [...]
Prof. Eben Moglen says that GPLv3 will prevent a user’s loss of freedom in light of the details of the Novell-Microsoft deal.
Microsoft claims that the Linux kernel infringes on many of Microsoft’s patents. Microsoft would love to be a gatekeeper telling which Linux kernel users can continue to use Linux and which can’t by [...]
Alberto Milone is looking for a new video card. Why? Because the driver software he chose to run his current video card doesn’t work anymore.
My old ATI card is not supported any more by the ATI driver (fglrx) since version 8.28.8.
One wonders why treatment like this deserves the name “support”. If ATI [...]
Lizzie pointed me to the Guardian’s interesting article on passport security—digital passports make it easier to pose as someone else. No need to steal someone’s passport when you can duplicate it and travel as someone else. Also interesting from a privacy angle: broadcasting passport data via RFID “up to a few meters [...] [...]
Bradley Kuhn, former Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation now Chief Technology Officer for the Software Freedom Law Center has published his take on the Microsoft patent pledge—useless to free software developers because of what they must do to qualify to use it at all, worse than useless for those who feel safe because [...]
According to many on CommonDreams.org, this US mid-term election just passed was a referendum on Iraq, even if you had no genuine referenda on your ballot specifically asking about Iraq.
According to the AP/Edison exit poll, it would be more accurate to say this election was a referendum on the economy and the Iraq war weighed [...]
GNU Software Freedom Law Center FSF blogs Electronic Frontier Foundation Nina Paley