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Urgent: ICT Toolsets Initiative - funding opportunity - deadline Sept. 30 (fwd)
by MJ Ray 18 Sep '03

18 Sep '03

I don't believe that I have seen this mentioned here. Apologies if I am wrong. I am told that http://www.soros.org/ip/areas.php?id=48 may also be of interest. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 2003-09-18 14:30:57 +0100 From: Nabil El-Khodari <webmaster(a)nilebasin.com> Subject: [AFLUG] Urgent: ICT Toolsets Initiative - funding opportunity - deadline Sept. 30 ICT Toolsets Initiative: The Open Society Institute's Information Program has issued a request for proposals for a new grant program. The ICT Toolsets Initiative seeks to advance open society principles and practices by funding the development of software tools specifically designed to meet the mission and objectives of civil society organizations and actors. Please send all project proposals to toolsets(a)osieurope.org by the deadline of September 30, 2003. Read more about the submission requirements at: http://www.soros.org/ip/news.php Sincerely, Nabil El-Khodari CEO Nile Basin Society -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef(a)jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

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Satellite-Transmission! ; ) Re: Software patents conference in Brussels
by Robert Michel 16 Sep '03

16 Sep '03

Salve FSF-friends, "SOFTWARE PATENTS : THE CHOICE IS YOURS" Europe by satellite will be broadcast the Press conference live at 15:00h via Eutelsat digital, and internet livestream in 11 languages: "Software patents: for you to decide" : Press conference prior to EP vote at September II plenary session - Participants :Daniel Marc COHN-BENDIT, Raina Mercedes ECHERER, Danielle AUROI, Neil MacCORMICK, Jim MURRAY, Director of the BEUC, Paul KLINT, President of the EAPLS, Hakon WIUM LIE, CEO of OPERA - Information Society (European Parliament, Brussels) (EPRef-30976) |OR|EN|FR|DE|IT|ES|EL|PT|NL|DA|FI|SV| This material is free of charge, you can record the DVB-S singnal put it on your server. To get all translation we should coordinate who can record which language, or is able to record the whole stream at once. Satellite receiving information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/reception_en.html Internet-stream receiving information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/reception_internet_en.html The Realmedia stream will be avialabel on demand from 17.09. to 24.09.2003 on the EbS server. The conference is not recorded and I will do my best to do it. BUT when you going to BXL and you have a video cam, recorded it, too. When you have experinaces with video editing, and you like to help me, please send me a PM. Greetings rob

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RE: Another excellent reason why laws for software need rewriting
by Adrian Hill 11 Sep '03

11 Sep '03

> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/32730.html > > I had thought everyone would have automatically realised this, but it > seems not. This IS globalisation and it doesn't just happen to > software. > > If all software had to mandatorily come with source, it would be very > hard to sell much of a product which ripped off someone else's code. > This would force people to spread the profit to those who wrote it > which IMHO is only fair. Yeah, I agree. It adds far more transparency and accountability to stuff like this. Unfortunatly, the laws between countries will be different, and so including source with a program would make it even easier for IP-violators to rip off source code. The authour states that he gets the least sales per evaluations for developing countries, and seems to draw the conclusion that those countries do not really care about IP-theft, as it is damaging another countrys' GDP. Maybe, just my badly thought out 2penniesworth. Cheers, Adrian. PS: Wern't you talking about this earlier BTW m8? http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/9/10/8631/31257 PPS: Also, tell me what you think of this (OT: It's a 11/9 op-ed piece - very good though IMO). http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/9/10/22402/7194

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BBC Article about Linux SCO and Copyrights - BBC calls for statements
by Robert Michel 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

Salve FSF-Europe, I don`t want to bother you with SCO, but BBC is calling for comments, & maybe some of you like to answer to this BBC article: BBC Technologie Friday, 29 August, 2003, 13:43 GMT 14:43 UK Linux community told to 'get real' The Linux community should come down from the moral high ground, says technology analyst Bill Thompson "Linux is a great operating system, and free software is a vital alternative to the buggy systems sold by Microsoft and other large companies. It is not perfect though, and it is not immune from copyright law just because it is morally superior. The Linux community needs to accept that this could be a real problem, and put processes in place to make sure it cannot happen instead of simply dismissing all criticism as unfounded. " This statement is quite OK, but who is Bill Thompson? This BBC article sugesst that SCO has a Copyright - BTW SCOX is over 14$ high again. "Should the Linux community get off their high-horses and face the realities of copyright? Send us your comments:" Visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3191281.stm Greetings rob

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Re: [Fsfe-france] Anti-GPL advertisement
by Paul Marques Mota 10 Sep '03

10 Sep '03

[ IMHO, french articles have nothing to do on the french FSFE ml. Please respect the Reply-To: ] On Wed, Sep 10, 2003 at 09:20:43AM +0200, Loic Dachary wrote: > > Hi, > > I discovered an Anti-GPL based advertisement in a magazine today, > included in a 8 page article about Free Software. > > ACM Queue (tomorrow's computing today) Volume 1, Number 5 > > Here is the text of the full page, color advertisement (the > background image is of no interest): > > -- > Wasabi Systems: > Open Source without the GPL > > Open Source software has changed the face of embedded > systems. But Linux's GPL license has caused uncertainty, risks of > litigation, and exposure of sensitive intellectual property. In the early 90, the predecessor of NetBSD, the University of Berkeley, was sued by USL, the predecessor of SCO. Since USL has lost, they somehow may have a point when they imply that NetBSD cannot be targeted by silly lawsuits. But I'm afraid that an authoritative rebuttal will have to wait till the end of the SCO affair. > Is there > a better way? > > Wasabi's certified version of the NetBSD operating system > offers all the functionality of open source Unix, but without the > GPL. With Wasabi's BSD ports and products, OEMs can: > Since Wasabi Systems was founded by key members of the NetBSD project, you might want to write to a NetBSD mailing-list. Hum. http://www.netbsd.org/MailingLists/ suggest netbsd-advocacy. You may also point out that, unless they stop using gcc, binutils, gas and gdb it is not really free from the GPL. (A complete listing of all GPL packages without which NetBSD couldn't exist can be found here: http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/gnu/ ) > . Keep code, even kernel modifications, proprietary, thanks to the > BSD license > > . Leverage the features of Wasabi Workbench, a full-featured > development environment. > > . Rely on Wasabi's industry-leading BSD expertise > > . Obtain all the functionality of Linux, on more hardware > platforms, and with no GPL > > Contact us at info(a)wasabisystems.com, or visit us on the web > at www.wasabisystems.com, to learn more about Wasabi's solutions for > embedded OEMs. > > Wasabi Workbench (TM) . Certified NetBSD OS . Development Services . WasabiSCSI(TM) technology > > Loic Dachary, 12 bd Magenta, 75010 Paris. Tel: 33 1 42 45 07 97 -- Paul

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Another excellent reason why laws for software need rewriting
by Niall Douglas 09 Sep '03

09 Sep '03

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/32730.html I had thought everyone would have automatically realised this, but it seems not. This IS globalisation and it doesn't just happen to software. If all software had to mandatorily come with source, it would be very hard to sell much of a product which ripped off someone else's code. This would force people to spread the profit to those who wrote it which IMHO is only fair. Cheers, Niall

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Obelix./.MobiliX: Highest German Civil Court Dismissed the Case
by Werner Heuser 04 Sep '03

04 Sep '03

Obelix./.MobiliX: Highest German Civil Court Dismissed the Case The trademark case Obelix versus MobiliX - Linux On Mobile Computers was finally dismissed by the Bundesgerichtshof - BGH, the highest German civil court. Werner Heuser, owner of the trademark MobiliX and the domain mobilix.org - UniX On Mobile Computers, has lost the case, because the BGH rejected his request for an appeal. The BGH did not care to provide a detailed argumentation for their decision, the chamber merely quoted the appropriate part of the law. In his long and detailed argumentation to get a permission for an appeal, Prof. Dr. Achim Kraemer, lawyer of Werner Heuser, wrote: "The commercial usage of domain names leads already at the time of their registration to preventive reactions by holders of older trademarks, which claim their trademarks as violated. Particular risks exist for so-called word-trademarks, which contain parts of the common language, when they are combined with suffixes or prefixes used in certain groups. If trademarks are protected much too excessively, as the appeal court has done in our opinion, some very famous but fancy names may occupy a wide range of the language and it becomes impossible for anyone to create new word-trademarks." In autumn 2001 Les Edition Albert Rene, the owner of the trademark Obelix had charged Werner Heuser. He is the owner of the well-known open source project MobiliX ( now TuxMobil http://tuxmobil.org ) . This project provides plenty of information about UniX operating systems like Linux, BSD and Solaris on laptops, notebooks, PDAs and other mobile computers. Therefore he has chosen a name, which expresses this by a combination of the word "Mobile" and the common suffix "iX" taken from UniX(TM). The plaintiff asserts that Werner Heuser had chosen this name to take advantage of their well-known comic book character "Obelix" for which they own a trademark. This outcome of the charge is a great pity, not only for the Free Software movement, because it is one more example showing that the big-players become more and more capable to monopolize large parts of the language. In this case almost all trademarks and domains ending with the suffix "ix" are under threat. Another recent case is the German Telekom trying to monopolize all occurences of the letter "T" in logos and company names. They have even bought domains like t-wurst.de (transl. t-sausage), tsex.de and t-beutel.de (transl. t-bag) to protect their logo and to prevent others from using those domains. Also they charged some companies, which were using some kind of "T" in their logos, more at Free-T http://free-t.de (in German). A detailed documentation of the case, containing information about other projects under siege and the written statements of the lawyers JBB http://jbb.de , is available online at http://tuxmobil.org/mobilix_asterix.html /* * * Please help TuxMobil by updating BOOKMARKS FROM mobilix.org TO TuxMobil.org! * */ -- |=| Werner Heuser = Keplerstr. 11A = D-10589 Berlin = Germany |=| <wehe at tuxmobil.org> T. 0049 - (0)30 - 349 53 86 |=| http://TuxMobil.org UniX on Mobile Systems: HOWTOs,Software |*| This is no time for phony rhetoric -- Lou Reed

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FSF Europe at GNU/LinuxWorld Conference & Expo 2003 [en]
by Volker Dormeyer 02 Sep '03

02 Sep '03

Hello, the upcoming GNU/LinuxWorld Conference & Expo 2003 will be the next event where we will present the FSF Europe with a booth. The event is an important tradeshow around the Free Software (especially the GNU/Linux system) in Germany. It will take place from 27th - 29th of October 2003 in Frankfurt/Germany. We are looking for some volunteers interested in Free Software and willing to support us at our booth during GNU/LinuxWorld. The main work will be talk to visitors, answer their questions concerning many aspects of Free Software, do some merchandising and have fun. Please let me know if you are interested. Thanks Volker -- Volker Dormeyer <volker(a)ixolution.de>

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Re: IBM/SCO/GPL (Was: Re: (L)GPL remarks and FreeGIS licensing)
by edA-qa mort-ora-y 28 Aug '03

28 Aug '03

Alex Hudson wrote: > No, it's definitely not a contract. Copyright gives you a certain group > of rights. The GPL is basically waiving some of those rights (granting > the rights to the user) under certain conditions. A contract is a > two-way thing, a licence is a one-way thing (i.e., a grant from licensor > to licensee). I found a few references indicating that a license is a form of a contract: Check definition "license": http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/Intellectual_Property/Copyright_Guide/definit… And under here, it gives a few examples of how the "use rights" can be defined as a contract: http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/Digital_Content/Capture_Collections/legal_iss… Further government information likes to use the terms "agreement" as well, but in the Contract Law it uses the term "agreement" to define a contract. At best, the distrinction between a Copyright License and a Contract in Canada is unclear, leaning towards treating the license as a contract. But the GPL is not a one-way grant, because it puts additional onuses on you, should you wish to distribute it. Most licenses are also two-way: I grant you permission to copy, and you give me money. If you have truly created a condition free grant, that is still similar to a Deed Contract in Canada (though those have to be done "under seal"). > Ah, assignment of copyright is something completely different. In the > above, we're not assigning the copyright - we're licensing it. We still Sorry, slip of the hands, I meant licensing, not assignment, in many countries you aren't even allowed to assign your copyright (like in Germany -- but don't tell GEMA that, useless bastards). -- edA-qa mort-ora-y Idea Architect http://disemia.com/

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BlackOut2003 - "More sutainted Software/IT needed?"
by Robert Michel 25 Aug '03

25 Aug '03

Salve FSF-people! after the BlackOut 2003 the massmedia were only looking for symptomes for the big black out, but not for reasons why it was so big. So I started to do research on Saterday last week and now 7 days later non-stop working on it I fould a lot of facts like - the enegy industrie has a big problem with IT-security - that there have been a Slammer worm attack at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant on 25.01.2003 inside the control network[1] - there was no firewall between business and control network - power plants use Windows 2000 - SCADA, used for controll and comand case in the energie sector is not secure - SCADA use Port 135, the same as W32.Blaster - the EoD gave hints how to secure SCADA in 21 (!) steps - on 13.08.2003 the NERC anounced a "Cyber Security Standard" - power plants use unencrypted WLAN - there are important SCADA comunications over public internet - The Departemant of Homeland Security has call on blocking port 135 (when it is not realy needed for business) to power plants and ISPs -..... I will not say why it was - but the energy companies are in big IT-trouble! On the second look, this big problems are a big trouble for the IT branche, too. I fear that action which will now takes will conceal only the symptomes and will not solve the reasons. Actions of the Departemant of Homeland Security are also a likely danger that some IT-firms which are friends of the Bush-adminsitration, will influce the "Cyber Security Standard" and other actions in their interest. My result is that it is needed to call for "More sutainted Software" and IT solutions. I have a 70kB German text with English quotes written to be maby published at the online-magazin telepolis www.heise.de/tp What are your opinion about this? Would be great if some experiant German-reading person would contact me. And I would like feedback of a FSF-Speaker to answer me questions for this article. Greetings rob [1] -Go to http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html - Use "Advanced Search" -Search for "Davis-Besse" & Filter with "worm" - Press "Search" - Open " 1. (91) Davis-Besse - Worm Virus Infection E-Mail. ML031040567 2003-04-02 7 05000346 NPF-003 2003-04-02 2003-04-15 --------- FOR INFORMATION ONLY--------- WORM VIRUS INFECTION On January 25, 2003 a server on the Plant Network was thought to be infected with the MS- SQL Server Worm. The consequence of the infection was large amount

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