We were in London yesterday on our way back from a family celebration (congratulations Alastair!) and were lucky enough to have great tickets for Imogen Heap’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall. I’ve uploaded a sample of photos from the concert as well as (since it was a “cameras permitted” event) a video of one of the songs.
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My essay on the open core business model is now available in the Essays section.
Filed under: Webmink | Tagged: Essays | Comments Off on ☂ Open Core Essay Posted
“The founders of Google have said they could never have started their company in Britain. … Over there [in the US], they have what are called ‘fair-use’ provisions, which some people believe gives companies more breathing space to create new products and services. So I can announce today that we are reviewing our IP laws, to see if we can make them fit for the internet age. I want to encourage the sort of creative innovation that exists in America.”
If this actually leads to liberty-enhancing changes to the UK’s laws, them I’m delighted. But the track record of this government so far has been to announce good things and then actually do bad things – LibDem spin shamelessly disguising old-fashioned Tory policies.
I greatly fear this moment being seized by corporate interests to introduce draconian enforcement measures and easier patenting to “balance” the introduction of fair-use provisions. Those provisions sound more like “safe harbour” than “fair use” anyway and are framed suspiciously as if they are only to benefit business and not citizens. We need to watch this like hawks.
Also:
“Android has gone through versions 1.6, 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2, with version 2.3 expected some time in the fourth quarter of the year, version 3.0 expected in early 2011, and version 4.0 rumored to ready some time around the middle of 2011.Making the equivalent changes to Windows could take close to a decade. Working that slowly simply doesn’t work anymore; technology and the world change too fast. “
Filed under: Copyright, Links | 1 Comment »
“To summarize:
- The App Store terms apply to GPLed software in the App Store.
- Those terms force strict Usage Rules on customers that prohibit many activities that are allowed under the GPL.
- Those restrictions are not allowed under GPLv2 section 6.”
In a posting to the VLC mailing list Brett Smith gives expert advice on the compatibility of the GPL and the App Store’s rules. Ultimately this conflict arises because of Apple’s desire to place what it regards as “fair use restrictions” based on the assumption that everything is proprietary. They could pretty easily fix it by adding an open source exception to the terms. Paging Ernie Prabhakar…
Also:
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My essay explaining why DRM (Digital Restriction Measures) are toxic to culture is now available in the Essays section.
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I’ve written previously about the freedom to leave, but there’s another value delivered by the liberties open source provides, one which it would even be worth paying extra to get. When your vendor changes direction, what do you do?
With open source software, there’s an option proprietary software can’t offer, one that it might even be worth paying extra to obtain. As long as it’s really open source and not compromised in some way, the community around the free-software commons can just “Rehost And Carry On“. Another company can step in to take the lead, or in the case that the project was already a truly diverse co-development community like PostgreSQL or an Apache community, there will already be a choice of alternatives available.
[Continue to read over at ComputerWorldUK…]
Filed under: Open Source | Tagged: CWUK | Comments Off on ☝ Community Escrow
There was such a lot of interest in the “Rehost and Carry On” graphic I mocked up for an article a while
back that I’ve just created a CafePress store with t-shirts, mugs and other stuff. They make perfect gifts 🙂
The image itself was created by adapting a public-domain design from Wikipedia, itself a representation of a second world war British information poster. Over here in the UK the design is pretty iconic, no idea about the rest of the world.
The message behind it is that, when the open source project you depend upon goes seriously bad and you can all see it, the four freedoms – to use software for any purpose, study the source code, modify it to better suit your needs and distribute the result – mean you can just take the source code, rehost it somewhere that the problem you are facing isn’t in the way and all carry on as if nothing had happened. Some may call it a fork (and yes, it is) but when everyone agrees apart from the one who is messing it all up, it’s also a rehost. So don’t panic. Keep Calm, Rehost and Carry On.
Filed under: Webmink | Tagged: CafePress | 1 Comment »
The last week has provided a number of interesting – and perhaps surprising – case studies in corporate engagement with open source. This Monday’s Link Post takes a look at Microsoft and Silverlight, Symbian, Oracle and Java and Canonical and GNOME, over at ComputerWorldUK.
Filed under: Open Source | Tagged: Canonical, CWUK, GNOME, Java, Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, Symbian, Ubuntu | Comments Off on ☝ Corporate Open Source Case Studies
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All views expressed on this blog are those of Simon Phipps and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other entity, including current and former employers and clients. See my full disclosure of interests.
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