☞ Not In Your Name?

Posted on March 14, 2010 by Simon Phipps
  • U.S. on ACTA: Full Steam Ahead
    "The U.S. position for the moment appears closer to 'take it or leave it' with the bet that many ACTA partners will see little political alternative but to take it." — I agree that's likely to be what the US "negotiators" think, but they surely have to take seriously the threat posed by the vote this week in Europe, which could mean not one country but a whole bloc refusing to ratify the treaty. The ACTA strategy relies on a fait accomplis that no nation can afford to refuse; having 26 nations refuse calls the bluff on that strategy.

    US citizens: Is this really what you want done in your name? Do your representatives know how you feel about it?

    (tags: ACTA USA Rights Europe Copyright Freedom Abuse Treaty)
  • Project Wonderland finds new home
    The wonderful thing about open source is that once softweare has been set free it can find new ways of being useful and evolving even if its original benefactors go away. I'm delighted to see Project Wonderland from Sun Labs finding a new home like this. I hope the other projects that are being put out to grass find similarly enthusiastic homes.
    (tags: virtualworlds wonderland Sun Foundation FOSS OpenSource)
  • Short blasts of exercise as good as hours of training
    Hopefully this includes chopping firewood.
    (tags: Health Exercise)

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✍ OpenSolaris Governing Board

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Simon Phipps

OpenSolaris Logo§ I am standing in the election for the OpenSolaris Governing Board one last time (this would be my third consecutive term if elected, so it has to be the last time). Each term has been quite different to the others, and I have no doubt this next year will be very different again for the OpenSolaris community.

Since I no longer work at Sun, I’d like to make clear what my “platform” is in this election in addition to my candidate statement. Continue reading →

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✍ Last Day At Sun

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Simon Phipps

Key West Sunset

Today is my last day of employment at Sun (well, it became Oracle on March 1st in the UK but you know what I mean). I am a few months short of my 10th anniversary there (I joined at JavaOne in 2000) and my 5th anniversary as Chief Open Source Officer. I hope you’ll forgive a little reminiscence. Continue reading →

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☞ End-Times?

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Simon Phipps

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✍ Condemning Developing Nations By Deception

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Simon Phipps

Turkey Vulture§ A recent blog posting at The Guardian about the US “Special 301” rules has generated deep concern around the global open source community. It points (via a blog posting by Edinburgh University law lecturer Andres Guadamuz) to this year’s recommendations from the controversially-named International Intellectual Property Alliance, which describes itself as “a private sector coalition… of trade associations representing U.S. copyright-based industries” – namely

“the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)”.

As well as representing a group of organisations with dreadful reputations for disregarding citizen liberty and victimising customers, the organisation’s activities involve engagement with WIPO, activity over TRIPS and ACTA and this “Special 301” review. That is certainly enough to make each of their statements subject to scrutiny. IIPA provides a vehicle that allows companies who are members of its member organisations – that’s a double-opaque arrangement – to exercise influence without accountability and with deniability. Continue reading →

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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.

    © 2010-23, Simon Phipps. All rights reserved, all wrongs righted. Unless otherwise credited all photographs, videos and other media are included in this statement. Some photographs are available for licensing via iStockPhoto. To contact the author, please use the e-mail form.