Joi Ito points to an article on “How News Travels on the Internet.” It’s an interesting view of the universe, but a bit self-centered, I suspect, and probably better titled “How News Travels through the Blogosphere.” For the few of us active participants, there are millions of folks going about their daily livves unaware of blog’s existence, save an odd reference in the news once in a while.
Archive | November 23, 2004
Microsoft v. Linux patent update
Meant to update last week’s posting, but it slipped through. In eWeek on Saturday, the author of the original study on Linux and possible patent violations took Microsoft to task for misrepresenting the findings of that study:
“Open source faces no more, if not less, legal risk than proprietary software. The market needs to understand that the study Microsoft is citing actually proves the opposite of what they claim it does.”
NoSoftwarePatents.com
The web site of NoSoftwarePatents.com presents strong arguments why patents will badly damage the software industry. Copyrights are an appropriate mechanism to protect source code. Patents are for unique inventions, not the evolutionary progress that characterizes the progress of software.
Slashdot highlights the appeal from three of the key leaders of the Free and Open Software movement: Linus Torvalds of Linux, Monty Widenius of MySQL and Rasmus Lerdorf of PHP. Patents prevent progress.
Color printers embed their serial number in every printout
Did you know that some color printers embed the printer serial number in every printout? I’m astounded that this intrusion on our privacy wasn’t ever brought to light before. While I don’t intend to use my printer for ransom notes (at least not now!), this could have a chilling effect on whistleblowers and on protesters trying to avoid oppresive governments. Disturbing…