First U.S. GPL lawsuit filed

September 24, 2007 1 Comment

From Linux Watch:

For the first time in the U.S., a company and software vendor, Monsoon Multimedia, is being taken to court for a GPL violation. Previously, alleged GPL violations have all been settled by letters from the FSF (Free Software Foundation) or other open-source organizations, pointing out the violation.

The SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) announced on Sept. 20 that it had just filed the first ever U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of the GNU General Public License (GPL) on behalf of its clients. The group’s clients are the two principal developers of BusyBox. BusyBox is a small-footprint application that implements a lightweight set of standard Unix utilities. It is commonly used in embedded systems, and is open-source software licensed under the GPL version 2.

The developers of BusyBox came to the SFLC after trying to talk Monsoon into honoring the conditions of the GPLv2. Unsuccessful with this, the SFLC has filed suit on the developers’ behalf against Monsoon.

As you can guess, this news has been swirling around the blogosphere. While it is the first lawsuit to be filed, it looks unlikely that it will go to trial. It is interesting to note that the complaint asks not just for injunction (which has always been the presumed remedy for GPL infringement) but for financial damages. That could make the settlement a bit trickier. At any rate, while I find the attitude of the company’s rep odd, it seems clear they want to set things straight. Why odd you ask? He says:

I’ll have to contact the engineering team and see what the expected scope (level of effort) is and then balance it against our other development tasks. And when I know I will let you know.

You cannot balance legal obligations with development tasks. Looking at the entire thread, I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he was still learning the GPL (and the repercussion of breaking it). How the company responds in the next couple of days should give a pretty clear indication of how this is going to unfold. Let’s hope they do the right thing.

On a side note, I find it odd (or better put… disheartening, but not surprising) how many devices take advantage of Linux and Open Source without actually supporting Linux or Open Source from a product perspective. The HAVA product looks quite nice, but not nice enough for me to get Microsoft Media Center or a Windows Mobile 5 device ;) A shame, really.

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Open Source, SFLC

The Best Kept Secret in Open Source?

September 24, 2007 Leave a comment

John Mark has a point – Intel may very well be one of the best kept secrets in Open Source. They are working with a ton of projects, employing a lot of Open Source developers and releasing a lot of code. They are doing all this fairly quietly and are probably one of the main drivers (no pun intended) behind the fact that ATI and nVidia will have to open up more. In fact, ATI is already doing so. Thanks Intel.

I tend to suggest that… you buy [a machine] with Intel’s graphics and wireless. That takes care of the 2 biggest annoyances right there.
– Linus Torvalds

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Open Source

Are You Right With Reality?

September 24, 2007 Leave a comment

Michael Tiemann recently asked why it is that the global IT consumer continues to accept IT-related write-downs of $386B/year. They do so in a pattern that sees them repeating the mistakes they have made in the past (buying the same or “upgraded” applications and operating systems from the same proprietary sources). The post is a compelling one and I agree that Open Source will deliver radically different, radically better results than have been observed in the proprietary software world. What I really liked about the post, however, is the paragraph explaining the difference between Free Software and Open Source. It’s a question asked often and one that Michael really nails (as you’d expect):

One of the questions we received during the interview was the question “What’s the difference between the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative?” I chose to answer the question based on the constituencies of free software and open source. In my view, the fundamental difference between the free software movement and the open source movement is that free software is based on the ethics of software freedom, and open source is based on pragmatic implementation of observed results. I am a believer in fundamental human rights, including the right to live a healthy life free from oppression. But I am also heavily influenced by what science teaches, and when science teaches that we need to respect the environment or we need to pay attention to what we eat in order to live a healthy life, I tend to lean in the direction of protecting oceans and forests for the health of all rather than strip-mining and clear-cutting them for profit today. When I first read the GNU Manifesto I was compelled by the moral and ethical arguments that Stallman presented. But what made me willing to do something different, rather than merely take the side of the argument at cocktail parties, was that I saw the commercial benefits of such a model as well. These benefits have now been validated by academic and commercial case studies alike, many of which are referenced in the paper. Is it unethical to adopt an ethical position based on pragmatic reasons? I don’t think so. Is it pragmatic to adopt an ethical position without pragmatic evidence? I don’t think so. Thus, I identify with open source because it takes the position of pragmatic validation, even if it validates a position based on ethics. (I should also note that I know many capitalists who believe that it is unethical to ignore what the free market teaches. I consider that a fairly extreme position, but I include it because it shows that some capitalists are, at their core, deeply ethical people.)

FWIW, I usually find myself on the Open Source side of the fence. I tend to be pragmatic, so that probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

–jeremy

Filed under Open Source, OSI

Yahoo Acquires Zimbra For $350 million in Cash II

September 18, 2007 Leave a comment

A quick follow up on the Zimbra acquisition. While I’m extremely happy for Yahoo! on picking up a great company, I agree with Jack that it would have been a great fit for Red Hat. Had they made the pickup 6-12 months ago they surely could have gotten a more reasonable multiple. Not only that, but it fits in very nicely with their Enterprise business model. Like the JBoss acquisition, it would have gotten their foot in the door to places previously not using RHEL. Sure, it would have put them in more direct competition with Microsoft, but JBoss shows they aren’t scared to lock horns with a behemoth. Hindsight is usually 20/20, but with the ever present Microsoft/Yahoo! merger rumors, I’d sure feel better with what is a huge opportunity being in the hands of a pure Open Source player. It just seems like it may have been a better fit. That all being said, I wish both Zimbra and Yahoo! (who doesn’t get enough credit for the Open Source things they do) the best.

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Open Standards, Red Hat

SCO Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

September 18, 2007 1 Comment

You’ve probably heard by now that SCOX has filed for Chapter 11. It gets worse though, as it seems almost half of its finance department has either quit or been fired. Two of the people who quit had over ten years’ experience. I’ve been through a couple Chapter 11’s and they are never fun. That being said, when the financial people start to flee, something is severely wrong. It’s looking more and more likely to me that we’ll end up with some kind of shareholder lawsuit before this is all over with. Oddly, it seems SCO is blaming competition from Linux for some of its financial shortfall. If they would have tried to compete in the first place, they almost certainly wouldn’t be in this position now. Some companies are unduly vilified… but SCOX is not one of them. The question now becomes who will end up with the smoldering remains of SCO? One hopes it will be either IBM or Novell, so we can put this whole thing behind us. There’s always the small chance that some patent troll will try to pick things up for pennies on the dollar, even though it’s clear the case is nearly unwinnable.

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Open Source

New iPods reengineered to block synching with Linux II

September 17, 2007 Leave a comment

A quick follow up to this post. Well, it didn’t take long. I didn’t expect that it would. While the instructions are still a bit convoluted, I’m sure that will change soon enough as well. I just wish companies would stop making it difficult for people to use the hardware they purchase with their OS of choice. Something tells me it’s still going to be a while.

–jeremy

Filed under Apple, iPhone, Linux, Open Source

Yahoo Acquires Zimbra For $350 million in Cash

September 17, 2007 1 Comment

Those of you who regularly read this blog know I am a huge fan of Zimbra. I was quite interested to hear that they were just acquired by Yahoo! for $350 million in cash. As many Open Source acquisitions of late, that’s a fairly stunning multiplier (and the fact that it’s an all cash deal makes it even more so). This is a slightly different move than the Semel-run Yahoo! would have made. They wanted to be more of a pure Media play back then. With this move they are going more toward the Enterprise market, which is a place Goggle has been headed recently as well. This move should also serve to catapult Yahoo! into direct competition with Microsoft, which has traditional been an ally. Zimbra has the potential to be a legitimate Exchange killer, which would certainly draw the ire of Redmond. For medium sizes installations, Zimbra is ready for prime time already. I’ve worked on a Zimbra implementation that was adding 25,000+ accounts a week and at that size there were still some growing pains. With the experience Yahoo! has at scaling and the additional resources they can provide (along with some changes that Zimbra already had in the pipeline), I’d expect Zimbra to be ready for the largest of installations very soon. Note that rumors of a Microsoft-Yahoo! merger have been going on and off for years. That deal would now be a huge blow to Zimbra IMHO, so it’s something to watch out for.

On the note of Open Source multipliers, Matt just posted this:

Let’s tally up the list:

* Zimbra – $350 million (on ~$10 million (guessing here, but guessing at the high end, I think) of trailing revenues) – September 2007
* XenSource – $500 million (on $1 million in trailing revenues) – August 2007
* JBoss – $350 million (on $27 million in 2006 revenues) – June 2006
* Sleepycat – $35-50 million (on ~$7 million in trailing revenues, is my best guess) – February 2006
* Gluecode – $10 million (on very little in trailing revenues, less than $1 million, I believe) – May 2005
* SUSE – $210 million (can’t remember revenues – I think $30-40 million) – November 2003
* Ximian – ~$50 million (I can’t remember – on $1 million or so in trailing revenues) – August 2003

What’s the trend? Bigger. We are in the midst of a Gold Rush, as Dana Blankenhorn has written. The rules of software business are being rewritten, and those who understand them will make a lot of money for shareholders…and themselves.

Makes you wonder who the next Open Source acquisition will be.

Official announcements: here and here

–jeremy

Filed under Open Source

New iPods reengineered to block synching with Linux

September 15, 2007 1 Comment

While the title of this Boing Boing article is a little sensationalistic (the move was almost certainly aimed at iTunes lockin, with Linux being collateral damage) it’s not too far off the mark:

The latest iPods have a cryptographic “checksum” in their song databases that prevents third-party applications from synching with the portable music players. This means that iPods can no longer be used with operating systems where iTunes doesn’t exist — like Linux, where gtkpod and Amarok are common free tools used by iPod owners to load their players.

Notice that this has nothing to do with piracy — this is about Apple limiting the choices available to people who buy their iPod hardware. I kept my iPod when I switched to Ubuntu Linux a year ago, and I’ve been using it happily with my machine ever since (though it took me a solid week to get all my DRMed Audible audiobooks out of iTunes — I had to run two machines 24/7, playing hundreds of hours of audio through a program called AudioHijack, to remove the DRM from my collection, which had cost me thousands of dollars to build). I’d considered buying another iPod when this one started to show its age — it’s a perfectly nice player to use, provided you stay away from the DRM.

The new hardware limits the number of potential customers for Apple’s products, adding engineering cost to a device in order to reduce its functionality. It’s hard to understand why Apple would do this, but the most likely explanations are that Apple wants to be sure that competitors can’t build their own players to load up iPods — now that half of the major labels have gone DRM free, it’s conceivable that we’d get a Rhapsody or Amazon player that automatically loaded the non-DRM tracks they sold you on your iPod (again, note that this has nothing to do with preventing piracy — this is about preventing competition with the iTunes Store).

The truth is, however, that Apple seems to be getting more and more closed. The iPhone is a great example of this. It has so much potential it’s not funny. I’ve found the lockin limits that potential so much that I’ll almost certainly be getting rid of it when the OpenMoko ships. The web experience on the iPhone really is tremendous. Industry changing in fact. The lack of third party applications is just the beginning of why the device will never be what it could have been, however. Apple makes great products, there’s no doubt about it. You just have to use everything exactly the way they want you to. That’s not for me. As Apple products gain in popularity, I have to wonder how many others will get frustrated to the point that they’ll switch.

–jeremy

Filed under Apple, iPhone, Linux, Open Source

Is Embedded Linux on the decline?

September 14, 2007 Leave a comment

Embedded Systems Design just released its annual embedded market study, and it contains some information about Linux. Embedded Linux is something that I’ve been following lately, and LQ just added an Embedded Linux Forum. The report shows that companies “not interested in using Linux” is on the rise. Part of this is due to the fact that companies are getting realistic about embedded Linux. Some were drawn in by the gratis aspect of Linux, and are realizing it’s not a 100% free ride (nor should it be). It may not be as bad as the chart indicates though. As more companies integrate Linux into their plans, the ones left are the ones either heavily invested in something else, just simply not interested in Linux or way on the late adopter side of the curve. As something gains in popularity, it makes sense that the last people left are the least likely to adopt it. That doesn’t mean that adoption is not up, or that the ones who are adopting Linux aren’t happy with it… which is one of the most important measures to me. It’s clear that embedded Linux has a very bright future. I’m glad the hype is starting to wear off. This means the expectations will be realistic and the companies that do adopt will be much more likely to be happy.

Chart

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Open Source

Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format

September 13, 2007 Leave a comment

Having just completed my first podcast in a while, I was looking for some additional information on the recent failure of OOXML to gain ISO approval. I commented on some of the alleged nefarious activity that had taken place, but I admit I missed this coincidence:

During the voting process the reputation of ISO as a dependable technical standardization organization was questioned. For example, in Sweden a Microsoft representative was caught offering to recompense partners for voting yes to OOXML. Also a sudden interest from countries like Ivory Coast to the OOXML issue has been found suspicious.

We studied the relation between the corruption level and voting behaviours of the countries. We found that more corrupted the country is, the more likely it was to vote for the unreserved acceptance of the OOXML standard proposal.

We used the [Transparency International’s] 2006 CPI index (Corruption Perceptions Index) as a measure of corruption. CPI index is a number between 1 and 10. A small CPI index means that the country is perceived to be very corrupted, while a large CPI index means that the country is perceived to have little corruption. Haiti has the smallest CPI index of 1.8, while the countries perceived having the least amount of corruption (Finland, Iceland, New Zealand) have a CPI index of 9.7. In barplots below the CPI index has been rounded down to the closest integer value.

ISO received a total of 87 votes, of which 70 was given either by the Secretariat country (USA), participating members (“P Member”) or observers (“O Member”); in the graph below only these 70 votes are shown. The votes are counted according to the complicated voting rules of ISO. The remaining 17 countries – most of which are perceived to be relatively corrupted (median CPI index 3.0) – mostly supported the OOXML (approval 13, approval with comments 2, abstention 2, disapproval 0).

I’ll leave whether or not this is sheer happenstance up to you, but the full EFFI article is worth a read.

–jeremy

Filed under Uncategorized

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