Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
European Parliament passes IP enforcement directive
FFII has sent out a release on the passage of the intellectual property rights enforcement directive in the European Parliament. This directive turns a number of "intellectual property" infringements into criminal offenses, threatening ISPs and free software developers, among others. "The directive now goes to the Council for its first reading. Several Council members, such as the Dutch and UK governments, have already expressed serious concerns about the scope and nature of this directive."
EFF: Consumers, Librarians, and Innovators Tell EU 'We're Not Criminals'
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sent out a media release regarding proposed new European copyright crimes. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) European Office today announced a broad coalition aimed at fixing a poorly drafted intellectual property enforcement proposal that could make criminals of thousands of people in the European Union. The Second Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2) -- set for vote in the European Parliament early next week -- makes "aiding, abetting, or inciting" intellectual property infringement on a "commercial scale" a criminal offence. However, IPRED2 defines criminal offences so vaguely that creators of legitimate websites, Internet service providers, and even librarians could be investigated by the police and face criminal records as well as fines of hundreds of thousands of euros."
European Parliament must prevent criminalisation of software vendors and users
The Free Software Foundation Europe has sent out a press release regarding proposed changes to the European patent and copyright law. "FSFE criticises the proposed "second Intellectual Property Enforcement Directive" (IPRED2) for sweeping criminalisation across various areas of law and loosely described areas of activity, including for 'attempting, aiding or abetting and inciting.' The proposed text criminalises these acts for infringement of many dissimilar laws including copyright, trademark, and patents. "This threatens" according to a press release of FSFE "to introduce intimidating degrees of punishment to activities which individuals, community-based projects, and other small to medium-sized groups participate in - groups that may not have sufficient money or lawyers to defend their rights in court.""
EFF challenges patent threatening consumer awareness products
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is challenging a patent by NeoMedia Technologies, Inc. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) took aim today at a bogus patent threatening innovative technologies that enhance consumer awareness, requesting a reexamination by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). NeoMedia Technologies, Inc., claims to own rights to all systems that provide information over computer networks using database-like lookup procedures that rely on scanned inputs, such as a barcode. NeoMedia has used these claims not only to threaten and sue innovators in the mobile information space, but also to intimidate projects focused on increasing awareness among consumers about the social and environmental impact of the products they buy."
Eben Moglen leaving the FSF board
Eben Moglen has posted a weblog entry on what he will be doing once the GPLv3 process stops dominating his life. "As I return to teaching at Columbia I need to concentrate more of my remaining spare time and effort on the affairs of the Software Freedom Law Center, which is inevitably going to mean less involvement with the affairs of other organizations I care very much about. In particular, its time for me to leave the board of directors of the Free Software Foundation, where Ive been since 2000."
Open Solutions Alliance adds six members to its roster
The Open Solutions Alliance has announced its six newest members. "The Open Solutions Alliance (OSA), a nonprofit, vendor-neutral consortium dedicated to driving interoperability and adoption of comprehensive open solutions, today announced that six new organizations have joined the Alliance. The new members include Black Duck, The Mambo Foundation, Onepoint, The Open Source Technology Alliance (TOSTA), Palamida and Project.net. The OSA today has 18 members."
Commercial announcements
CollabNet buys SourceForge Enterprise Edition
CollabNet and VA Software have announced a deal wherein CollabNet will be buying the SourceForge Enterprise Edition code and business from VA. The SourceForge site will apparently remain with VA. "With the addition of SourceForge Enterprise Edition business to CollabNet's product portfolio and team, we have become the standard for this new method of performing decentralized development. Unlike conventional software development systems, CollabNet's solutions are designed to promote and optimize the benefits of collaboration and distributed software development, based on open source principles" No mention of open-sourcing the newly-acquired code, however. (Thanks to Rick Moen, who has posted some history of the SourceForge code).
New version of Concurrent NightStar Tools for Linux
Concurrent has announced version 4.1 of its NightStar integrated software tool set. "The revamped tool set features a complete graphical user interface makeover making it more flexible and easy to customize. NightStar 4.1 is one of the most advanced, yet easy-to-use debugging environments for troubleshooting and tuning complex Linux software applications."
Samsung does a patent deal with Microsoft
Microsoft and Samsung have announced a patent deal. "In these product lines, Samsung and its distributors and customers may utilize Microsoft's patents in Samsung's products with proprietary software, and Samsung will also obtain coverage from Microsoft for its customers' use of certain Linux-based products."
Sun Microsystems and Canonical announce Java for Ubuntu 7.04
Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced the availability of the Java technology stack and developer tools for Ubuntu 7.04. "This stack, which is comprised of key popular Java technologies such as GlassFish(TM) v1 (the open source Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 implementation), Java Platform, Standard Edition (JDK 6), Java DB 10.2 (built from Apache Derby) and NetBeans(TM) IDE 5.5 -- will be available in the Multiverse component of the Ubuntu repository on April 19."
Zenoss announces Global Partner Program and 8 new partners
Zenoss, Inc. has announced the launch of the Zenoss Global Partner Program. "The new program brings expanded services and technology capabilities to Zenoss users worldwide and creates new business opportunities for systems integrators, hosters, managed service providers, ISVs and OEMs. The Zenoss Global Partner program provides a business and technology framework for partnering with Zenoss, Inc. to deliver professional services, managed services and technology solutions related to Zenoss Core, the highest ranking open source IT monitoring solution on Sourceforge.net."
New Books
Linux System Administration - O'Reilly's Latest Release
O'Reilly has published the book Linux System Administration by Tom Adelstein and Bill Lubanovic.Addison-Wesley Professional publishes SQL for MySQL Developers
Addison-Wesley Professional has published the book SQL for MySQL Developers: A Comprehensive Tutorial and Reference by Rick F. van der Lans.Understanding MySQL Internals - O'Reilly's Latest Release
O'Reilly has published the book Understanding MySQL Internals by Sasha Pachev.XQuery - O'Reilly's Latest Release
O'Reilly has published the book XQuery by Priscilla Walmsley.
Contests and Awards
Novell wins two CODiE awards
Novell, Inc. has announced the winning of CODiE awards by SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and ZENworks Asset Management. "Novell's Linux* and enterprise management services took home top honors for Best Open Source Solution and Best Asset Management Solution at the 2007 CODiE awards, the annual program led by the Software Industry and Information Association (SIIA) to recognize innovation in the software industry. SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell(R) won in the open source category, while Novell ZENworks(R) 7.5 Asset Management beat out the competition in the asset management category."
Education and Certification
LPI announces new affiliates in Europe and Africa
The Linux Professional Institute has announced its latest Linux certification affiliates. "The Linux Professional Institute, the world's premier Linux certification organization, announced new affiliates throughout Europe and Africa including LPI-Spain, LPI-France, LPI-Maghreb, LPI-Malta/Cyprus and a new partner in South Africa."
LPI Offers Discounted Certification Exams at IT 360
The Linux Professional Institute will hold discounted Linux certification exams at the IT 360 conference in Toronto, Canada on May 1 and 2, 2007.
Calls for Presentations
CfP Hack.lu 2007
A call for papers has gone out for Hack.lu 2007. The event will take place in Luxembourg on October 18-20, 2007, submissions are due by June 1.
Upcoming Events
Akademy 2007 Edu and School Day (KDE.News)
KDE.news has announced the Edu and School Day, which will take place in Glasgow, Scotland during the Akademy conference. "You are invited to aKademy Edu & School Day on Tuesday 3rd July. This day will focus on installing and running free educational software in schools, presenting software as well as getting feedback from teachers and community people."
DAM-4 - Google Mountain View Campus
DAM-4 (desktop_architects mailing list) has been announced, the event will take place on June 13-15, 2007 (new dates) in Mountain View, CA. "DAM-4 is being held in conjunction with the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. The Linux Foundation Desktop Linux workgroup is planning and sponsoring this event for the desktop architects. Once again, the intent of this meeting is to bring desktop organizations together to address common problems and to create some working synergy across organizations."
GUADEC Core schedule announced
The preliminary schedule for the GUADEC Core Days has been announced.Linux Installfest workshop in Davis , CA
The Linux Users' Group of Davis will hold the next Linux Installfest on Saturday, April 28, 2007 in Davis, CA.Registration opens for the 2007 O'Reilly Open Source Convention
O'Reilly has announced the program schedule and registration opening for the 2007 Open Source Convention. "This year's program will examine how open technologies are making breakthroughs in the mainstream IT community, and delve into the advances on the open source horizon. Now in its ninth year, OSCON is the annual gathering of developers, hackers, visionaries, and alpha geeks who are driving the open source movement. OSCON returns to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon July 23-27, 2007."
The SugarCRM Global Developer Conference
SugarCRM has announced the SugarCRM Global Developer Conference. "SugarCRM, the world's leading provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software, today announced that it will host the first ever SugarCRM Global Developer Conference, May 3-5, 2007, at the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose, California. HP, Intel, Microsoft, MySQL, Novell, Pervasive, Oracle and Sun are among the industry leaders sponsoring the conference, which is designed for developers, administrators, users, and managers of CRM projects."
Events: May 3, 2007 to July 2, 2007
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| May 3 May 4 |
Ubuntu Education Summit | Sevilla, Spain |
| May 3 May 5 |
SugarCRM Global Developer Conference | San Jose, CA, USA |
| May 4 May 6 |
Libre Graphics Meeting 2007 | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| May 5 May 6 |
LayerOne Security Conference | Pasadena, CA, USA |
| May 5 | Ubucon - Sevilla | Sevilla, Spain |
| May 6 May 11 |
Ubuntu Developer Summit | Sevilla, Spain |
| May 7 | CommunityOne | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| May 8 May 9 |
World Summit on Intrusion Prevention | Baltimore, MD, USA |
| May 8 May 11 |
Annual Java Technology Conference | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| May 8 May 11 |
OSHCA 2007 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| May 9 May 11 |
Red Hat Summit | San Diego, CA, USA |
| May 10 May 11 |
IEEE International Workshop on Open Source Test Technology Tools | Berkeley, CA, USA |
| May 10 | NLUUG Spring Conference 2007 | Ede, The Netherlands |
| May 11 May 13 |
Conferenze Italiana sul Software Libero | Cosenza, Italy |
| May 12 May 13 |
KOffice ODF Weekend | Berlin, Germany |
| May 14 May 25 |
The Pure Data Spring School 2007 | Glasgow, Scotland |
| May 16 May 18 |
php|tek | Chicago, IL, USA |
| May 17 May 20 |
RailsConf 2007 | Portland, Oregon |
| May 18 May 19 |
eLiberatica Open Source and Free Software Conference | Brasov, Romania |
| May 18 May 19 |
FreedomHEC | Los Angeles, CA |
| May 18 May 19 |
BSDCan 2007 | Ottawa, Canada |
| May 19 May 20 |
The 3rd International Workshop on Software Engineering for Secure Systems | Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
| May 19 May 20 |
Rockbox International Developers Conference 2007 | Stockholm, Sweden |
| May 19 | Grazer LinuxDays 2007 | Graz, Austria |
| May 19 May 20 |
Make Magazine Maker Faire 2007 | San Mateo, CA, USA |
| May 19 | Linuxwochen Austria - Graz | Graz, Austria |
| May 21 May 23 |
International PHP 2007 Conference | Stuttgart, Germany |
| May 21 May 25 |
Python Bootcamp with David Beazley | Atlanta, USA |
| May 22 May 23 |
Open Source Business Conference | San Francisco, USA |
| May 22 May 24 |
Linux Days 2007, Geneva | Geneva, Switzerland |
| May 23 May 24 |
PGCon 2007 | Ottawa, ON, Canada |
| May 25 | Linuxwochen Austria - Krems | Krems, Austria |
| May 26 | PAKCON III | Karachi, Pakistan |
| May 29 May 30 |
Where 2.0 Conference | San Jose, CA, USA |
| May 29 May 31 |
European ADempiere Developers Conference | Berlin, Germany |
| May 29 May 30 |
I FLOSS CONFERENCE RESISTENCIA | Resistencia, Argentina |
| May 30 June 2 |
Linuxtag | Berlin, Germany |
| May 30 June 1 |
3rd UNIX Days Conference - Gdansk 2007 | Gdansk, Poland |
| May 30 June 1 |
Linuxwochen Austria - Wien | Wien, Austria |
| June 2 June 3 |
Journées Python Francophones | Paris, France |
| June 9 June 10 |
PyCon Uno - First Python Italian conference | Florence, Italy |
| June 10 June 15 |
DebCamp | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| June 10 | Pluto Meeting 2007 | Padova, Italy |
| June 11 June 14 |
Third International Conference on Open Source Systems | Limerick, Ireland |
| June 13 June 15 |
Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit | Mountain View, CA, USA |
| June 16 | DebianDay | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| June 16 | Firefox Developer Conference | Tokyo, Japan |
| June 17 June 23 |
Debian Developer Conference | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| June 17 June 22 |
2007 USENIX Annual Technical Conference | Santa Clara, USA |
| June 18 June 20 |
O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference | San Jose, CA, USA |
| June 18 June 20 |
Advanced Workshop on GCC Internals | Bombay, India |
| June 20 June 22 |
IT Underground | Dublin, Ireland |
| June 20 | Open Source Showcase @ OpenAdvantage | Birmingham, UK |
| June 23 | Mozilla Developer Day | Paris, France |
| June 25 June 27 |
SOA World Conference and Expo 2007 | New York, NY, USA |
| June 27 June 30 |
2007 Linux Symposium | Ottawa, Canada |
| June 27 June 29 |
Summer School of Sound | Lancaster, UK |
| June 29 | NLUUG event theme innovation Enschede | Enschede, the Netherlands |
| June 30 July 7 |
Akademy 2007 | Glasgow, Scotland |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Event Reports
LAC 2007 website updates
The web site for the recent 2007 Linux Audio Conference (LAC) has been updated. "It took us a while, but finally (and hopefully) the last updates have been made to the LAC website."
Page editor: Forrest Cook