Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
The next round of BusyBox lawsuits
The Software Freedom Law Center has sent out a press release stating that it has filed two more GPL-infringement lawsuits on behalf of the BusyBox developers. The defendants this time around are Xterasys Corporation and High-Gain Antennas LLC.EFF Wins Reexamination of Internet Subdomain Patent
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced the winning of a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reexamination of a questionable patent on Internet subdomains. "The patent, now held by Hoshiko, LLC, claims to cover the method of automatically assigning Internet subdomains, like "action.eff.org" for the parent domain "eff.org." Previous patent owner Ideaflood used this illegitimate patent to demand payment from website hosting companies that offer such personalized domains, including Freehomepage.com, T35 Hosting, and LiveJournal, a social networking site where each of its three million users have their own subdomain."
EFF: Senators Must Reject Blanket Immunity for Telecoms' Role in Illegal Spying
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sent out an announcement regarding telecom spying in the U.S. "Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee meet Thursday to discuss letting telecoms off the hook for their role in illegal spying on millions of ordinary Americans -- a blatant attempt to block lawsuits that would determine if the surveillance is legal. The "FISA Amendments Act" includes blanket immunity for telecommunications companies who took part in a massive warrantless domestic surveillance program to wiretap Americans' communications. However, committee member Sen. Russ Feingold says he will offer an amendment that would remove this blanket immunity from the bill. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urges lawmakers to support Sen. Feingold in holding the telecoms accountable for their involvement in the illegal spying."
Free Software Foundation Releases GNU Affero General Public License Version 3
The Free Software Foundation has released the Affero GPL v3. The Affero GPL adds an additional term to the GPL allowing users who run the program as a network service or web application to get the source of that application. "Many programmers choose to use the GNU GPL to cultivate community development; if many of the modifications developed by the programs users are never released, this can be discouraging for them. The GNU AGPL addresses their concerns. The FSF recommends that people consider using the GNU AGPL for any software which will commonly be run over a network." Click below for the full press release.
A GPL compliance case against Iliad
Harald Welte, who recently announced his departure from OpenMoko, has lost little time in getting back into the GPL compliance arena. A release has been sent out (click below for the full text) stating that Harald and others are going to court to get Iliad (a French telecom company) to release the source for the GPL-licensed code shipped in its "Freebox" set-top box. "At the same time, a donation campaign has been launched to try and cover the procedural expenses and lawyers' fees. For the writers, this is a 'real challenge', the necessary sum already amounting to €25.000, and subject to increase should Iliad not withdraw." More information is available on the campaign web site.
Commercial announcements
Coverity announces static analysis for Java open-source projects
Coverity has announced the addition of Java support to its Scan site. "Coverity, Inc., the leader in improving software quality and security automatically, today announced expanded capabilities of the company's popular open source code analysis site: http://www.scan.coverity.com. Beginning today, the open source Scan site will provide static source code analysis for Java-based open source projects as an extension of Coverity's relationship with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under the 'Vulnerability Discovery and Remediation Open Source Hardening Project.'"
Nagios partners with GroundWork
Nagios Enterprises and GroundWork Open Source Forge have announced a strategic partnership involving open source IT monitoring and management. "Under the terms of the joint partnership, Nagios Enterprises will soon offer tier three support for Nagios-related aspects of Groundwork Open Source. In addition, GroundWork Open Source and Nagios Enterprises will engage in various market development activities including cross-promotion via advertising, joint marketing efforts, and business referral opportunities."
Trimble Awarded U.S. Coast Guard Contract
Trimble has announced the winning of a contract from the U.S. Coast Guard. The company will produce up to 400 reference station receivers for the Maritime Differential GPS (DGPS) Service modernization program. "With Internet Protocol as the primary communications mechanism, the NetRS GPS receiver can be accessed and fully controlled remotely using simple Internet browsers or Trimble infrastructure software. The NetRS uses the Linux framework, which allows for extension and customization that is simply not possible with proprietary operating systems."
New Books
The Glossary of Digital Photography--New from Rocky Nook
Rocky Nook has published the book The Glossary of Digital Photography by John Blair.Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition--New from O'Reilly Media
O'Reilly has published the book Knoppix Hacks, 2nd Edition by Kyle Rankin.
Contests and Awards
Mandriva Linux selected as "Product of the Year 2007" at Russian Softool
Mandriva Linux has won a Product of the Year 2007 award. "Mandriva has been selected as 'Product of the Year 2007' in the Linux category at the Softool exhibition in Moscow. The 'Product of the Year 2007' competition was held by the department of information technologies and computing systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Federal Agency of Information Technologies, the publishing house SK Press, and IT-expo."
Calls for Presentations
LAC2008 paper submission form now open
A call for papers has gone out for the Linux Audio Conference 2008. The event takes place in Cologne, Germany on February 28 through March 2. Submissions are due by December 1. "We invite submissions of papers addressing all areas of audio processing based on Linux and open source software. Papers can focus on technical, artistic or scientific issues and can target developers or users. For details please refer to the call for papers below and on the web at http://lac.linuxaudio.org". A call for music has also been announced.
2008 Linux Symposium information
The 2008 Linux Symposium has been scheduled for July 23 to 26; it will, as usual, be held in Ottawa. This year's program looks to feature mini-summits prior to the main events and "speakers from outside the industry" to give a wider view. The call for papers is open now with submissions due by the beginning of February.Velocity Conference: Call For Participation Open
A call for participation has gone out for the O'Reilly Velocity Conference. "The first ever O'Reilly Velocity conference will take place June 23-24, 2008 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott in Burlingame, California. Web companies, big and small, face many of the same challenges: sites must be faster, infrastructure needs to scale, and everything must be available to customers at all times, no matter what. Velocity is dedicated to helping attendees obtain the crucial skills and knowledge to build successful websites. Velocity is where to learn how to build websites that are fast, scalable, resilient, and highly-available." Submissions are due by December 31, 2007.
Upcoming Events
Announcing the Python Conference 2008
PyCon 2008 has been announced. "PyCon 2008, the sixth annual Python community conference, will be held in Chicago from March 14 to 16, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Hotel. Business leaders, developers, and enthusiasts will gather for the largest and most comprehensive Python meeting in history. Python, the popular open source programming language that is increasingly seen as an alternative to Java, is currently used by thousands of organizations including Google, Industrial Light & Magic, iRobot, NASA, and YouTube."
Events: November 29, 2007 to January 28, 2008
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| November 26 November 29 |
Open Source Developers' Conference | Brisbane, Australia |
| November 28 November 30 |
Mono Summit 2007 | Madrid, Spain |
| November 29 November 30 |
PacSec 2007 | Tokyo, Japan |
| December 1 | Django Worldwide Sprint | Online, World |
| December 1 | London Perl Workshop 2007 | London, UK |
| December 4 December 8 |
FOSS.IN 2007 | Bangalore, India |
| December 7 December 8 |
Free Software Conference Scandinavia | Gotherburg, Sweden |
| December 7 December 8 |
PGCon Brazil | Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| December 10 | Paris on Rails (2nd Edition) | Paris, France |
| December 11 December 12 |
3rd DoD Open Conference: Deployment of Open Technologies and Architectures within Military Systems | Vienna, VA, USA |
| December 15 December 22 |
Unix Meeting 2007 | IRC, Worldwide |
| December 27 December 30 |
24th Chaos Communication Congress | Berlin, Germany |
| December 31 | Israeli Perl Workshop | Ramat Efal, Israel |
| January 11 January 13 |
FUDCon Raleigh 2008 | Raleigh, NC, USA |
| January 16 January 17 |
QualiPSo Conference 2008 | Rome, Italy |
| January 17 January 19 |
KDE 4 release event | Mountain View, CA, USA |
| January 24 | Federal DBA Day | Washington DC, USA |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Miscellaneous
User Friendly turns ten
It seems that the User Friendly comic is now ten years old. Attentive readers will note a certain recurring theme between the original strip and the one which was posted ten years later.
Page editor: Forrest Cook