Going to India
I’m travelling to India tomorrow to meet free software researchers, activists and other people. I will visit Mumbai, Bangalore (also Asia Source) and Delhi (including Linux Asia). If you are in one of these cities and want to meet me, e-mail me (niklas.vainio at uta dot fi).
Long-term Approach to Software
In his essay Software That Lasts 200 Years, Dan Bricklin calls for an approach to software that takes into account long-term consequences. Bricklin compares software production to building projects - houses, bridges, roads - that are planned and built to last for a very long time. By contrast, “software has historically been built assuming that it will be replaced in the near future (remember the Y2K problem)”.
BSA Criticizes Software Patents
Washington Post (reg. req., use BugMeNot) Jan 5, 2005, “Tech Firms Aim to Change Copyright Act”:
The BSA also proposed changes to U.S. patent law. The technology industry is facing spiraling litigation costs over patent rights, which the BSA said threatens to stifle innovation.
One problem is that as patents have proliferated, a new kind of business has emerged in which companies seek to enforce patents solely to make money, not to use the technology. Even when the patents are not likely to stand up in court, companies often settle with the patent owners rather than go through costly legal battles.
The BSA also wants a system to allow third parties to be able to challenge those patents.
What is going on? What is the trick? I hope this helps in the EU anti-software patent battle.
Free as in Free Beer
Vores �l is a free (as in speech) beer recipe distributed under a Creative Commons license. They also offer a logo and a color set.
