The European Parliament has voted for legislation that would effectively exclude software and business methods from patentability. However European patent legislation is still largely in the hands of ministerial patent experts, many of whom have for years been pushing for unlimited patentability. This situation calls for close attention and resolute action by national parliamentarians and concerned citizens.
VideoLAN - And the issue of software patents
VideoLAN is seriously threatened by software patents due to the numerous patented techniques it implements and uses. Also threatened are the many libraries and projects which VLC is built upon, like FFmpeg, and the other fellow Free And Open Source software multimedia players, which include MPlayer, xine, Freevo, MythTV, gstreamer.
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The European commission has just passed its directive on software patents, violating democratic rules and procedures to the sole benefit of big non-European corporation and Ireland and to the detriment of small and medium sized businesses (which comprise 99% of the European software industry) and free software.The European parliament will now be taking the last stand against software patents in a voting for which an absolute majority is needed. Such a majority is hard to come by in a parliament with a low attendance level.
“When VLC is outlawed, only outlaws will have VLC”
(via unmediated)
Vote for freedom of expression blog award-winners!
vote online for award-winners from among 60 blogs defending freedom of expression. There are six categories: Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Iran and International.
(via BuzzMachine)
After an earlier focus on Debian GNU/Linux on the Mac Mini comes this one from IBM:
Running Linux and BSD on the Mac Mini
..the current state of Linux™ and NetBSD support on the Mini. If you need all the hardware and options fully supported, these open source options won’t do it for you … yet. But, if all you need is a stable kernel, a C compiler, and network support, the code is high-quality and the price is unbeatable.
(via OSNews)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published the following guide:
How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)
…a few simple precautions to help you maintain control of your personal privacy so that you can express yourself without facing unjust retaliation. If followed correctly, these protections can save you from embarrassment or just plain weirdness in front of your friends and coworkers.
(via Slashdot)
Frontier Kernel: Additional Root Files released
The root files contained in the downloads are snapshots taken on November 23rd, 2004. Some work may need to be done to integrate them with the current minimal application install.
(Hat tip to the Schockwellenreiter)
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