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Comment Predicted long ago by GPLv3 (Score 1) 102

by Cyclops (#64771666) Attached to: How Should the FOSS Movement Respond to Proprietary Software?

Way back then, when GPLv3 was veing written, this scenario was already had in consideration. We needed stronger copyleft for the online world of cloud services, and that was something Affero GPL and GPLv3 addressed.

But all the "business savvy" open source advocates made it hard to reach a consensus (they did not want the closure of the loopholes), instead they caused a bit of FUD chaos and then proceeded to have a strong impulse of new cloud oriented software that went all the way opposite the GPLv3 and in fact opened MORE loopholes, hence the strong investment into MIT, Apache 2, and other less strong free software licenses.

This way, they could make proprietary versions (and many companies went the proprietary relicensing bait and switch model of "open core") or turn software proprietary for all practical effects by having it used in cloud services (without the additional requisites addressed by GPLv3) without a "download me" recourse.

Nothing good ever comes from "there's a problem, instead of fixing it let's add more complexity".

And adding contracts to free software... IMHO, is an epitome of that.

Comment The goal is quite clear at the end of the page... (Score 1, Informative) 186

by Cyclops (#63285649) Attached to: A Developer is Reimplementing GNU's Core Utilities in Rust

The goal is quite clear at the end of the page, and it's one of replacing the GNU GPL (sort of like a constitution) with a license that allows the commons to be reduced.

"uutils is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details
GNU Coreutils is licensed under the GPL 3.0 or later."

Comment DNS is (usually) not available behind proxy, (Score 1) 97

Many browsers reside behind http proxies. Unless they are also using DoH and assuming that is not blocked for some fascist-like reason or another, you'd basically be crippling the browsing experience.

DNS is not really a good solution for this, but (stapled) OCSP might be, even if not without it's flaws).

Submission + - Google quietly makes "optional" web DRM mandatory in Chrome 2

Submitted by JustAnotherOldGuy
JustAnotherOldGuy writes: The World Wide Web Consortium's Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) is a DRM system for web video, being pushed by Netflix, movie studios, and a few broadcasters. It's been hugely controversial within the W3C and outside of it, but one argument that DRM defenders have made throughout the debate is that the DRM is optional, and if you don't like it, you don't have to use it. That's not true any more. Some time in the past few days, Google quietly updated Chrome (and derivative browsers like Chromium) so that Widevine (Google's version of EME) can no longer be disabled; it comes switched on and installed in every Chrome instance. Because of laws like section 1201 of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (and Canada's Bill C11, and EU implementations of Article 6 of the EUCD), browsers that have DRM in them are risky for security researchers to audit. These laws provide both criminal and civil penalties for those who tamper with DRM, even for legal, legitimate purposes, and courts and companies have interpreted this to mean that companies can punish security researchers who reveal defects in their products.

Comment No, not the first... (Score 4, Informative) 203

by Cyclops (#40217059) Attached to: Asus Announces x86 Transformer

perhaps this could be the first "tablet" capable of running fully Free Software?

Hardly, for instance... take my tablet, a WeTab. It's a keyboad-less netbook, and has run Fedora 15, 16 and now the just released 17.

And it won't be the first, as if it uses nVidia, then it'll hardly run well with fully free software.
Enlightenment

Submission + - GNU/Linux and Enlightenment running on a Fridge (enlightenment.org)

Submitted by k-s
k-s writes: Linux, the GNU userland and Enlightenment and its foundation libraries (EFL) are known due their resource efficiency and flexibility, key components for embedded products. Today it was announced that such features led them to be used in a Fridge that runs Linux and X11 with EFL.

The Freescale i.MX25 based fridge by Electrolux (Frigidaire) provides the expected bits such as temperature controls and pre-set modes (vacation, party) as well as a special purpose drawer that cools your drinks and food with a beautiful UI. It also ships with handful applications for contacts, calendar, reminder, digital picture frame and even illustrated recipe book with a famous Brazilian magazine.
Software

Ubuntu Replaces F-Spot With Shotwell 361

Posted by timothy from the such-pretty-pictures dept.
climenole writes "Finally! The much discussed F-Spot vs. Shotwell battle is over. The new default image organizer app for Ubuntu Maverick 10.10 is going to be Shotwell. This is a much-needed change; F-Spot was simply not enough. Most of the times when I tried F-Spot, it just keeps crashing on me. Shotwell on the other hand feels a lot more solid and is better integrated with the GNOME desktop. Shotwell is also completely devoid of Mono."

Submission + - "No Power for the Parliament" warns EPO examiners 2

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: The Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, warning of risks for the European Parliament to be "circumvented" as a legislator when the EU will accede to the European Patent Convention (EPC). The European Patent Organisation is everything except a model of democracy: national patent offices are in power, there is no parliament involved in the decision making process, and diplomatic conferences are held behind closed doors. There are plans to create a central patent court in Europe, which would operate in a democratic vacuum, as it would not be counterbalanced by any legislative assembly, let alone the European Parliament. Such central patent court could also validate software patents via caselaw (as it was recently done with the Microsoft FAT patent by the German Supreme Court), and Microsoft, IBM or SAP are lobbying in Brussels not to reopen the software patent directive.
The Internet

Stallman On the UK Digital Economy Bill 228

Posted by CmdrTaco from the no-bits-for-you dept.
superapecommando submitted a blog entry written by Stallman about the UK's bandwidth initiatives. RMS says "When I read about Gordon Brown's plan to give the UK more broadband, I couldn't restrain my laughter. Isn't this the same clown now busy circumventing democracy to take away broadband from Britons who already have it? And what good would broadband do them if they're punished for using it (or even being suspected of using it)? Laying cables would be a waste of resources if people are not allowed to use them. Brown did suggest another possible use for broadband. He said that it would enable MPs to better communicate with their constituents and keep track of what they want."

Comment Re:What about our software freedom? (Score 2, Insightful) 296

by Cyclops (#30416572) Attached to: ARM-Powered Laptops To Increase Linux Market Share

You are most certainly wrong here. From what I heard, they will use nVidia Terga GPUs, for which it will be pretty easy to have a driver.

Yeah, I must be wrong. Surely. That's why nVidia GPUs are fully supported by Free Software, and I wouldn't have to loose my rights to nVidias's proprietary software licensing. NOT! On all accounts. Nouveaux isn't really Free Software (it still carries blobs), and nVidias's drivers are as proprietary as it can get.

Besides: What is all that talk about “software freedom”?

It's my rights to run the software for any purpose, study, modify and distribute it. Software licensing that forbids any of these actions is just plain immoral and I can't accept it's terms and conditions.

It’s just a driver. If you really thought that to the end, you would have to only use hardware with all the specs available!

Just a driver, hey? Well, that just only hides that you have a horribly slow interface, perhaps not so energy efficient, without any bells and whistles! Is it still just? Not important at all?

And which are buildable with openly available tools, whose specs are available too, etc, etc, etc. Basically the ability do dig stuff out of the earth, to build machines with it, that build machines, that build your laptop, where you can put your free software on.

Please tell me where I can legally get nVidia's, PowerVR's etc... as Free Software so I can build it with openly available tools. Oh, heck... I don't need code, just get us those specs which are available as well...

Everything else is just ignorance.

And to say the best about you, you must be an ignorant.

Comment Re:Christ, AGAIN!? (Score 1) 296

by Cyclops (#30416490) Attached to: ARM-Powered Laptops To Increase Linux Market Share

Here's one (and I have the SmartQ7 model): http://www.smartdevices.com.cn/

Where to purchase: http://en.smartdevices.com.cn/Buy/

I'm not in China, Singapore, or "Hongkong".

Sorry. I should have specified "in the US." How about this: when I can get one at Best Buy, THEN post the story.

If you had cared to search before you posted... http://www.allpmp.com/

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