03/15, 11:40am
Stallman says free software prevents tracking
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and the man behind the GNU operating system in the 1980s, now says he doesn't have or carry a cell phone. "It's Stalin's dream. Cell phones are tools of Big Brother," he said in an interview with NetworkWorld. "I'm not going to carry a tracking device that records where I go all the time, and I'm not going to carry a surveillance device that can be turned on to eavesdrop."
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02/04, 10:55am
Microsoft renews $66.8 million Windows deal early
The European Commission has extended its contract for Microsoft software early, according to reports. The controversial $66.8 million deal was said by Computer Weekly to have been extended with reseller Fujitsu on December 8 rather than February. The EC Directorate for Informatics, also called Digit, renewed the contract the day after the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) started a campaign against deals for any closed-source software.
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05/27, 6:20pm
Apple removes GNU Go game app, makes no comment
The FSF -- Free Software Foundation -- has raised an issue with the iTunes terms of service relating to the game GNU Go, which uses GPL code. The foundation suggested that the terms of service 'fundamentally conflict with the terms of the GNU Public License' according to arstechnica, and resulted in Apple's removal of the game from the store. The foundation had warned Apple that it was liable to comply with GPL terms that allow free sharing of code, stating that Apple's usage rules were in violation of the terms in regard to GNU Go.
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05/21, 11:15am
MPEG-LA making patent pool to fee WebM
The primarily Google-led WebM group will likely still have to pay royalties, the MPEG-LA group's CEO Larry Horn said late Thursday. In spite of Google insisting WebM was patent- and royalty-free, the video standards group is assembling a patent pool that would let it ask for royalties for WebM and other standards. The costs would leave little reason to adopt the standard for HTML5 movies over H.264 and could result in lawsuits against Google, Mozilla, Opera or others who don't pay.
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12/12, 1:10pm
FSF sues Cisco over Linux
Networking giant Cisco Systems has been sued by the Free Software Foundation, a report reveals. Filing with the help of the Software Freedom Law Center, the FSF has accused Cisco of violating the General Public License under which the Linux operating system is distributed. Companies that want to use Linux can typically do so for free; the GPL stipulates, however, that any changes made for a Linux variant must be shared with the public.
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