Posted on Tuesday, Jun 12, 2012
Advising clients on open source is always hard, because there’s not much law but a lot of lore. There are a couple of court decisions that discuss open source licensing, but they don’t get at the really complicated and interesting issues that arise in the day-to-day.
Posted on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
It’s now up to a jury in San Francisco to determine whether Google’s Android mobile platform infringes Oracle’s copyrights in the code and documentation for the Java Platform. Or is it?
Posted on Friday, Feb 10, 2012
Back in the fall I wrote about the flap over the HP TouchPad tablets that were shipped with Android 2.2, or FroYo, installed. The TouchPad was a WebOS-powered tablet, but somehow at least a few units had Android installed. Most thought that these were test units that were never meant to be sold.
Posted on Monday, Jan 30, 2012
It’s traditional in late December to take a look back at the past year and review the top stories, and there are plenty of pieces that review the developments in open source in 2011: Sean Gallagher’s article at Ars Technica, Stephen J. Vaughn-Nichols’ recap of the top five Linux stories, and Mark Radcliffe’s take.
Tags:Android, GPL, Harald Welte, Linux, open source
Posted on Thursday, Nov 10, 2011
As I wrote a few weeks ago, it seems that a few of HP’s now discontinued TouchPads shipped with Android 2.2, or FroYo, installed. The TouchPad was a WebOS-powered tablet, but somehow at least a few units had Android installed. It’s thought that these were test units that were never meant to be sold.
Posted on Tuesday, Nov 8, 2011
In September, federal judge William Alsup denied Google’s request for a ruling that the Java application programming interfaces (“APIs”) were, categorically, not protected under copyright law. In that order, which came in Google’s litigation with Oracle over Google’s use of Java in its Android mobile operating system, Judge Alsup ruled that each of the disputed files must be analyzed individually to determine whether it is protected by copyright.
Posted on Wednesday, Oct 26, 2011
It was inevitable that malware would eventually target smartphones. The mobile devices are ubiquitous, and they can store quite a lot of valuable private data. Downloaded apps – projected to reach a staggering 29 billion for 2011 – provide an easy vector for infection.
Posted on Tuesday, Oct 4, 2011
For a time, it seemed that HP couldn’t give away its TouchPad tablet. Then it killed the device and announced a fire sale liquidation. Giving them away wasn’t the problem any longer – HP couldn’t handle the demand as the remaining inventory flew off the shelves.
Tags:Android, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Linux, open source
Posted on Tuesday, Sep 27, 2011
A couple of weeks ago I noted the conversation in the FOSS community over Google’s closed development of the “open” Android mobile operating system. That debate was sparked by the publication of some internal Google documents that instructed its Android team: “Do not develop in the open.”
Posted on Monday, Sep 12, 2011
Does “open source” mean developing in the open? Or is it good enough – legally and morally – to publicly release the code after the fact, when the next release is ready for market? Is transparency a defining value of the open source community, perhaps even the most important value? Or is it equally valid, and perhaps a better business practice, to keep development closed?
