Blog
Karen About Trademarks (Vid Review)
February 26, 2015
Who Karen Sandler What Trademarks and Your Free and Open Source Software Project Where YouTube video When 2014 The Gist Trademarks are a complex part of law that usually must be considered along with copyright and patents Karen Sandler explains parts of trademark law, especially relating to FOSS projects, through several historical and recent examples […]
Register Marks You Trade (Lit Review)
February 23, 2015
Who Software Freedom Law Center What A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects (Ch. 5) Where PDF Document When 2008 The Gist Trademarks are a way to protect the integrity, trust, and association of quality with a certain product/invention/brand Like patents, trademarks are codified in the law and managed by the […]
Patent Promises Are Like Copyleft for Patents (Lit Review)
February 18, 2015
Who Red Hat / IBM / Google / Red Hat again What Red Hat Patent Promise / IBM Patent Promise / Google Patent Pledge / Article about patent promises by Red Hat Where Red Hat Patent Policy / IBM Patent Promise (PDF Document) / Google Patent Pledge / Article @ Red Hat When 2001 / […]
Be Patient With Patents (Lit Review)
February 16, 2015
Who Software Freedom Law Center What A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects (Ch. 4) Where PDF Document When 2008 The Gist Patents exist as a way to protect the rights of inventors and vary in implementation by the country’s legal regime Many patents involve software and FOSS developers run some […]
Nobody Reads the ToS (Lit Review)
February 12, 2015
Who Apple Inc. / Fedora Project / Python Software Foundation What iTunes Terms and Conditions / Fedora Project Contributor Agreement / Python Contributor Agreement Where apple.com / fedoraproject.org / python.org (PDF) When Current (as of 2/11/2015) The Gist Apple has a notoriously lengthy, dense, and morally dubious terms of service agreement which is required to […]
Grokking the GPL (Lit Review)
February 9, 2015
Who Free Software Foundation / Software Freedom Law Center What Copyleft and the GNU General Public License: A Comprehensive Tutorial and Guide (Ch. 1) Where PDF Document When 2003-2014 The Gist This chapter explains how the Free Software Foundation (FSF) defines what software is free and what is not. People commonly use the phrase “open […]
Learn You Some Licenses (Lit Review)
February 5, 2015
Who Software Freedom Law Center What A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects (Intro, Ch. 1-2) Where PDF Document When 2008 The Gist This document clears up common misconceptions about free/open source software and its relation to copyright. There are countless different licenses in common use within the greater FOSS community, […]
Everything is Not a Remix (Vid Review)
February 4, 2015
Who Kirby Ferguson What Everything is a Remix Where http://everythingisaremix.info/ via YouTube video When 2012 The Gist Ferguson makes the case that all creative works and inventions are derivative from other works. The video explores the recent histories of Western writing, music, movies, and electronic advancements. A contrast is drawn between our apparent appetite for […]
Third Time’s the Charm for First Flight
February 2, 2015
Wow! I’m a senior in my last semester of college! Resume? Check. Jobs? Check. Senioritis? Check? Check. Yes that’s all very scary, but nostalgia, happiness, and related emotion-y-stuff concerning moving through life deserves its own article. As part of my undergraduate degree, I’m enrolled in the first-of-its-kind Open Source and Free Culture minor, which requires […]
Protip: Disable SSL 3.0 on nginx
October 19, 2014
Another day, another something-bleed bug related to secure browsing discovered. There’s a new vulnerability (“Poodlebleed”) affecting the SSL protocol which could allow for unauthorized snooping and MITM (man-in-the-middle) attacks on users of services which use SSL 3.0. If you serve over SSL, you should make sure you’re not using 3.0. In current versions of nginx, […]