Licence to Thrill

As I've written elsewhere, licences are not peripheral to free software, they lie at its very heart. So argy-bargy over the new draft of GNU GPLv3 was bound to bring some interesting further developments, and that's what we have here:

the strategy of the FSF is simple (I am paraphrasing here, nobody said these exact words to me):

1. FACT: we simply could not get GPLv3 out with the ASP provision or it would have been DOA. It is hard to disagree...

2. TRICK: we are creating another specific license that includes the ASP provision (AGPLv2) and we added in GPLv3 that the two will be compatible. The end result is license proliferation, but not license incompatibility which is the key issue.

3. GOAL: GET AGPL TO BE THE REAL NEXT GPL

Cultivating the (Oz) Commons

Aside from its intrinsic interest, there is a good reason for observing closely what happens to content in Australia. Because of the Free Trade Act kit passed, Australia is imposing many of the US's most stupid legal instruments in this domain; how content fares under this regime could well serve as a warning for all those other countries contemplating similar moves.

The best place to find out about content down under is the book Open Content Licensing: Cultivating the Creative Commons, which brings together a couple of dozen papers from a conference that took place a couple of years ago (what took so long?). As well as the always-entertaining Lessig trot down copyright's memory lane, there's plenty about the particularities of Australian law and practice, as well as an unusual section on computer games and law. It's available as a free PDF.

The Great Content Taboo is Broken

This is what we've been waiting for:

EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players.

The tracks are a little pricey:

Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

but that's not the point. A taboo has been broken, and things will never be the same again in the world of digital content.

Hacking Second Life (Properly)

Now that the code for the Second Life client is available as open source, I wondered who would be the first to offer a how-to. And the winner is...Peter Seebach:

In this series, I introduce the client (or "viewer" in Linden terminology) and explore the development environment, documentation, and more. Developers who are used to an open source environment are sometimes a little put off by things that might be done differently in a commercial environment, and this project offers a number of opportunities to explore some of the tradeoffs. Of course, the best way to explore a program is to do something with it, so this series gets into the code to make a few changes.

Somebody Gets a (Second) Life

These guys were the new philosophers, and they had discovered a way to be involved in the latest technologies of the day, and not just from an engineering perspective, but from the perspective of how that technology would change our lives and possibly even the nature of humanity. Having that sort of knowledge, being in a position to see and grasp something like that is heady stuff, and in my heart of hearts I really think that all the money – the hundreds of millions of dollars – is just game currency to these guys. It keeps them in the game and if you are winning the game you get to be intimately involved in the companies that are rewiring our minds and our communities and changing the nature of humanity itself.

Er, what took so long?

ODF: The Speech

A rather fine little speech about ODF and the virtues of openness, made by IBM's Bob Sutor as part of his testimony to the Texas House and Senate regarding the open document format legislation. Here's the nub:

to be clear, EVERYONE can implement a true open standard. This bill is about choice. ODF and open standards for file formats will drive choice of applications, innovative use of information, increased competition, and lower prices. Personally, I think these are good things.

In closing, the world is shifting to non-proprietary open standards based on the amazing success of the World Wide Web, a success that was far more important than any single vendor’s market position or ideas for what was right for the world.

Do read it if you can: it has some nice rhetorical rhythms to it.

C,mm,n? C'mon...

I've written about one open source car, OSCar, before, and now here's another, with a rather stranger name: C,mm,n. The idea, of course, is intriguing, though the Flash-infested Web site - literally the most sickening I have ever seen in terms of all the whooshing and sloshing of images - is rather thin on info:

Soon to be found here: detailed information on everything that is c,mm,n. Background stories, links to in-depth articles, blueprints, design schematics and much more. All you'll need to participate in the c,mm,n community and help develop the first real open source car in the world.

It will be interesting to see how exactly all those blueprints and design schematics actually feed into the open design process: applying openness to this kind of project is a real challenge, and it's not clear yet how easily complex objects of this kind can, in fact, be designed in this way. (Via Techmeme.)

GPLv3: Thrice the Brindled Cat Hath Mewed

Judging by the some articles, everything is now sweetness and light regarding GNU GPLv3, with those big buddies Richard and Linus gazing langorously in each other's (metaphorical) eye.

But someone sees things a little differently:

Last night, I read the last draft of GPLv3 on my cell phone during dinner in Orlando. I went looking for the provision they had in the last draft, the one that closes the GPLv2 ASP loophole that forced me to create HPL. In a nutshell, it is the ability of running GPLv2 software as a service (SaaS) without returning any changes to the community, because distribution of software as a service might not technically be considered distribution of software (therefore circumventing the copyleft clause that made open source what it is today). That is what Google does, making gazillions of dollars thanks to Linux and open source but keeping its secret sauce concealed from the rest of the world (but contributing in many other ways, therefore cleaning its conscience, I guess).

The provision is not there. Gone. They dropped the ball. Actually, it has been made very clear that the ASP loophole is not a loophole anymore. It is perfectly fine to change GPLv3 software and offer it to the public as a service, without returning the changes to the community.

This is an interesting point, although I tend to view SaaS as yesterday's big idea, so it may not be a major problem. See also the comments on the above posting for more (and more coherent) thoughts on this.

Update: More negative vibes here. It will be interesting to see how this develops. I've not read the latest draft yet, so don't really have a strong view either way.

Virtually There, Virtually Hair

If, like me, you somehow didn't make it to the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference, fear not: two reporters with, er, inimitable styles did attend, and have filed virtuoso reports on Philip Rosedale's speech. Read them both, and feel virtually there/hair.

Urizenus Sklar:

He talks about how the Mandelbrot program on his computer blew his mind. He and a friend follow the replication of a starfish in a diagram as they zoom in on regions of it. Did I imagine this or did he say *chocolate* starfish. “The area of diagram was the same as the surface of the earth” – the earth tiled with chocolate starfish. Imagine.

Prokofy Neva, Kremlindenologist:

So I walk into the 55th floor of the Millenium Hotel and I see it...The Hair. Our Hero's Hair is Holding Up. Relieved, I shake Philip Rosedale's hand and ask him how he's holding up, but the message has already been telegraphed to me: gelled, sturdy, stellar, architectural -- thank you very much. Philip's hair, if it could talk, would describe what it's like being the Cat in the Hat holding up all those sims, a rake, a plate, a cake...So...how many sims is it now? He gives me a figure..it's different than the figure Joe Miller gives later, you know, I don't think they really know, it's *almost organic* this stuff and out of control. 7800?

If you can imagine it's possible -- Philip's hair is *even more amazing* than it was at SOP II and SLCC I, which is when I first was exposed to the construction. People in New York don't do that kind of thing to their hair. I mean, you just never see it. Walk around, look. So this is So California. And...it's like...so cool and perfectly constructed, with just the right amount of mix of "bedhead" and "tousled bad boy" and "mad scientist". Gazing out over the sterilized wound of downtown, I couldn't help thinking of that time Nikola Tesla shorted out lower Manhattan with some experiment on Houston St...Philip looks more than ever like he stuck his hand in the socket and still finds it interesting...

Utterly brilliant.

Chinglish, Hinglish, Spanglish - and Glanglish

I had to smile when I saw this piece from the ever-perceptive Andrew Leonard at Salon about English as a global language:

This isn't just about encouraging youngsters with an eye to getting ahead in the 21st century to study Mandarin. It's also about coming to terms with other members of the English family -- the Chinglishes and Hinglishes and Spanglishes spoken by hundreds of millions of non-native English speakers across the globe. Too often, English-language instruction is contemplated only in a framework in which teaching the "correct" English according to some foundational British or American standard is the only choice. But today, there are many correct Englishes, and flourishing in a globalized world will require that those brought up in Oxford or New York understand those reared in Mumbai or Shanghai.

I had to smile because it reminded of a little number I wrote nearly 20 years ago, as part of a long-forgotten book of essays called Glanglish (although amazingly Amazon.co.uk seems to have a copy for sale):

Glanglish

English has never existed as a unitary language. For the Angles and the Saxons it was a family of siblings; today it is a vast clan in diaspora. At the head of that clan is the grand old matriarch, British English. Rather quaint now, like all aristocrats left behind by a confusing modern world, she nonetheless has many points of historical interest. Indeed, thousands come to Britain to admire her venerable and famous monuments, preserved in the verbal museums of language schools. Unlike other parts of our national heritage, British English is a treasure we may sell again and again; already the invisible earnings from this industry are substantial, and they are likely to grow as more and more foreigners wish at least to brush their lips across the Grande Dame's ring.

One group unlikely to do so are the natural speakers of the tongue from other continents. Led by the Americans, and followed by the Australians, the New Zealanders and the rest, these republicans are quite content to speak English - provided it is their English. In fact it is likely to be the American's English, since this particular branch of the family tree is proving to be the most feisty in its extension and transformation of the language. Even British English is falling in behind - belatedly, and with a rueful air; but compared to its own slim list of neologisms - mostly upper-class twittish words like 'yomping' - Americanese has proved so fecund in devising new concepts, that its sway over English-thinking minds is assured.

An interesting sub-species of non-English English is provided by one of the dialects of modern India. Indian English is not a truly native tongue, if only for historical reasons; and yet it is no makeshift second language. Reading the 'Hindu Times', it is hard to pin down the provenance of the style: with its orotundities and its 'chaps' it is part London 'Times' circa 1930; with its 'lakhs' it is part pure India.

Whatever it is, it is not to be compared with the halting attempts at English made by millions - perhaps billions soon - whose main interest is communication. Although a disheartening experience to hear for the true-blue Britisher, this mangled, garbled and bungled English is perhaps the most exciting. For from its bleeding hunks and quivering gobbets will be constructed the first and probably last world language. Chinese may have more natural speakers, and Spanish may be gaining both stature and influence, but neither will supersede this mighty mongrel in the making.

English is so universally used as the medium of international linguistic exchange, so embedded in supranational activities like travel - all pilots use English - and, even more crucially, so integral to the world of business, science and technology - money may talk, but it does so in English, and all computer programs are written in that language - that no amount of political or economic change or pressure will prise it loose. Perhaps not even nuclear Armageddon: Latin survived the barbarians. So important is this latest scion of the English stock, that it deserves its own name; and if the bastard brew of Anglicised French is Franglais, what better word to celebrate the marriage of all humanity and English to produce tomorrow's global language than the rich mouthful of 'Glanglish'?

The prose and examples may be rather dated now, but as the Salon piece shows, its basic idea is alive and well.

Magnatune: A Classic Case of Disruption

When it comes to digital music, Magnatune is definitely on the side of the angels:

We call it "try before you buy." It's the shareware model applied to music. Listen to 525 complete MP3 albums from musicians we work with (not 30 second snippets).

We let the music sell itself, because we think that's the best way to get you excited by it.

We pick the best submissions from independent musicians so you don't have to.

If you like what you hear, download an album for as little as $5 (you pick the price), or buy a real CD, or license our music for commercial use. And no copy protection (DRM), ever.

Artists keep half of every purchase. And unlike most record labels, they keep all the rights to their music.

No major label connections.

We are not evil.

And how about this little factette:

In 1980, Classical music represented 20% of global music sales. In 2000, Classical had plummeted to just 2% of global music sales. What happened? Did all those people suddenly lose their taste for classical music? Or is something else going on?

At Magnatune.com, an online record label I run, we sell six different genres of music, ranging from Ambient to Classical to Death Metal and World Music. Yet Classical represents a whopping 42% of our sales. Even more intriguingly, only 9% of the visitors to our music site click on “classical” as the genre they’re interested in, yet almost half of them end up buying classical music.

Do read the rest - it's fascinating.

Looks like innovative digital music business models can be even more disruptive than you might think.

Dell Speaks About GNU/Linux Again...

...but no action yet:

Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems. We will provide an update in the coming weeks that includes detailed information on which systems we will offer, our testing and certification efforts, and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available. The countdown begins today.

Interesting fact from this announcement:

On March 13, we responded by launching a Linux survey asking for your feedback on what you need for a better Linux experience. Thank you to the more than 100,000 people who took the survey. Here are some of the highlights from the survey:

...

* Majority of survey respondents said that existing community-based support forums would meet their technical support needs for a tested and validated Linux operating system on a Dell system.

which is what I wrote, too, in my answer to the survey. It will be interesting to see what happens and how it works out in practice. I will certainly be interested in buying a system or two if they make something decent available.

Intellectual Monopoly Madness - Trademarks Too

First it was patents, then copyright, and now it seems the IP mob are trying to pervert trademarks too:

it is insane to try and claim a general trademark over the phrase itself when it is divorced from a pre-existing good or service. At that point, it is no longer a tool to identify a commercial good, it then becomes a naked and virulent attempt to try and privatize language itself through a government enforced monopoly. Anyone claiming to be an attorney who endorses such nonsense out to be shamed out of the profession.

Patently Not Obvious

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have an instinctive suspicion of organisations that try to co-opt weasel words. And now we have not one such group, but three of them:

Coalition for Patent Fairness

Innovation Alliance

Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform

I couldn't even begin to parse all the subtle biases and hidden agendas going on here (this post takes a stab).

But what's most interesting, of course, is that whatever the position, we're talking about patents here. Suddenly, patent reform is hot in the US, which means there's a hope - just a glimmer - of some sense being brought to the seriously broken PTO there (and if you want further proof of why it isn't working try this excellent piece about patent thickets.)

So That's Why They Call the Company SAP

SAP AG will not be impacted by open source ERP software, chief executive Henning Kagermann is adamant.

Despite evidence of open source creep, Kagermann thinks it is still a database and OS-level model. He tackled the rise of open source in a recent interview with ComputerWire.

“It is an option for operating systems and databases but not at the business application level,” he said. “There are no open source ERP products that are any good for the high end, although it could be argued that they could be developed for the low end.”

So writes Angela Eager - who, parenthetically, used to work for me: wotcha, Angela.

Poor old SAP: the fact that proprietary software vendors in every market - including operating systems and databases - have said precisely the same thing when challenged by open source from below seems not to have penetrated the poor chap's skull. ERP is not special (and open source ERP is flourishing.)

So let's say it in easy-to-understand terms: you cannot defend yourself from low-end creep by pinning your hopes on up-market products. Try reading The Innovator's Dilemma to find out why.

Last Chance to Save the BBC from DRM

Today is the deadline for submitting a response to the BBC's plans for on-demand services. Full story here.

Openness, Surveillance and Privacy

Previous posts have noted that there is an inherent tension between openness and privacy. That tension is even more acute in the case of surveillance, which goes beyond consensual openness. Despite this, there is relatively little public debate around these issues; instead, as has been remarked, the UK is effectively sleepwalking into a surveillance society.

Against this depresseing background, the new report from the Royal Academy of Engineering, entitled Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance Challenges of Technological Change, is particularly welcome.

This is not least because it offers a depth of knowledge about the technological issues involved that is rarely encountered (these are engineers, remember). But it is also notable for its even-handedness and sensible suggestions. For example:

In this scenario, disconnection technologies are widely used in a co-ordinated manner: personal data is routinely encrypted and managed in a secure fashion, so co-ordinated connectivity does not threaten it and even substantial processing resources are not a day-to-day threat. This leads to Little Sisters who, by themselves, watch over only a fragment of a person's identity, but when co-ordinated can reveal all.

It would be possible to devise a store loyalty card which incorporated a computer chip that could perform the same functions as an ID card, but without giving away the real name of its owner. Someone might choose a loyalty card in the name of their favourite celebrity, even with the celebrity's picture on the front. If they were to use that card to logon to Internet sites, the fact that they are not really the film star whose name they have used would be irrelevant for most applications, and the privacy of the consumer would be maintained. However, if they did something they should not, such as posting abusive messages in a chat room, law enforcement agencies might then ask Little Sister (ie, the company that runs the loyalty card scheme, in this case) who the person really is, and Little Sister will tell them. In this
scenario, government departments are just more Little Sisters, sharing parts of the picture without immediate access to the whole.

This approach exploits both mathematics and economics. If it is technically possible to find out who has done what - for example when a crime has been committed - but cryptography makes it economically prohibitive to monitor people continuously on a large scale, then a reasonable privacy settlement can be achieved.

This approach suggests a interesting way of balancing the opposing requirements for privacy and accountability.

Recommended reading. (Via the Open Rights Group.)

HP's Dirty Secret

Recently HP has been dropping hints about its deep love for GNU/Linux:

Hewlett-Packard is closing custom deals for thousands of desktop PCs running Linux, which has the company assessing the possibility of offering factory-loaded Linux systems, an HP executive said.

But HP giveth, and HP taketh away:

Laura Breeden bought a new Compaq Presario C304NR notebook in January. She bought it because she wanted to get rid of Windows and all the malware that surrounds it and move to Linux, and her old laptop lacked the memory and power to run Ubuntu Edgy. The salespeople assured her that the C304NR was "Linux ready." But they didn't tell her that running Linux would void her warranty.

Until recently, she's been happy with it, and with Ubuntu Edgy. But a couple of weeks ago she began having keyboard problems. The keyboard is misbehaving when she begins to type quickly: keys are sticking and the space bar does not always respond when pressed.

When she called Compaq -- the unit comes with a one-year warranty on the hardware -- they asked what operating system she was running. When she told them Linux, they said, "Sorry, we do not honor our hardware warranty when you run Linux."

Not much love there, then.

Mumbai Police Outlaw Non-Microsoft Products

Microsoft getting help from the Mumbai constabulary? Seems a little extreme....

The Mumbai Police has come up with regulations for Cyber Cafes. Clause 14 of this regulation requires Cyber Cafes to have "Microsoft Open License Agreement."

BuyaBand, SellaBand

At last - someone is trying a new business model for digital music:

For the first time fans and Artists can be in business together. Therefore each Artist issues 5,000 so called Parts. Parts cost $10 (plus transaction costs) each. Together Believers have to raise $50,000 to get their Artist of choice in the studio. At any point before your Artist has reached the Goal of $50,000, you can withdraw your Parts and pick a different Artist. You can even get your money back. It's your music. It's your choice.

Once your Artist has raised $50,000 SellaBand will assign an experienced A&R-person to this project. Together with a top Producer, your Artist will record a CD in a state-of-the-art Studio. During the process you will get an exclusive sneak preview of this exciting process.

...

The music on the CD will be given away as free downloads on our download portal. All advertising revenues generated on SellaBand will be shared equally between you, the other Believers, the Artist and SellaBand. The amount of money you and the band will get paid depends on the advertising revenues and the market-share your band gains on our download portal.

In some ways this is like vanity publishing: people pay to be published. The differences are that fans pay for publication - micro-patronage - published items are given away (because content has zero marginal cost), and money is made from advertising (the Web 2.0 way). I can see this working, provided the main company Sellaband isn't taking such a big cut from the ad revenue that it is perceived as a free rider on the work and money of others.

At least it's founders seem to have the right background, as well as an interesting idea. Here's hoping. (Via OpenBusiness.)

Anyone for Croquet?

A little while back I wrote about the Qwaq virtual world system. This is based on the open source Croquet code, which has just released version 1.0 of its SDK. Qwaq and HP have also helped set up the Croquet Consortium to support the development of the software.

A Small Comeuppance for Enclosing a Commons

The governing board of the Smithsonian Institution announced Monday that it had accepted the resignation of its top official, Lawrence M. Small, after an internal audit showing that the museum complex had paid for his routine use of lavish perks like chauffeured cars, private jets, top-rated hotels and catered meals.

But aside from claiming interesting expenses like “chandelier cleaning and pool heaters” at his home, Mr Small will be of most interest to readers of this blog for

a recent deal with Showtime, the cable channel. In that deal, the Smithsonian agreed to restrict access to its archives and scientists, which critics said violated its public status.

In other words, Mr Small was enclosing a commons. Nice to see that he's received his comeuppance, however, er, small it might be. (Via Boing Boing.)

Zimbra's World Wide Desktop

Zimbra is part of a new generation of open source enterprise apps that are really starting to be taken seriously by companies. The original Zimbra is basically an Ajax-based Web client, but now Zimbra has come out with Zimbra Desktop, that lets you work collaboratively even offline.

I predict this is going to become the next big thing with the current collection of web apps. The only problem is that there's going to be lots of duplication, as each desktop sets up its own offline Web server on the user's computer. So how about if all the open source companies got together and standardised on a single piece of code that all their apps could use?

The Big IP Lies

Most of this is just legal posturing, but the following paragraph is noteworthy:

Intellectual property is worth $650 billion a year to the U.S. economy. Not only does intellectual property drive our exports, it's a key part of what distinguishes developed economies from developing ones. Protecting intellectual property spurs investment and thereby the creation of new technologies and creative entertainment. This creates jobs and benefits consumers. Google and YouTube wouldn't be here if not for investment in software and technologies spurred by patent and copyright laws.

This equation of intellectual monopolies with civilisation is insulting in the extreme. As this blog has noted, IP maximalists - mostly in the US, but from Europe, too - are trying to stuff their monopolies down the throats of many developing nations, with disastrous effects on national and local economies, on people's lives and on entire cultures. Civilisation, my foot, this is pure neo-colonialism.

But of course the real scream is the last statement: "Google and YouTube wouldn't be here if not for investment in software and technologies spurred by patent and copyright laws". What, like the free software both use, which employs copyright to subvert traditional intellectual monopolies, or like the millions of user-created videos that are added to the content commons for the sheer joy of creating and sharing?

Sad.

Print Has Heard the Music of Time

look at the difference in how each industry has reacted. The music industry continued to try and sue everyone it can in order to enforce a status quo that no longer exists. The news industry has perhaps resigned itself to the fact that they will have to operate with less revenues for the foreseeable future. But they are at least slowly coming to grips with that future and are still struggling to find sensible solutions. Imagine the cultural impact if media corporations started suing Internet users for reading news off of "unauthorized" websites.

For music, the writing is on the wall.