Beyond Open for Business

Reports about open source tend to be rather one-sided: either polemics against, or propaganda for, depending on who's paying for them. That makes a new report written by Jim Norton, former President of the BCS, with the rather unoriginal title "Open for Business", particularly welcome, since it has been sponsored by Amadeus, which describes itself as follows:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Syrian Activist Arrested By Secret Police Merely For Having Livestreaming App Installed On His Phone

Police and security forces around the world -- and that includes in the West -- hate being recorded when they're overstepping the mark in the execution of their duties, since it allows the public to challenge official accounts, and even to use videos to seek redress. But there's one thing worse than being recorded, and that's being livestreamed: even the most nimble authorities can't confiscate the recording from its creator, since it's already been uploaded for the world to see. 

On Techdirt.

'Setting The Default To Open': The Next Ten Years Of Open Access

As Techdirt has reported, open access (OA) is scoring more and more major wins currently. But the battle to gain free access to academic research has been a long one. One of the key moments was the launch of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) ten years ago, which saw the term "open access" being defined for the first time: 

On Techdirt.

First HADOPI Victim Convicted, Not For His Own Infringement, But Because His Wife Downloaded Songs

Well, here's a nice contrast: just when a judge in the US has ruled that users there have no obligation to lock down their wifi connections, a court in France decides the exact opposite. What makes the story even more significant is that the individual concerned is the first person to be convicted under France's 3-strikes law, generally known as HADOPI. 

On Techdirt.

Open Data Institute Gets Ready to Open Its Doors

Open data continues to spread around the world - here's a great recent summary of what's happening where. But simply making government data available is no longer enough: now we need to move on to the far trickier job of doing something with it.

On Open Enterprise blog.

The New Kremlinology: Decoding The Signals Of Future EU Copyright Enforcement Moves

The negotiations behind closed doors of major treaties like ACTA and TPP, and the refusal of participants to release official drafts or to engage in any kind of substantive dialog, has meant that activists and observers have been obliged to seize upon even the smallest signs and hints emerging from those talks in an attempt to guess what is going on. In a way, we are witnessing the birth of a new form of Kremlinology, which Wikipedia explains as follows: 

On Techdirt.

What a Wonderful Piece of Work is Opus

When we talk of free software, we typically think of things like GNU/Linux, Apache or Firefox. But one aspect that often gets overlooked is that of multimedia codecs. There's a good reason for this: most of them are patent-encumbered, which makes using them with free software hard - well, hard if you want to do it legally. In practice, most people have employed implementations of dubious legality, and the licensors have taken the sensible view that they are hardly losing millions from this kind of activity, and have turned a blind eye.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Chile Leads The Way On Intermediary Liability Protections

As Techdirt reported, the European Commission is conducting a major consultation on the "procedures for notifying and acting on illegal content hosted by online intermediaries" that could radically affect the liability of online service providers in the European Union. Other parts of the world are doubtless examining this area too, and one at least -- Chile -- has already come up with a novel approach. 

On Techdirt.

Industries Dependent On Copyright Exceptions Contribute $182 Billion To Australian Economy

Despite the absence of credible studies supporting the idea, part of the copyright maximalist dogma is that the wider the reach of copyright, and the stricter the application, the better. As a corollary, copyright exceptions are anathema, which is why the US and EU are still shamefully resisting an international treaty that would enable more books covered by copyright to be produced in versions suitable for the visually impaired, since it would create a minor exception to help make that happen. 

On Techdirt.

Fighting Software Patents in the Unitary Patent Again

Back in July, I warned about the imminent threat of software patents sneaking into Europe thanks to horse-trading over the proposed EU Unitary Patent. Nothing happened then, but purely because MEPs turned to far more important matters - their summer holidays. Now that those balmy days are over, MEPs are back at work, and the Unitary Patent rears its misbegotten head again.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Has The German Pirate Party Lost Its Way?

For the last year, it seemed like the German Pirate Party could do no wrong. In November 2011, it won 9% of the vote in the Berlin parliamentary elections, then 7.4% in Saarland in March, 8.2% of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein in May, and a similar level in North Rhine-Westphalia shortly afterwards. There was a little pushback from copyright maximalists, but after ACTA's defeat in July, you might have expected the Pirates to be riding even higher in the public's favor. A recent article in the German news magazine Der Spiegel reveals that's far from the case: 

On Techdirt.

Does The Idea Of Open Source Planes Really Fly?

The term "open source" was coined back in February 1998, and initially it applied only to software. But as the power of open, collaborative development became apparent, other spheres have adopted the "open" tag along with the underlying approach. Here's the latest example -- open source planes: 

On Techdirt.

Jimmy Wales Threatens To Stymie UK Snooping Plans By Encrypting Wikipedia Connections

The draft bill of the UK's "Snooper's Charter", which would require ISPs to record key information about every email sent and Web site visited by UK citizens, and mobile phone companies to log all their calls, was published back in July. Before it is debated by politicians, a Joint Committee from both the House of Commons and House of Lords is conducting "pre-legislative scrutiny." 

On Techdirt.

A Question of (Open) Standards

As long-standing readers will know, alongside ACTA, the other main theme of this blog over the last year or so has been the battle for the soul of open standards, which culminated in the UK government's consultation on the subject. We don't yet know what the outcome there will be, but whatever it is, the issue of open standards will only increase in importance.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Evidence That UK Needs Mandatory Porn Filters? Informal Survey Done At One School

In the UK there is currently a campaign and associated petition from the organization "Safety Net: Protecting Innocence Online", which calls for mandatory Net filtering of pornography -- people would need to opt out of the system if they wanted to view this material. The justification -- of course -- is the usual "won't someone think of the children?" Here's the pitch: 

On Techdirt.

New Research Sets The Stage For Next Round Of Cat-And-Mouse Between BitTorrent Users & Snoopers

The BitTorrent protocol is an extremely efficient way of moving files around the Internet, especially big ones. That makes it highly popular with those seeking to download unauthorized copies of music and films, for example. But the clever approach that enables BitTorrent to do that, which involves downloading fragments of a file from a shifting swarm of fellow peers holding some or all of it, is also a weakness from these users' point of view: it means that downloads take place in public, rather than as a private transaction from a client to a server (as with cyber lockers.) 

On Techdirt.

Forget The Death-Star Anti-Mosquito Lasers, Here's How Nathan Myhrvold Can Help Tackle Malaria -- And Improve His Image

Nathan Myhrvold is trying to rustle up a little positive PR for Intellectual Ventures (IV) by appointing a VP of Global Good (although it's hard to see how anyone lumbered with such a daft job title is going to be taken seriously anywhere.) You can gauge just how touchy Myhrvold is on this topic by his rather waspish response to some commentary on that move. 

On Techdirt.

European Commission Looks To Backdoor In ACTA By Pushing For Same Results Through 'Voluntarism'

This year saw two huge victories for digital activism: against SOPA in the US, and against ACTA in the EU. The big question is now: what will be the next moves of those behind SOPA and ACTA as they seek to regain the initiative? For SOPA, we've had a clue in the call for a "Son of SOPA" from the US Chamber of Commerce. But what about the European Commission? 

On Techdirt.

EU Wants to Sneak in a Mini-ACTA by the Backdoor

Even after ACTA was rejected by the European Parliament on 4 July this year, the European Commission was still refusing to admit that the treaty was misguided and dangerous. To this day, it's not clear what it is planning in terms of trying to bring it back in another form, or by negotiating some kind of ACTA Lite with the other signatories.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Could Your Company Survive a Net Block?

As part of the seemingly endless round of consultations (I'm not complaining - this is how it should be done), the UK government is asking about parental internet controls:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Apple's Pyrrhic Patent Victory

The reaction to the jury's decision in the US patent infringement case between Apple and Samsung has been rather remarkable. I've seen it called all kinds of turning and inflection points for the computing/mobile world, as if we are entering some strange new era whose landscape is weird and unknown to us. This is utter nonsense. I don't think Apple's "stunning" or "total" victory - all phrases I've seen bandied about - is particularly stunning, or even a victory. 

On Open Enterprise blog.

The Googlisation of Surveillance

As promised, here is my submission to the Joint Parliamentary Committee considering the UK government's Draft Communications Bill:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Comment on the UK Government's Snooping Bill

The Draft Communications Bill [.pdf] is one of the most controversial pieces of UK legislation proposed in recent years - not least because it represents a betrayal of election promises by the coalition to roll back state surveillance in the UK. As usual, the government is attempting to claim that current plans are "different" because the databases are distributed, not centralised; but the fact that searches will be possible across all the decentralised holdings means that there is no practical difference. This is quite simply another example of politicians promising one thing to get elected, and then doing its opposite.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Can open source be democratic?

One of the most important messages in the history of free software – and computing – was posted 21 years ago, on 25 August 1991:

On The H Open.

Unleashing the Potential of Open Data

It seems a long while ago now, but June was a pretty hectic month in this neck of the woods, since it saw the final push to get ACTA rejected in the European Parliament. But of course, plenty of other things were happening then, and one in particular that I wanted to cover was the release of this UK Open Data White Paper entitled "Unleashing the Potential". 

On Open Enterprise blog.