Some time ago I did a post and expressed my opinion regarding a possible outcome of the anti-DRM provisions of the GPL3 license. I got some feedback that made me think I was not clear enough.

My observation is this - the fewer restrictions that a piece of software has, the more "valuable" it becomes. The example I used was music. You can buy music that is unrestricted by DRM from iTunes, and it costs more.

It's been 11 days since the release of the final version of the GPL3 - not even close to long enough to draw conclusions about a license which has been in use since 1991. The previous blog entry has some numbers, but a few thoughts...

...there doesn't seem to be a landslide of conversions - but a lot of "GPL2 or later" is an indication that people will be moving over time.

It doesn't really make a lot of sense to go through the whole process of updating the license info in your software until you are ready for a new release - another reason why there is no landslide of conversions.

We're getting close to the completion of the GPLv3 review process and the release of the final version (noon Friday). The GPL has been the most widely used license for free and open source software since 1991, and the final version release is an important milestone. It is a model for how to conduct a thoughtful and transparent review. And yes, licenses can and should have an agenda.

I just returned from a trip to Japan - I always find trips there to be worthwhile, and this one was no exception. The tech econcmy seems strong - software development playing an increasing role. Not surprisingly, open source plays a big role, and the awareness of IP rights and responsibilities is higher than on prior visits. In fact, a number of the firms I visited already have internal tools in place. The size of some of the software projects I saw were pretty amazing. I guess this should be no surprise with the obvious capabilities of the consumer devices we see today.

Icontinue to follow the MS-Novell deal, since I think it is one of the major (if a bit arcane) tech stories this year. The latest related piece of news is how it has impacted the drafting of the new GPL3 license. Immediately after the announcement, the draft of the GPL3 was edited to prevent any future similar agreements, and to preclude Novell from continuing to distribute their SuSE distribution (assuming that they included GPL3 licensed content).

When the OSA first launched in February, it was a clear indication of the open source community's commitment to further expanding the benefits of collaborative development. The organization's inaugural members and vision statement resonated with what we believe at Palamida -- that open source software should be innovative, secure, respectful of intellectual property rights, easily integrated into many environments, ahead of the curve, and cost-effective.

It is a busy week at Palamida - two new product announcements and participation in the Gartner ITexpo here in San Francisco. The product announcements are our IP Amplifier Server Edition, and our Vulnerability Reporting Solution. Read about them at Palamida.com. They represent a lot of work and dedication from our Palamida team - so congrats to all of them on the announcements.

I wonder what was going on with this? Did a Google developer get his hands on proprietary code? Was this code inadvertantly floating around on the internet? In any case - sort of embarassing, and Google did the right thing.

With the right business process and tools this wouldn't happen - it probably had a copyright, or at least some suspicious names, and maybe Java namespace info. A good IP detection system (like ours) would likely have raised an alert.

Its about time...the US rattled the copyright cage with China today. See it here. I'm glad they did. Authors have rights - and in a global economy, you need to play fair with those rights. Change will be hard to accomplish, but with a $250M trade surplus with the US, and the olympics coming up - seems to me like China would want to act a bit more grown up. It still however points out that there is probably an alternative model out there somewhere for the movie industry.

YouTube, EMI, Guitar Tabs...the number of popular press articles on intellectual property issues is amazing. Today's was Vonage. Its a patent issue filed by Verizon. Ouch - Vonage is prohibited from signing up new customers. The world is getting an education in IP, and I think that is good news for companies like ours, that make the tools that help you manage your use of other people's.