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The Free Software Foundation filed a lawsuit against Cisco Systems on Thursday, alleging the networking giant is in violation of numerous open source licenses. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Manhattan by the Boston-based nonprofit open source software group. The FSF claims that sev...

Adoption of online video is finally moving into the mainstream. Once constrained to companies for whom the production and distribution of video was their primary business, online video is now entering a stage of broad adoption by companies of all sizes who see video as a way to broaden their marketi...

Fourteen more companies have joined the Open Handset Alliance, throwing their support behind Android -- the open source mobile platform developed by Google. The most notable new member is Sony Ericsson, which, interestingly, is also a member of the Symbian Foundation. This surge in membership will...

Mozilla released the second beta for its Firefox 3.1 Web browser to testers Monday. The latest release comes just seven weeks after the open source software maker launched the first beta of the version currently in the works. "So, even before the release of Firefox 3, we'd already been working on wh...

British residents are finding that access has been restricted to a Wikipedia page about "Virgin Killer," an album by the 1970s German rock group Scorpions. Several British Internet service providers have limited access to the page because it displays an image of the album's cover, which depicts a nu...

While the Google-backed Android gang is busy building applications and trying to get new phones manufactured, Google itself has ponied up a new unlocked device for developers: the Android Dev Phone 1. Basically, it's a "T-Mobile G1" that's SIM-unlocked and hardware unlocked, which will let users run...

Good OS, developer of the gOS Linux operating system, announced its latest endeavor Monday, dubbed "Cloud." The new operating system, unlike most OSes, actually boots into a browser. From there, the user may surf the Web or go to a traditional Windows or Linux operating system. The new OS integrates...

One of the most exciting aspects of the PlayStation 3 is that it allows users to install an alternative operating system. You can't overwrite Sony's GameOS or access privileged resources, but you can run your own applications on the new Cell Broadband Engine processor -- called the "CBE processor" o...

About eight months ago, the owners of a sporting goods company contacted their attorney, Doug Wolf, a partner at Wolf Greenfield. It seemed a company was using the firm's logo and trademark without proper authorization. Setting the matter right should have been a straightforward task for Wolf -- exc...

Opera Software has thrown open the doors to reveal the final version of its popular Opera Mini 4.2 browser for mobile phones. The 4.2 version has been in beta the last few weeks, and now that Opera Software has opened a new server park, users of the browser in the United States should see a 30 perce...

TECHNOLOGY LAW CORNER

The Rocky Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds, Part 3: Copyrights

Copyrights are perhaps the most common type of intellectual property (along with trademarks), and are the first stop when it comes to protecting software-based products. This is because copyrights, which protect a particular expression of an idea, exist automatically upon fixation of an author's wo...

PRODUCT REVIEW

No Love, but Plenty of Like, for the G1

I've been using a T-Mobile G1 for about a month now, and while it's the best phone I've ever owned (yes, I bought it), I haven't yet found myself saying "I love this phone." I like it plenty, don't get me wrong, but like any device, it's got things about it that are frustrating and other things that...

TECHNOLOGY LAW CORNER

The Rocky Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds, Part 2: Patents

A patent represents a grant from the United States government to an individual for the exclusive right to make, use, import, sell, and offer to sell an invention. In order to obtain a patent, an inventor must prove that the invention is new, useful, and not merely an obvious improvement over what wa...

The Linux Licensing Labyrinth

It's a small wonder that the Linux operating system remains vibrant in multiple industries and is poised to make a dash for more consumers' desktops, considering how often misunderstandings get in the way of its advancement. For instance, Linux was not immediately recognized as a real OS in the way ...

So here we are. Home prices and incomes are falling, foreclosures are rising, layoffs are multiplying, and wealth is evaporating. Everyone is looking for signs of stability, but each new day brings new despair and uncertainty. Amidst the reckoning, it's hard to imagine the future, but regardless, it...


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