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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Amazon sues New York over Internet tax
1 week, 6 days ago
The online retailer mounts a constitutional challenge to the controversial state law that aims to clamp down on collecting Internet sales taxes. -
N.Y. lawmakers near vote on 'Amazon Tax'
1 month, 1 week ago
Hotly debated provision could rewrite the rules of e-commerce. -
Google cops to puppeting Great American Wireless Auction
1 month, 1 week ago
"Google has admitted it toyed with Verizon during The Great American Wireless Auction.Today, the US Federal Communications Commission lifted the gag order it placed on companies that vied for the coveted 700-MHz band, a prime portion of the US airwaves, and the world's largest search engine couldn't help but tell the world what an important role it played in the auction's outcome, ensuring that at least part of the band will provide open access to any device and any application."
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Malaysian Government begins migration to OpenOffice.org
1 month, 4 weeks ago
The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), today officially adopts a policy to migrate to the OpenOffice.org open source productivity suite. This is in line with the Malaysian Public Sector Open Source Master Plan, which calls for government agencies to reduce costs, increase freedom of choice and interoperability. -
Why we should care about the spectrum debate
2 months, 1 week ago
The debate of who should manage the wireless spectrum and whether it should be open is key to the future of mobile and personal computing, experts say. -
FCC Chairman says 'balance' is key to Net Neutrality
2 months, 1 week ago
Discusses Comcast, Net Neutrality and other issues at Stanford confab. -
Schwartz, Mulcahy: When will Uncle Sam get a clue on H-1Bs?
2 months, 1 week ago
The two CEOs use the occasion of a joint appearance to call for letting more non-U.S.-born-computer engineers into the country. -
Danish Unix User Group Files Complaint With EU Commission Against Denmark For Mandating MSOOXML
2 months, 2 weeks ago
The Danish Unix User Group, DKUUG, has filed a formal complaint with the EU Commission regarding Denmark's mandating ECMA 376, better known by us as MSOOXML, for certain procurements. -
A license fee for an unrestricted access to music
4 months ago
The Digital Milenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was adapted in most of the countries under the pressure of the majors and the distributors of music. Even if everybody could easily have an access to the Culture in all its variety, laws and technical restrictions make it impossible. Recently, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) proposed a licence fee for an unrestricted access to music. At the same time, a mission for the French government was detailing the best approach to prevent and dissuade Internet users from illegally downloading music. Isn't the SAC's proposal applicable to France/your country? -
New Net neutrality proposal planned for January
4 months, 4 weeks ago
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) had hoped to introduce a new bill this month, but staffers say hectic events forced him to push back those plans until early next year. -
FCC auction bidders named
4 months, 4 weeks ago
Google is one of several nontraditional communications companies planning to bid on 700MHz wireless spectrum. But at this point it's really anyone's game. -
Static on the Dream Phone
5 months ago
"This morning, the New York Times published my op-ed about the need for an open phone ecosystem under the title Static on the Dream Phone. I had originally titled it Openness is not a fig leaf. In it, I argue for Verizon (and by extension other major cell carriers) to embrace the vision of Google's Open Handset Alliance .... " -
Leicester City Council picks Microsoft and Novell for support
5 months ago
Leicester City Council is the first public sector organisation to sign-up for the joint Microsoft/Novell support contract to support its Windows and open source infrastructure. The contract will help the council prepare for a 6,500-user single sign-on and identity-management project, due to commence in April, which is expected to reduce up to 30% on account-related IT helpdesk calls. -
Netherlands Adopts Open-Source Software
5 months ago
The Dutch government has set a soft deadline of April 2008 for its agencies to start using open-source software — freely distributed programs that anyone can modify — the Netherlands Economic Affairs Ministry said Thursday. -
Free Ontario
5 months, 1 week ago
The first post of a campaign to introduce Linux and Open Source to every level of government in Ontario. Welcome to the beginning of something new. Welcome to a Free Ontario. This is the inaugural post of what will become a grassroots campaign to bring F/LOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) to all levels of government in the Province of Ontario. - More News
Linux.com : Government
Microsoft influencing partner NGOs to support OOXML in India
Microsoft is encouraging its business partners to promote its Office Open XML specification (OOXML) to the Indian Bureau of Standards (BIS) and Ministry of IT. This move has incensed supporters of the rival OpenDocument Format (ODF) who fear that the "soft" Indian state may not be able to stand up to Microsoft pressure tactics.
Canadian Greens add FOSS to election platform
Thanks to a founding member of Free Geek Vancouver, the Green Party of Canada has quietly become the first major political party in Canada to make support for free and open source software (FOSS) part of its election platform. Like officials in the Green Party of England and Wales, deputy leader Adriane Carr sees the move as compatible with basic Green ideas, but IT consultant Neil Adair also points out the move serves the practical purpose of helping the party match the technical resources of more established parties.
Talking FOSS at the UN
When Nathan Eckenrode goes to the United Nations in New York City next week to help demonstrate the technology behind open source software, he doesn't really expect to discover the answer to world peace. If he gets a little closer, though, he's all right with that.
Peer-to-Patent pilot steers toward change
On June 15, the New York Law School's Institute for Information Law and Policy, in cooperation with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), launched the Peer-to-Patent community patent review pilot program. While some sections of the free and open source community show little interest in the program, program leader Beth Noveck of the NYLS is upbeat, thanks to the interest shown by federal agencies including the Department of Commerce and software companies like Red Hat and Microsoft, and the prospect of replicating the program in other countries.
Blackhat Training instructor denied entry into US
Halvar Flake was scheduled to teach a class on computer security entitled Analyzing Software for Security Vulnerabilities today and tomorrow at Blackhat Training in Las Vegas. Instead, US customs officials cross-examined him for nearly five hours, then decided not to allow him into the country and put him on a plane back to Germany.
UK Greens connect to free software
For average hackers in their cubicles, the relation between environmental and free software issues may seem remote but the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) is working to connect the dots. Since adopting a motion in favor of free and open source software (FOSS) in 2005, party members have not only spoken frequently in favor of FOSS, but also on related issues, such as software patents and lockdown technologies in Vista.
Open source activists aim to produce transparent federal budget information
Earlier this year, former US senator and presidential candidate Bill Bradley published The New American Story, a book about reforming the American agenda. As part of that process and as a public citizen, he has joined open source activists to produce a Web-based window into the US federal budget.
Good enough for government work? Red Hat Linux receives top-notch security rating
IBM anticipates that the enhanced EAL4 security certification earned by Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5 earlier this month will further its adoption by businesses and government entities worldwide.
Ten big Dutch cities demand open standards
In the beginning of 2003, the Dutch government started a program called Open Standards and Open Source Software (OSSOS) to stimulate Dutch government agencies to use open standards in their software and to inform them about open source software. Last month, 10 big Dutch cities signed a Manifesto of the Open Cities, signaling that the OSOSS program is working.
Brazilian government faces challenge over proprietary tax software
The Free Software Foundation - Latin America (FSFLA) is campaigning against the Brazilian government's regulations that some citizens must use non-free software for paying taxes. Referring to the software as "Softwares Impostos," a term that puns in Portuguese on "taxes" and "imposed," FSFLA has launched a letter-writing campaign against the requirement, arguing that it is both contrary to current social policies and a violation of the Brazilian constitution.
Belgian government chooses OpenDocument
Belgium's Council of Ministers last month approved a proposal that requires federal government departments to use open file formats for exchanging documents. As it stands now, the only accepted standard is the Open Document Format (ODF). This increases the pressure on Microsoft to come up with support for open standards.
Canadian anti-DRM coalition makes timely debut
A coalition of public interest groups and academic privacy experts has released a public letter and background paper to the Canadian government stating their concerns about digital rights management (DRM) technologies and their legal status. The coalition has also started a Web site, IntellectualPrivacy.ca, to coordinate its efforts.
US military is blocking Slashdot and SourceForge.net
I was told recently that Air Force bases in the San Antonio, Texas, area are blocking one or more of our sister OSTG sites, like SourceForge.net, Slashdot.org, or Freshmeat.net. After finding reports via Google of commercial mail services and liberal news sites being blocked by various components of the Department of Defense, I decided to go straight to the horse's mouth for the story. Here's what I learned.
Canada census developers add Linux support
Statistics Canada has responded to concerned free software users by adding GNU/Linux support to the online census. While other free operating systems remain unsupported and issues about security and policy remain, this response is an important first step in ensuring open access to Canadian government online services.
Canadian Census controversy continues
Linux User Groups (LUG) and Canadian elected officials are responding to the news that the Canadian online census forms block free software users from participating. Last week's story helped uncover the fact that the software used for the online census seems to violate several government policies and treaties.
Canadian online census discriminates against FOSS
In 2006, Canadians can fill out their census forms online for the first time -- but not if they use GNU/Linux, or are free software advocates who prefer not to install a proprietary version of Java.
Italian provinces seek international FOSS partners
The province of Rome is engaged in several free/libre/open source software (FLOSS) related activities of international interest.
Successful public election joins Diebold, free software
Can running free software with an old Diebold voting machine yield valid, verifiable election results and save a city millions by avoiding a runoff election? It did for Burlington, Vermont.
Open source election systems desirable, unavailable
Even if American voters are ready to use open source systems to cast their ballots -- meaning publicly available code under an open source license -- no vendor offers open source software and systems that are ready for voting.
New initiative aims to improve the quality of patents
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in looking for ways to improve the quality of the patents it issues, has turned to the biggest patent holder in the country, which also happens to be one of the biggest supporters of open source software (OSS). IBM's 2,941 patents from 2005 make it far and away the top patentee for the thirteenth consecutive year, but Big Blue -- with the help of the USPTO, Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), Novell, Red Hat, and SourceForge -- is now aiming for quality over quantity, and is enlisting the OSS community to do it.
