HEAD is now open for feature commits, announces Linux Today, through this reprint from the KDE Developer Mailing List.

An international coalition of 28 human rights and civil liberties
groups has called on the Council of Europe to alter its draft treaty
on International cybercrime, warning that the agreement could
violate the European Convention on Human Rights and rob
Internet users of their freedom, from ZDNet UK News.

Linux Weekly News announces, on the occasion of PAUL’s launching during the Systems, the
prototype of ID-PRO’s communication server will come under the hammer, signed by several well-known community members, with proceeds benefitting the Open-Source-Community.

Open Source Development Network
(OSDN.com), a division of VA Linux Systems, Inc., today
announced the launch of the OSDN Developer Services Program, which
will kick off with an Open Source Database Summit on October 30 and 31,
2000 in San Jose, California. (Disclosure: NewsForge is a member of OSDN.)The two-day summit, sponsored by NuSphere, will bring together leading
database developers in the Open Source community, and is the first in an
ongoing series of events organized by the OSDN Developer Services Program.

By hosting a series of tightly focused developer-to-developer (D2D)
events, the OSDN Developer Services Program will facilitate communication
and cooperation between Open Source software developers, vendors and
users working in key technology areas.

OSDN’s first Database Summit will feature speakers representing some
of the leading Open Source database projects, including David Axmark
and Monty Widenius of MySQL AB; D. Britton Johnston, CTO of NuSphere;
PostgreSQL developers Bruce Momjian and Tom Lane of Great Bridge;
InterBase co-founder Ann Harrison, president of IBPhoenix; and Berkeley
DB developers Michael Olson and Michael Udell of Sleepycat Software.

“The overwhelmingly positive response to the Open Source Printing
Summit sponsored by VA Linux and HP earlier this year inspired us
to offer similar events through OSDN,” said John “Tiberius” Hall,
vice president of strategic planning, VA Linux Systems. “The OSDN web
sites offer the leading online resource for Open Source developers, but
it’s also important for developers to meet and interact face to face.
By facilitating these meetings, we’ll be helping to further accelerate
Open Source software development.”

OSDN’s goal is to provide Open Source community programs to support
development in key technology areas for Open Source, as well as
outreach programs to introduce individuals and businesses to Open Source
development methodologies and the benefits of Open Source solutions.

Future OSDN Developer Services events will cover key topics such
as security, network management and graphics programming. Further
information on the Open Source Database Summit and other conferences and
events organized by OSDN is available at http://www.osdn.com/conferences.

About OSDN

OSDN (Open Source Development Network), a division of VA Linux Systems,
Inc., is the leading Linux and Open Source destination on the Internet.
OSDN is a network and community outreach organization committed to
accelerating Open Source software development, which also serves as a
gateway for individuals and organizations worldwide to understand and join
this revolution. Serving over 80 million page impressions to more than
3 million users each month, OSDN includes the leading Open Source sites
for news, information and discussion (Slashdot, NewsForge and Linux.com),
the largest sites for collaborative Open Source development and support
(SourceForge and QuestionExchange), the most popular sites for software
distribution (Freshmeat and Themes.org), online shopping for technical
enthusiasts (ThinkGeek), a new print publication (Open magazine), and
community discussion forums and personalized content on the beta site
for OSDN.com.

Certain statements in this press release, including statements relating
to future events and benefits of the OSDN Developer Services Program and
future growth in Open Source software development, are forward-looking
statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause
results to be materially different from expectations. Such risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the company’s ability
to negotiate, close and implement agreements with event sponsors;
continued third-party support for OSDN; competition with larger and
more established companies; the company’s ability to attract and retain
qualified personnel; industry trends in Linux and Open Source; and other
risks detailed in VA Linux’s filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, copies of which may be accessed through the SEC’s web site
at www.sec.gov.

Note: VA Linux Systems, OSDN, SourceForge, Slashdot, Freshmeat,
QuestionExchange, ThinkGeek and NewsForge are trademarks of VA Linux
Systems, Inc. NuSphere is a trademark of NuSphere Corporation. MySQL is
a trademark of MySQL AB. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus
Torvalds. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

vnunet reports, Transmeta needs to clinch deals involving the use of its
processors in high-end notebooks and internet access
devices if it is to remain in business, according to a senior
Gartner analyst.

Germany’s Finance Ministry has definitively ruled out taxing personal
use of workplace computers and phones, reports IDG News Service. The ministry is preparing a
draft law that will create an income tax exemption for use of the
devices, it said in a statement Wednesday.

LinuxPlanet reflects on a pair of news items that played out this week and asks “is AOL using Linux in an anti-competitive way?”

IBM Corp. will offer audio and video software made by RealNetworks, Inc. to users of IBM business computers running the UNIX operating system, including the RS/6000, the workhorse that
serves up Web pages, under an agreement
announced by the companies Thursday, from ZDNet News.

Salon revisits the controversy surrounding whether the “watermarking” system that SDMI was testing as a way to protect digitally distributed music would actually work.

Open Source Online (OSO), http://www.oso.com.cn, was launched to serve
and promote Open-Source IT in China, according to this report on Linux PR. OSO offers industry outlooks,
lectures, source codes, program downloads and forums to members at all
levels of computer literacy.