SiliconValley.com has the Reuters story. “Linux was created as the people’s software, free and open for everyone to use, in an attempt to thwart the commercialization of technology.

But now the decade-old operating system is getting as corporate as button-down shirts and PowerPoint presentations.”

“IBM and a consortium of government agencies in the Washington, D.C., area are creating a wireless emergency network that will allow approximately 40 police, fire and safety agencies to communicate in real time via instant messaging and access one another’s databases.” ZDNet story.

Wired.com follows up on reports that the U.S. government will start arresting people who trade music online. Here’s a quote from the EFF’s John Perry Barlow: “They are going after people who are young and want to share their ideas. They are criminalizing the curious.”

From ComputerWire (via The Register): “The IBM-backed Eclipse open source project consolidated its presence on the Linux platform yesterday.

Fujitsu Software Corp announced availability of its NetCOBOL product for Linux, based on the open source application development tools framework.”

InformationWeek.com has a story about Westport Rivers Vineyard and Winery’s decision to switch to Linux because of its unhappiness with Windows’ performance and Microsoft’s new licensing policy.

Diego Saravia writes: “Buenos Aires, Argentina. Free Software Workshop in Argentinian Social Forum. Augost, 23th from 15:30 to 18:30. Aula 501. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Marcelo T. De Alvear 2230, Buenos Aires.
Speakers: Marcelo Branco (UERGS, Porto Alegre State Gov), Marcio Andrade, Gustavo Navarro (CLACSO), Diego Menendez, Daniel Cordoba (Bs. As. Gov.), Juan Carlos Gentile, and Diego Saravia (Univesidad Nacional de Salta).” (This link is in Spanish.)

ZDNet UK reports on the University of Maastricht’s Linux/Free Software developer survey. “… 60 percent are not cohabiting, but the study’s authors noted that 60 percent are in a relationship of some kind. ‘The often-mentioned assumption that OS/FS (open source/free software) developers are singles that are bored and have no partnership obligations and responsibilities is apparently not true,’ the report said.”

–
By Andrew Orlowski of The Register –

Despite signing a recent deal with Microsoft, Sweden has become the latest country to investigate the benefits of Free Software.
In a report entitled “The state wants to save money” in Swedish magazine Ny Teknik, the Statskontoret, (Swedish Agency for Public Management) is setting up a working group to investigate the value Linux could provide.

The work is in the initial stages, and it is too soon to see what the actual result will be, according to Irene Andersson, who is responsible for all software at the purchasing department in Statskontoret.

Contributors to the working party include the police, the unemployment agency and the tax office.

Sweden recently signed a half-billion dollar kroner deal with Microsoft to run two years. This encompasses central government and local authorities. (Thanks to Tomas for the translation — we thought about asking Linus, as his first language is Swedish, but he’s very busy).

Earlier this year Denmark announced it was considering moving 55,000 desktops to Linux, and the Norwegian government — a supporter of its indigenous Opera browser — recently canceled a public sector Select contract with Microsoft.

These are dwarfed by public sector IT decisions being made elsewhere, notably in Asia. About 120,000 Korean public sector desktops are being migrated to Linux, and the biggest big government spend of them all, China, is developing its own, homegrown distros.

The call for software libre comes from all corners of the political spectrum: Norway’s decision was encouraged by Administration Secretary Victor D. Norman, a conservative free marketeer.

So it’s a possibility that Bill might soon be booking a flight to Scandinavia bearing gifts. In which case, The Register can help with pronunciation and cultural nuances.

All Content copyright 2002 The Register

Michael Militzer writes: The XVID development team,
author of the popular XVID MPEG-4 video codec, claims that Sigma
Designs’ REALmagic MPEG-4 Video Codec is an illegal copy of the XVID
software and publicly requests the company to stop violating their
software license and copyrights.
XVID is a leading open source MPEG-4 video research project: software
distributed by XVID is covered by a Free Software license, the GNU
General Public License (GNU GPL). The XVID team announced that Sigma
Designs’ REALmagic MPEG-4 Video Codec includes wide portions of
XVIDcodec software. By not offering a corresponding source code
distribution and by claiming sole authorship on the product, Sigma
Designs’ Inc. is violating the GNU General Public License and the
copyrights of the XVID authors.

XVID learned about the license violation in early July, soon after the
initial release of the REALmagic software (version 1.0). Sigma Designs’
were immediately contacted, and replied confirming the violation and
promising to replace all violating code.

Version 1.1 of the REALmagic software was released on the 9th of August.
After examining the new version, XVID developers concluded that the
violating code was not replaced, but disguised by programming and
compiling tricks. Sigma Designs’ were again contacted and asked to
remove the REALmagic download link from their website. Thus far, they
have not shown any sign of cooperation.

In a statement to the XVID development team, project founder Michael
Militzer showed his disappointment regarding Sigma Designs’ behaviour:
“We have been quite reasonable and have given Sigma Designs’ ample
opportunity to resolve this issue. Apparently none of our demands have
been taken seriously. Nearly two months after the initial release of the
REALmagic MPEG-4 Video Codec, Sigma Designs’ is still knowingly
infringing the GNU General Public License.”

Militzer believes this infringement might be of high general interest:
“This is an unfortunate event, not only for us but for the whole Free
Software movement. Therefore we hope to receive wide support from the
Free Software community in our efforts to convince Sigma Designs’ to
respect the terms of the GPL.”

Evidence supporting the claim has been published on the XVID website.

http://www.xvid.org/v1_0_comparison.pdf

http://www.xvid.org/v1_1_comparison.pdf

About XVID (http://www.xvid.org/)
XVID is a leading open source MPEG-4 video research project, founded by
the German student Michael Militzer in August 2001 to continue the
efforts of DivXNetworks’ former OpenDivX project. Today, the XVID
project consists of users and developers from all over the world. XVID
publishes all its software under the GNU General Public License (GNU
GPL).

About Sigma Designs Inc. (http://www.sigmadesigns.com/)
Sigma Designs’ headquarters are located in Milpitas, California. The
company specializes in MPEG based video hardware for encoding and
decoding. Recently Sigma Designs’ introduced the Xcard, the first
consumer hardware MPEG-4 decoder in the form of a personal computer
add-on card.

About GNU GPL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html)
The GNU General Public License is the most frequently used software
license for Free Software development and is supported by the Free
Software Foundation (FSF). Software distributed under the GNU GPL grants
everyone modification and redistribution rights, on the condition that
derived or redistributed software carries the same license.

Contacts

For contacting the XVID team please use the e-mail addresses
contact@xvid.org or contact@xvid.de

Please address your request to one of the following persons:

Daniel Smith (USA)
Michael Militzer (Germany and international)
Christoph Lampert (Germany and international)
Edouard Gomez (France)

The Register has a short story about Australian telco Telstra looking at switching to Linux for its 45,000 desktops.