Kelly McNeill writes “I’m a strong believer in the Free Software Movement. All software ought to be free software and distributed under the terms of the General Public License (GPL). There are solid ethical and engineering reasons to take that stance. I’m also a strong believer that growth-oriented, profitable, socially responsible businesses can be based on free software and do so without any need for proprietary or even open-source (non-GPL) components. The simplest argument in favor of this view is to recognize that proprietary software licenses are largely an accounting convenience rather than a necessary condition of how software-based businesses operate.”

Slashdot is discussing a new LED backlight for LCD screens which can save on power consumption, further prolonging laptop battery life.

Kelly McNeill writes “Microsoft Corporation, in its quest to sway states’ attorneys general into settling antitrust charges still filed against it, has apparently orchestrated what was originally thought to be a grassroots letter-writing campaign in support of the company, the Los Angeles Times has reported. Although it isn’t clear exactly how many of the 18 states’ attorneys general were targeted by Microsoft lobbyists, evidence is mounting that many of the letters were pre-generated by the lobbyists and signed by constituents who were misled — or who were in fact no longer living.”

CNet has more information on VA Linux’s latest financial reports. “VA Linux Systems, once one of the flagships of the open-source software world,
will rely on sales of proprietary software in the future, the company said today as it
reported a $290 million loss for the most recent quarter.” (VA Linux owns NewsForge.)

A California appeals court today
heard a debate over whether a lower court should have
ordered dozens of Internet publishers to “stop the presses”
pending the outcome of a California trade secrets trial.

In January 2000, as part of a trade secrets case brought
by the motion picture industry, Santa Clara County
Superior Court Judge William Elfving ordered Andrew
Bunner and numerous other defendants to halt Internet
publication of DeCSS pending the outcome of the trial.
DeCSS is free software that allows people to play DVDs
without technological restrictions, such as platform
limitations and region codes, that are imposed by movie
studios.

Today Bunner, represented by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) and the First Amendment Project (FAP),
argued on appeal that this injunction violates his free
speech rights under the First Amendment and the California
Constitution. The argument took place in San Jose before
three judges of the Sixth District California Court of
Appeals.

“It is well-established that publishers of computer code
are protected by the First Amendment. In granting the
injunction against Mr. Bunner, the Superior Court failed to
adequately consider Bunner’s First Amendment rights,” said
David Greene, Executive Director and staff counsel to the
First Amendment Project, who argued the appeal on behalf of
Mr. Bunner. “The mere invocation of ‘trade secrets’ does not
trump a publisher’s First Amendment rights.”

During today’s oral arguments, the judges clearly
appreciated the important First Amendment issues raised and
asked probing questions of both sides. Upon completion of
the oral arguments, the court took the matter under
submission. A decision is expected in approximately 4-8
weeks.

Background on the DVD Copy Control Assoc., Inc. v.
Bunner case:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/DVDCCA_case/

About EFF:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression, privacy, and openness in the information
society. EFF is a member-supported organization and
maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world:
http://www.eff.org/.

About FAP:

The First Amendment Project is a nonprofit, public interest
law firm and advocacy organization dedicated to protecting
and promoting freedom of information, expression, and
petition. FAP provides advice, educational materials, and
legal representation to its core constituency of activists,
journalists, and artists in service of these fundamental
liberties and has a website at:
http://thefirstamendment.org/.

Anonymous Reader writes “A top Hewlett-Packard Co. executive on Thursday signalled his company’s commitment to Intel Corp.’s Itanium processor in perhaps the strongest terms yet, saying the company has laid a “huge bet” on Intel’s family of 64-bit chips. The story is here.”

Reported at EE Times: “Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of
computer-networking equipment, said on Thursday (Aug. 23) it was restructuring
into 11 technology groups and that it sees signs its business is stabilizing.

“We were pleased with July’s linearity and we’ve been pleased so far with August,”
Cisco chief executive John Chambers told Reuters, adding that so far the quarter is
in line with its earlier guidance. Cisco has said it expects fiscal first-quarter sales to
be flat to down 5 percent sequentially.”

Posted at Mitel Networks: “The Network Server Solutions Group of Mitel Networks
Corporation, formerly e-smith, inc., today announced its groundbreaking network and security
solution for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and remote offices. This new solution,
SME Server V5 with ServiceLink, brings together award-winning Linux-based server software
with advanced network-delivered services to provide unparalleled network security and
reliability.”

WTOP has a report on the recently-funded Distributed Terascale Facility, which aims to build a high-speed supercomputing network. The Facility will be based on two Linux systems housed at the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and is capable at working at speeds of up to 13 teraflops.

Posted at AbiSource, of course: “Interesting postings about both embedding and scripting this week. Also another release (0.9.2) out this week. Read all about it…”