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Was the Yahoo-Google Deal a Ploy To Weaken Yahoo? 82

JagsLive writes with a link to a BetaNews story about a US Senator who is questioning whether the deal between Yahoo and Google was brokered with less than honorable intentions on Google's part. The advertising deal came under scrutiny from the Department of Justice recently for potential antitrust violations. The deal has now been delayed in order to allow investigators more time for evaluation. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that Yahoo will cut as much as 20% of its workforce after an internal memo from CEO Jerry Yang called for "discipline" and said the company was "getting fit" for the long term. For their part, Google has launched a site endorsing the deal and attempting to smooth the way for its approval by providing facts and positive reactions from experts.

Comment The strong interoperability provisions are gone (Score 2, Informative) 423

The law that was voted today (link is to report where the law itself is in the second half) no longer has the strong interoperability provisions that in particular protected free software-based implementation of interoperability. It would be much more relevant to comment on the infamous Vivendi Universal amendment that is included in the voted text. The corresponding provisions create criminal sanctions (3 years of jail and 300000 euros = 375000 US$) for software writers, distributers and importers for software that is "manifestly destinated" to the unauthorised sharing of copyrighted works. The exclusion of general collaborative work or file exchange software from these sanctions has been deleted in the final text. They also make possible for right holders to ask for judicial injonctions to software publishers and service providers to implement DRMs in software that is "manifestly used" even for at non-commercial scale for sharing works without authorisation. I don't know if Apple will keep screaming about the law, but there is much more to cry about for software freedom, intellectual freedoms and free culture.

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