QuantumG - Slashdot User

Submission + - Two new alleged license violations of BusyBox (linux.com)

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QuantumG

on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @07:18PM

QuantumG writes: "Linux.com is reporting The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed another two cases on behalf of BusyBox developers Erik Andersen and Rob Landley against High Gain Antennas LLC, and Xterasys Corp. The cases follow a similar case against Monsoon Multimedia, which was recently settled out of court. The case against High Gain Antenna claims that, since August 4, 2006, the company has been distributing firmware for the HGA-8186HP-1 wireless router that contains BusyBox code, but has not included any offer of the source code to customers, as required under Section 3 of GPLv2. The case against Xterasys is similar, claiming Xterasys has failed to provide source code in the firmware for its BM-200, WAP257, XA-2611B, MH350, XR-2408GU, XR-3106, XR-4106, and WR-254 products."

Submission + - People Believe NASA Funded As Well As Defense (thespacereview.com)

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QuantumG

on Saturday November 17, 2007 @01:10AM

QuantumG writes: "An essay on the Space Review is reporting that in a just-completed study, on average, respondents estimated NASA's allocation of the national budget to be approximately 24% (it's actually closer to 0.58%) and the Department of Defense budget to be approximately 33% (it's actually closer to 21%). In other words, respondents believed NASA's budget approaches that of the Department of Defense, which receives almost 38 times more money. Once informed of the actual allocations, they were almost uniformly surprised. One of the more vocal participants exclaimed, "No wonder we haven't gone anywhere!""

Submission + - Armadillo Aerospace Demonstrates LLC Stage 1 (armadilloaerospace.com)

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QuantumG

on Monday June 11, 2007 @11:33AM

QuantumG writes: "John Carmack (of Doom fame) and his rocket company Armadillo Aerospace have demonstrated their entry into the X-Prize/NASA Lunar Lander Challenge, first stage, at the Oklahoma Spaceport. Representatives from AST and the X-Prize Cup were present. A 3 minute, 41 second video of the feat has been posted by Carmack to the company's web site in a recent update, where he complains that were the competition not tied to a promotional event later this year, his company could have already claimed the $500,000 prize. The challenge venue will be hosted at this year's X-Prize Cup on October 26-28, 2007, at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico."

Submission + - Do you educate family about copyright issues?

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QuantumG

on Sunday March 18, 2007 @07:00PM

QuantumG writes: "We live in a time where copyright owners form lobby groups (like the RIAA and MPAA) to misinform the public of their rights and obligations under copyright law. Those insane warnings at the beginning of movies make no mention of fair use and throw around words like "crime" and "theft" with semantic abandon. When your own mother asks you to copy a movie so she can give it to a friend, how wrong can it be? Does any else have these problems or do I just have technically competent, copyright blasé friends and family?"

Submission + - Greg KH Offers Free Linux Driver Development!

Submitted by

QuantumG

on Tuesday January 30, 2007 @04:02AM

QuantumG writes: "Kernel hacker Greg KH has made a public offer to develop Linux drivers, for free, to any vendor that is willing to release hardware specifications or make available "an engineer that is willing to answer questions every once in a while." The offer is made in conjunction with the OSDL/TLF Tech Board who are providing a legal framework for managing any NDA requirements that vendors may have. The announcement has been made in the hope that vendors will be more inclined to label their products as "Linux Ready" by reducing developer workload."

Submission + - What ought I do if a friend asks me for a copy?

Submitted by

QuantumG

on Friday December 01, 2006 @05:39AM

QuantumG writes: "It happens all the time, and it happens to just about everyone nowadays, so what is one supposed to do when a friend asks you for a copy of that game/song/movie/program which is licensed under a non-permissive license? Legally, of course, I'm supposed to say no. I'm supposed to be shocked that my friend, who I thought was an honest kind of guy, would ever ask me to make an unauthorized copy of anything. I'm supposed to look around and make sure no-one heard and maybe see if this guy, who I thought was my friend, has swiped anything while I wasn't looking. Of course, I don't. I'll happily make him a copy, so would most of us, is this the right thing to do? Do the wants of my friend outweigh the legal rights of the copyright owner? Or is the best strategy just to avoid the problem altogether by using exclusively permissively licensed works? When was the last time the readers of Slashdot thought this through?"

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