Already done: http://mariadb.org/

Problem: The MySQL trademarks and support contracts cannot be forked as easily as code can.

As far as I know, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and Fedora already integrate by default a fork of OpenOffice named Go-OO (http://go-oo.org), which, for all intents and purposes, will be identical to the early versions of LibreOffice. (In fact I suspect that Go-OO's patches, or Go-OO itself, constitute the starting point for LibreOffice.)

There are two enormous reasons OpenOffice has always failed to attract developers outside from Sun:
- Copyright assignment: if you don't assign all copyright of your code to Sun, then it cannot be in OpenOffice.
- Bureaucratic obstruction: Sun's QA had to validate your code through a lengthy process before you could even think about it being accepted.

In short, Sun managed OpenOffice's development the same way any proprietary software's development would have been managed. Is it really surprising then, that Sun failed to attract outside developers?

Problem is, sending a C&D letter is doubly ineffective:

• it barely has any effect in keeping potential exploiters from getting access to the vulnerability;
• someone who cared enough about MS so that they could better themselves is treated like a nuisance (at best).

In fact, compare that to the way the last TLS-related vulnerability was handled; in both cases, a critical flaw is revealed before a fix was ready. In the TLS case, it was handled with forthcoming and transparency. I'm not saying that MS should do the same (MS probably can't); but they would show more respect to Samir, and to all their bing cashback clients, by:

• Ask Samir to remove most of the "sensible" post information - you know, instead of threaten with litigation from the get-go.
• Take an official stance on that problem; what's the risk, who's affected, what should be done - instead of leaving bing cashback clients vulnerable to misinformation and abuse.

... under the law for the protection of personal information.

In France, when someone (A) collects any personal information about anyone else (B), then B is legally able to retrieve any information that A may have collected about him, and to request the deletion of such information.

If you say that: A=student, B=teacher, then, the moment the student puts the teacher's name in the notebook, that teacher's gains a right to inspect the student's notebook, and to request deletion of these contents.

A few caveats however:
-I know of no case where a teacher has made an attempt to do that. Hell, that law is not well-understood by many people. And, if that law was enforced, most CIOs would be behind bars.
-I'd wager that the destruction of any way to identify the teacher in question would be enough.
-That is a french law, the US laws about the same matter are quite different.
-The law I am talking about is ultimately about an individual's right to protect his personal information, not about intellectual property like the rest of the article.

• Dragon Ball
• Fist of the North Star
• City Hunter

There are certainly exceptions, but I would wager that most live action adaptations of japanese animation/manga have been failures. Which means the worst case scenario boils down to "Cow Boy Bebop live movie is bad, just like nearly every such adaptation, life goes on."

However, I would have a little hope for this one, because the ambiance of Cow Boy Bebop is kind of a stereotype of "american wild west" (or at least its representation in japanese minds). And Keanu Reeves does not strike me as such a bad choice for Spike; I mean, physically speaking they have the same build, don't they?