Larry Rosen on the Microsoft Penalty Ruling "[Interview questions and] answers, from Larry Rosen, an attorney who works heavily on open source licensing matters, ought to give you a bit of insight into what the Microsoft "final judgement" means in the context of open source development and the software marketplace in general." [Slashdot]

When I saw the judge's recent penalty ruling in the Microsoft anti-trust case, I read a bit of the ruling and a couple of news stories and got confused and though, "hmmm, somebody needs to explain this to me."  Thanks to Slashdot, the very capable Larry Rosen, clueful attorney, has done just that.  It's a long article, but definitely worth reading. 

The judge has given Open Source people a big stick with which to bludgeon Microsoft in certain key areas.  It's up to the community to make something out of this ruling.

2:16:05 PM   

Studios unveil 'films to download'. Five major studios team up to allow movie fans to legally download films over the internet. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]

According to details mentioned in the article, this is a DIVX-style scheme.  It will fail just like DIVX failed.  When I buy a movie, I want to own that movie, with all the Fair Use rights I'm entitled to under the law. 

When I buy a movie, I want to be able to make backups, I want to watch it whenever I please, whereever I choose, as often as I please.  When I rent a movie, I want to be able to watch it on any TV in my house.  I want to be able to watch it at a friend's house.  I want no limits on the number of times I can watch it before returning it -- just like Netflix.

This Movielink scheme prohibits all of these things, and that's why consumers should reject it.  Too bad the BBC didn't bother to mention any of that in its story.  (It appears to be a Reuters story, but it's hard to tell.)

9:16:47 AM