ZFS (an advanced file system) was not included in the latest Apple operating system (Snow Leopard). Some speculated it was because although available under open source licenses, Apple requested a “private” license. ZFS is licensed under the CDDL; it is not clear whether that licensing scheme would prevent Apple from using it as it wished.
A Dutch engineer has published a manual detailing how to find open source license violations.
Cnet published an article describing projects under Microsoft’s CodePlex, a site Microsoft has set up to host projects it calls open source. The article reviews Microsoft’s different source code licenses and the speculates on the reasons why Microsoft releases code under the Windows-only Microsoft Limited Permissive License or open source Microsoft Public License.
See also “Microsoft taints open source CodePlex well” on theregister.co.uk.
In a case originating from Northern California (Jacobsen v. Katzer), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the Artistic License, a type of open source license, contains enforceable terms. This is a potentially significant case for the open source community as it is one of the first clear holdings by a court that supports the use and enforceability of open source licensing.
Nokia announced it will acquire Symbian and make the source code available as open source materials, reportedly under the eclipse public license.
An interesting article on why Google chose the Apache Software License over GPLv2 for Android.
The Free Software Foundation has released a discussion draft of the GNU Affero General Public License (GNU AGPL). The AGPL differs from the GPL in that it provides that users who interact with the software over a network can receive the source for that program. The text of the draft can be found here.
Questions remain on the compatibility of the latest draft of the GPL and other licenses, as this article points out in its discussion of Apache v2.
Linus Torvalds apparently thinks DRM and GPLv3 are just “hot air”.
