gnu general public license

In the recent OpenMind conference we were discussing how open source projects simply don't die as long as there is an interested user community: Even if the original company or individual who built the application stops working on it, somebody will always rise and start maintaining it.

LinuxInsider: "Why does the GNU General Public License have to be the definitive license for Free and Open Source Software?

Consider the BSD license type -- a more business-friendly variety that allows for businesses to make a profit while preserving the public interest"

Software Freedom Law Center: "The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS), today published a guide to effective compliance with the GNU General Public License (GPL) and related licenses."

SUSE & openSUSE: "VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use.

Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL)."

Ubuntugeek: "VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL)."

The GNU General Public License heads to court again today, as Skype attempts to defend its distribution of Linux-enabled SMC hardware handsets that appear to be in violation of the operating system's open source license.

It's easy to guess why Skype is fighting the suit, which was brought by GPL activists: the company relies on a proprietary protocol, and releasing the code could give competitors an advantage.

You can't blame them for trying.

One of the things I know with a certainty that sometimes depresses me is that my design skills are on the level of a 6 year old.

In fact the 6 year old with crayons is likely superior in all respects .

To disguise this failing, I have fallen back on the big guns in the CSS world who have decided it might be a good idea to make my life easier by inventing CSS Frameworks I can use.

Ars Technica: "At the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Bill Gates gave his thoughts on where the pharmaceutical industry was going, and where it should be going.

However, he also slipped up a bit and criticized the GNU General Public License..."

Software Freedom Law Center: "Nonetheless, following the close of the ISO-BRM meeting in Geneva, SFLC's clients and colleagues have continued to express uncertainty as to whether the OSP would adequately apply to implementations licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

In response to these requests for clarification, we publicly conclude that the OSP provides no assurance to GPL developers and that it is unsafe to rely upon the OSP for any free software implementation, whether under the GPL or another free software license."

The Software Freedom Law Center, which provides legal representation "to protect and advance free and open source software," has issued an analysis of Microsoft's "Open Specification Promise" and its compatibility with the GNU General Public License.