Copyleft: the magazine

In a move that has riled even the most levelheaded of bloggers out there, Microsoft has decided to shut off the authentication servers for its dead MSN Music service, essentially flipping the bird to anyone who bought music from them. The nuts and bolts go something like this. PlaysForSure requires an authentication key to play music files and you have to have a new key every time you move a file to a new device or computer. Without the servers, which are expected to be shut down on August 31, consumers will no longer be able to move music to their portable audio players or any other PC, essentially condemning them to leaving the files on whatever computer they bought them on. This includes making it impossible to play that music if you upgrade your OS as well (possibly to Linux, just out of spite). That’s right, the DRM scheme that promised to be better than iTunes (but just barely) by allowing you to move your music to a bunch of different music players now can’t even do that. The only option, as Ars Technica pointed out, is the same bad one that is available to most people stuck in a bad DRM nightmare: burn all your music to CD, then re-rip. Weak.

(via Ars Technica and Wired)

We’re big fans of OpenOffice.org here at Copyleft: the magazine, and it appears that we are not alone in our open source office software love. Combining the pure open sourcey goodness of OO.org and its own Lotus Notes code and branding, IBM launched Lotus Symphony this week. The software suite (get it? “Symphony”… “suite”…. it’s funny!) includes three apps, Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Presentations and Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets, which are equivalent to OpenOffice.org’s Writer, Impress and Calc and Microsoft’s Word, Power Point and Excel. As with OO.org, IBM is letting you have these free of charge (though it looks like you have to sign up for an IBM.com account). These “productivity tools” are also being fully integrated into the latest version IBM’s popular Lotus Notes.

Perhaps just as important is IBM’s adoption of the OpenDocument Format (which both OpenOffice.org and Google Apps also use). Given that Microsoft’s Open XML was recently rejected by the ISO, which adopted OpenDocument Format as a standard earlier this year, IBM’s decision to stick with the open source crowd appears to be a solid one. Furthermore, IBM has also announced that it is going to release some of its Lotus code for use in OpenOffice.org’s productivity suite, allowing for an even more versatile OO.org in the not so distant future. It remains to be seen, of course, if anyone can topple Microsoft Office’s dominion in the world of office apps, but with IBM getting in the game and putting its Lotus muscle behind the OpenDocument Format and OpenOffice.org, the odds just got alot better.

(from OpenOffice.org, CNET, and IBM)

Bringing together activists from across a wide spectrum of left-leaning causes, the Free Software Foundation has launched an open letter to the world condemning Microsoft Vista as not only socially irresponsible, but environmentally dangerous. Yes, the FSF and its not-so-militant wing DefectiveByDesign.org recruited a host of environmental organizations including the Friends of the Earth International and the Green Party of the UK because, as the letter puts it:

“… the Green Party and Greenpeace issued warnings about the tremendous threat posed to the environment by the disposable computer mentality promoted in Microsoft’s $500-million Windows Vista marketing campaign. Vista’s steep hardware requirements mean that to use it, most people will have to throw their current computer into a landfill and buy a new one.”

Further, they argue that Microsoft’s DRM associated with Vista blocks your legal rights to make copies of your own media files and publicly available information. This, they suggest, is in direct opposition to the work of grassroots activists and environmental organizations that both depend on the free flow of information and are so often opposed to mechanisms of control like Vista.
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Earlier this month, the Linux community was saved from a major headache by as a federal court ruled that Novell, not SCO Group, owns the copyright to Unix. Which means that Novell can keep right on not suing anyone over the use of Unix or Linux and the open source community can keep doing its thing without fear of SCO suing them. Of course, there’s still that little matter of Microsoft’s claims to hold over Linux (last quote we heard the pulled out of thin air was 235 patents). But that is another legal fight for another day. Let’s just hope Microsoft doesn’t decide now is a good time to press any claims on those supposed patents. For now, rejoice Linux users, Novell is (for this month) thy savior.

(via PC World)

Microsoft announced this week that Nokia has plans to integrate its PlayReady mobile DRM platform into some of its mobile phones. PlayReady is a newer DRM system that Microsoft launch back in February which is designed to be more flexible than previous systems (like PlaysForSure), but still give service provider control over how individual files are copied. The idea is that PlayReady will be platform and file-type independent, so will encumber music, video, image and program files regardless of whether they are transfered to a phone, PC or any other device. Users have to register their devices in a “domain”, which sets up a centralized security key that unlocks the file for use on acceptable (to the service provider) devices.

In many ways, this is a one step forward, two steps back type of proposal. Nokia and Microsoft will be giving consumers more flexibility in using their DRMed files than in the past, but are also setting up a system whereby the digital rights management software can worm its way into any convergent device. We’ll keep you posted as more people start picking up PlayReady and Nokia tells us exactly what it wants to do with the system.

(via Microsoft)

Alas, we aren’t talking about Digital Radio Mondiale, but the vaunted semi-public broadcasting service’s decision to adopt Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management on its new iPlayer Internet TV platform. Groups as far reaching as the Open Source Consortium, Binary Freedom Boston and Digital Copyright Canada (that’s far reaching globally) have been attacking the British Broadcasting Corporation’s decision to encumber the service for a while now, but with the service’s launch last week, tempers in the open source community have flared once again. This time, Defective By Design has called for protest in front of the BBC’s London headquarters on August 14, 2007. While some might claim that Defective by design just has grudge for any product with a lowercase “i” at the beginning of its name (iPod, iPhone, iMac, iPlayer, iFish), the group has some legitimate complaints.

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Microsoft is not going to be very happy about this one. Ars Technica and Endgadget are reporting this afternoon that a member of the Doom9 forums has posted a new fix for FairUse4WM that breaks Microsoft’s DRM for Vista and Zune. Ars has tested the fix and it looks like it is legit. Interestingly, the author of the new fix is going by the name “Divine Tao” which, Ars Technica’s Ken Fisher rightly notes is an anagram for “Viodentia”, the original author of the Microsoft DRM cracking FairUse4WM program (also an anagram for “deviation” and “di neovita”, if you really want to go there). However, for the moment, it looks like all you kids have a new means of liberating your music files from that pesky DRM. That is, until Microsoft puts out a fix and starts trying to sue people based solely on their user names again (which, we might point out, isn’t working too well for the RIAA).

(from Ars Technica and Doom 9)

In a move that should really have surprised no one, Microsoft made claims this week that its sales of Novell’s SUSE Linux do not constitute acceptance of the Free Software Foundation’s new GNU GPL v3 licensing scheme. The argument goes something like this: coupons for SUSE Linux that Microsoft sells just won’t offer any support for GPL v3 governed code, so the software (and Microsoft) is still covered under the older GPL v2. Which is probably true if Microsoft states as much in its sales contracts, since Linux is itself distributed under the older license and the implications of new code are not entirely clear. Odds are good that there will be alot of busy lawyers over the next several months. In the mean time, Microsoft’s Linux customers appear to be in legal limbo, as it is unclear what happens when they try to get tech support for the Linux servers if they have GPL v3 code, even if the problem is with the GPL v2 parts. So if this affects you, you might want to start talking to your copyright lawyer right about… now. As always, more on this as the story develops.

(via Engadget and Microsoft)

The Free Software Foundation has released the fourth version of its GPLv3 license. GPL, for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last decade or so, is the license that lets you download and modify Linux, FireFox and most any other open source software you use without asking permission and (frequently) paying. However, the importance of the actual text tends to be less important to the average user than it is to the developers and programmers that build software based on open source standards.

That said, this draft of GPLv3 does represent some changes from previous versions. First, FSF is still making it very difficult for companies to make “discriminatory” patent deals (like the one Novell did with Microsoft in November 2006), but is making this rule affect deals that occurred after March 28, 2007. So Novell is in the clear-ish, as should be, theoretically, its Linux customers. The FSF also hopes to force Microsoft into distributing software with GPLv3 (specifically, Novell’s SLES GNU/Linux). Kind of sneaky, but as we said before, it at least keeps Novell’s Linux customers free from prosecution.

More important for the general population is that this version has been made much more universal, with U.S.A. specific legal language having been stripped in favor of more universal and specific guidelines for keeping one’s software free.

So far, the public reaction seems somewhat mixed, with many wanting to punish Novell, while at the same time reacting generally positively to the rest of the draft. The FSF is only taking comments on this draft of the license until June 28, so all you open source developers and programmers out there should check it out and post your major gripes, criticisms and/or praises on their website.

(via the FSF)

Engadget reported this weekend that Microsoft has voluntarily dropped its lawsuit against FairUse4WM creator Viodentia. Of course, according to the motion to dismiss Engadget has posted on its site, the lawsuit has been “without prejudice”, mostly, it appears, because the software giant can’t seem to find the actual person they were trying to sue. So, even though this particular lawsuit is dead, Microsoft is reserving the right to re-file claims against anyone associated with the PlaysForSure DRM-stripping software, including Viodentia, if they ever find them.

Unfortunately, this means little for all of you out there eager to copy your Musicmatch, Napster or Urge tracks without all that DRM hassle, particularly if Microsoft goes ahead with reported plans to ditch PlaysForSure for a new DRM scheme. However, it is a small victory for those who are working to free your media files from DRM bondage and attempting to allow you to exercise your rights under the fair use doctrine set out in sections 107, 108 and 117 of U.S. copyright law (Title 17, Chapter 1). Or whatever it is you do with your copied songs…

(from Engadget)