The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), today announced it will host the first Annual Legal Summit for Software Freedom this fall. The Summit will have two parts: a closed session in the morning for a private meeting of the world’s foremost FOSS attorneys, and an open session in the afternoon consisting of free legal presentations to the public.

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), today released a white paper that considers new U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, which go into effect today, governing Software-Defined Radio (SDR) devices.

“WASHINGTON, DC, June 27, 2007 –The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) today commended the Free Software Foundation and the Software Freedom Law Center for their significant work in introducing Version 3 of the General Public License (GPL).” Click to read the full news release from SIFMA…

The Software Freedom Law Center is now inviting applications for a resident legal experience designed for practicing lawyers interested in learning more about open source software through direct on-site exposure to SFLC’s open source software law practice. Read more about the Open Source Law Immersion Program…

After months of legal negotiations with AOL, Gaim has changed its name to Pidgin and released Pidgin 2.0.

In order to respond to the threat of legal action from AOL, the Gaim developers had retained the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) to help them respond to AOL’s objections to the name “Gaim.”

Eben Moglen, Founding Director of the Software Freedom Law Center, has been ranked among the Top 100 Most Influential People in IT. Ranked #92, Moglen is cited as an “expert in open source law and one of the guiding lights of GPL 3.” The list was published online between March 15 and March 26, and published in print in the April 23 issue of eWEEK.

With tax day approaching in America, we at the Software Freedom Law Center wanted to share some important information about the hidden taxes added to every copy of Microsoft’s Windows operating system. If you run a computer using Windows, you’re not just paying for the programmers who put the program together and the corporate operations that brought it to market. You’re also paying a hidden tax of well over $20 that Microsoft has had to pay to other patent holders. This is true whether you bought your copy of Windows on CD or pre-installed on a laptop, desktop, or server machine.

Read entire document (pdf)

Recently, we received a letter from a developer of PearPC, thanking SFLC for the legal advice we have provided the project.

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software, today announced the addition of a new client, the GNOME Foundation. The GNOME Foundation supports the development of the open source GNOME Desktop Environment, a user interface used by millions of people around the world and distributed with all major versions of Linux and Unix.

In response to a formal request filed by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today ordered re-examination of the e-learning patent owned by Blackboard Inc.