January 18, 2011

Bradley and Karen discuss a few corrections from previous shows, and then discuss misunderstandings about the GPL regarding “revocation” of the GPL.

Running time: 00:44:45.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:34)

• Bradley issued a correction regarding FaiF 0x06. Christopher Allan Webber mentioned that FSF sometimes accepts copyright assignments in cases where the entire code base is not assigned. (02:40)
• Karen issued a correction regarding FaiF 0x04 about women being hired to be at the party, but in fact that was not the case, despite being mentioned in this article.
• Karen's paper on Medical Devices was linked to from a ZD Net UK blog. (05:48)
• Bradley mentioned this Android bug regarding mis-sent SMS, which was widely covered in the press. Apparently the bug has been resolved upstream, somewhat disproving Bradley's point. (08:40)

Segment 1 (12:19)

• Bradley is quoted in an article about revocation of the GPL (12:35).
• The story was originalyl covered on slashdot. (13:17)
• The WinMTR site now says: By popular request, WinMTR will be available under GPL v2. (19:50)
• Karen mentioned the FSF's GPL FAQ. (29:27)
• Bradley mentioned the four rationale documents There's also one for AGPLv3 draft 2 and LGPLv3 draft 2. (30:13)

Tags: bkuhn, copyrights, gpl, medical-devices, conferences, karen, sflc, fsf, correction, revocation

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August 17, 2010

Karen and Bradley discuss the enforcement activities of the Software Freedom Conservancy, recent conferences and medical devices.

Running time: 35:21.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:33)

• Bradley is President of the Software Freedom Conservancy, and Karen is one of the Conservancy's pro bono lawyers. Karen is also an officer of the Conservancy, and Bradley is a director of the FSF. Got that?(03:17)
• Thanks for sending us your ideas!(06:22)
• The SFLC is not the EFF, despite what slashdot says.(09:18)
• To learn more about the default judgment you can read the court's opinion or listen to Episode 0x29.
• If you liked Episode 0x21, you should check out the paper that SFLC published about software transparency on medical devices (25:05).

Tags: compliance, gpl, medical-devices, bkuhn, karen, sflc, fsf, conservancy

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July 20, 2010

Eben talks about "When Software is in Everything: Future Liability Nightmares Free Software Helps Avoid" to the Scottish Society for Computers and Law (SSCL) in Edinburgh, Scotland on June 30. Karen and Bradley introduce the talk to listeners.

Running time: 00:52:06.

Show Notes

Segment 0

• The transcript of Eben's speech is available on our website.
• Karen refers one of the OpenBSD songs.

Tags: bkuhn, karen, moglen, Europe, medical-devices

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February 16, 2010

Karen and Bradley welcome Laura Moy, who joins them in studio to discuss the issues of software freedom with medical devices.

Running time: 00:50:54.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:32)

• Bradley missed the opportunity to point out the classic “man in the street” interview has a Latin phrase to describe it, vox populi. Bradley could not find a definitive link that describes the origins of the “man in the street” interview, but did find references to it in the 1950s, and therefore it predates the origin date mentioned on the show (02:02)
• Some medical heart devices have a wireless interface. (08:14)
• Karen mentioned the Medical Device Research Center but meant the Medical Device Security Center. The paper describing how the center was able to communicate remotely with an ICD is called, Pacemakers and Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators: Software Radio Attacks and Zero-Power Defenses. This page shows a "programmer" in use. (08:35)
• Karen talks about contacting the major heart device manufacturers: Medronic, Boston Scientific and St. Jude. (14:03)
• As Karen mentioned, Medronic has a lot of patents, including System and method for remote programming of an implantable medical device, System and method of communicating between an implantable medical device and a remote computer system or health care provider and even Identifying patients at risk for life threatening arrhythmias. (15:15)

Segment 1 (18:17)

• Karen explained that an electrophysiologist is a doctor who specializes in the electrical activity of the human heart. (20:58)
• The FDA is the Food and Drug Administration which must approve all medical devices for use in the USA. (26:59)
• Karen and Laura have filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information how the FDA reviews these devices. (30:40)
• Bradley only buys ECC RAM because it's actually possible and even common for RAM to be impacted by cosmic rays as discussed in this blog post. (33:10)
• Bradley mentioned the importance of software freedom for medical devices, citing the Therac 25 case in the 1980s (36:32)
• Karen discussed a recent series of articles in the New York Times about fatal radiation treatments. (37:22)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, lmoy, medical-devices