August 16, 2011

Bradley and Karen play and comment on a talk recording of Aaron Williamson's and Karen's presentation at OSCON 2011, entitled Legal Basics for Developers.

Running time: 00:53:53.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:33)

• Bradley mentioned the birthday attack when explaining to Karen how likely it might be that the number of the show might match the number of the day. (01:38)
• This show is a recording of Aaron and Karen's OSCON 2011 talk, Legal Basics for Developers. (02:20)

Segment 1 (05:53)

• The slides for the Legal Basics for Developers are available to follow along with the recording (05:53)

Segment 2 (49:36)

• Richard Fontana gave at a talk at OSCON as well, which was recorded, and Karen and Bradley have asked for his permission to play it. (50:45)
• Bradley asked folks to ping Richard on identi.ca to ask him to allow us to use his audio on the oggcast. (51:05)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, non-commercial, sflc, oscon, fontana, creative-commons, aaronw, patents, copyrights, trademarks, public domain, license compatibility, compliance, non-profits, gnome, questions, conferences, gpl

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June 21, 2011

Karen announces her new job, and Bradley and Karen discuss the recent USA Supreme Court decisions on patents.

Running time: 00:54:31.

Show Notes

Be sure to make sure your feeds available on faif.us if you haven't already!

Show Notes:

Segment 0 (00:37)

• If you have not moved your RSS feed already away from softwarefreedom.org, and to faif.us, you should do that now! Here's links to the ogg RSS feed and mp3 RSS feed. New FaiF shows won't appear on softwarefreedom.org.
• Karen is now the Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation. (04:30)
• Bradley served on the GNOME Foundation Executive Director Hiring Committee, but resigned when Karen became a serious candidate. (05:13)
• Karen will continue as General Counsel of Question Copyright, and pro-bono counsel to Software Freedom Conservancy. She will also continue pro bono on some matters for SFLC. (06:30)
• Bradley has been working on GNU Bash. (07:34)
• Berlin's Tegel airport is closing soon. (14:40)
• Bradley mentioned that he incorrectly said in 0x11 that Red Hat doesn't provide sources publicly for RHEL. The RHEL SRPMS are actually on Red Hat's FTP site. (18:20)
• There are various identica threads on the RHEL issue from 0x11.(18:47)
• Bradley has previously explained the history of the term “punditocracy” in episode 0x0A. (27:46)

Segment 1 (28:58)

• Bradley and Karen discuss the USA Supreme Court decision in the Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S. A. case, on which SFLC submitted an amicus brief, which was previously discussed in FaiF Episode 0x05. (29:55)
• Bradley and Karen discuss the USA Supreme Court decision in the Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. Partnership case, on which the EFF submitted an amicus brief. (40:11)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, sflc, patents, gnome

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December 21, 2010

Bradley and Karen welcome special co-presenter and guest, Aaron Williamson, to discuss the OpenBSD email regarding purported FBI backdoors. In the main segment, they discuss the amicus brief filed by SFLC (where Aaron and Karen work) in the Global-Tech Appliances v. SEB USA Supreme Court case.

Running time: 00:54:59.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:37)

• Aaron brought up a message forwarded to the OpenBSD developers list by Theo de Raadt. This story has been covered widely online. (02:50)
• Aaron mentioned that Glyn Moody wrote a blog post about what issues about “Open Source” security this raises. (04:06)
• Bradley mentioned the gnuftp/Savannah site crack that occurred in 2003 and its security implications. Those seeking more information on this can read the slashdot coverage, Savannah forum posts, the CERT advisory and even the missing files still on the GNU FTP site. (05:21)
• Bradley again mentioned Thompson's hack which he loves to mention when security issues come up (06:26).
• Karen mentioned SFLC's medical devices paper, Killed by Code: Software Transparency in Implantable Medical Devices, which she loves to mention. (08:23)
• Bradley mentioned the Debian/Ubuntu OpenSSL bug that occurred in mid-2008, which was widely discussed online. (10:18)
• Bradley mentioned a case in 2000 where the FBI was able to open a mobster's PGP mail merely by getting his passphrase. (12:49)
• Bradley offers an even-money bet that there are no FBI-inserted bugs in OpenBSD. (13:46)

Segment 1 (14:18)

• The canonical page on Wikipedia for what Karen and Bradley are on FaiF says they are presenters, rather than hosts. (15:06)
• Aaron and Karen's organization, the Software Freedom Law Center, announced that they filed an amicus brief in the Global-Tech Appliances v. SEB case. (16:30)
• Despite the beliefs of a Jeopardy! contestant last month, “Maria” is Sonia Sotomayor's middle name. Antonin Scalia's middle name is “Gregory” (17:20)
• Bradley again reviewed the issues of classical vs. church pronunciations. (19:20)
• Bradley asked Aaron if what was being sold in this case was equivalent to the Cornballer as introduced on the television show, Arrested Development. (20:30)
• Bradley mentioned that on FaiF 0x02, they discussed the issue of how higher courts consider issues of law more than the detailed facts of the case. (23:30)
• RMS's speech, The Danger of Software Patents, is available as a transcript and audio (ogg) (35:22)
• Aaron mentioned Newegg's brief, which is a reseller. (40:50)
• Aaron mentioned the SCOTUS blog summary which included links to other amici briefs. (41:01)
• Bradley referenced Don's staff answer to their boss, Don, in the Kids in the Hall movie, Brain Candy. (45:57)

Final (54:16)

• Aaron, Karen and Bradley are discussing the alternative lyrics to the Stars and Stripes Forever (54:20)

These show notes are Copyright © 2010, Karen Sandler and Bradley M. Kuhn of Free as in Freedom, and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license (CC-By-SA-3.0 Unported).

Tags: bkuhn, karen, sflc, patents, aaronw

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June 29, 2010

Dan Ravicher joins Karen and Bradley to discuss the Bilski case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Running time: 1:14:22.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:33)

• At the time of the recording, the U.S. Supreme Court has just published the decision in the Bilski case.(01:30)
• Dan Ravicher is the legal director at SFLC. He also teaches patent law at Cardozo School of Law and is the President and Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation. (2:48)
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled en banc, in October of 2008. That decision is available here(5:12).
• Bradley reminds listeners and Karen that the Court of Appeals decision was discussed on the oggcast with Scott Peterson in Episode 0x01: The Engineer and the Lawyer. (6:33)
• SFLC filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, which we discussed on the oggcast in Episode 0x18: Re Bilski’s Briefs.(7:01)
• The transcript from the Supreme Court oral argument from November is available here. You can hear UCLA law students reading the transcript aloud on the IP Colloquium blog. (10:56)
• The Bilski decision was published on the last day of the Supreme Court's term. (11:10)
• The "slip opinion", which Dan reads from, is available on the Supreme Court's website here. (15:02)
• Stare decisis is the principle by which legal precedent is established.(16:31)
• SFLC published a highlighting some of the amicus briefs filed in Bilski on either side. (29:30)
• You can read the text of Section 101 on the patent office's website.(31:14)
• Aaron and Bradley discussed the Supreme Court patent history, including the Benson and Flook cases, on the oggcast in Episode 0x18: Re Bilski’s Briefs. (31:50)
• Bradley, Dan and Karen all looked up the definition of pellucid. (44:45)
• Dan talks about the book Patent Failure by James Bessen and Michael J. Meurer. (55:51)
• Dan recommends that Breyer's opinion, which is the last few pages of the decision publication, is the place to go if you want to only read a few pages of the opinions. (1:00:30)
• Bradley discusses the difference between i.e. and e.g. (1:04:30)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, patents, bilski, ravicher

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May 25, 2010

Karen and Bradley play Dan Ravicher's speech from a conference held by Freedom to Innovate South Africa (FTISA) in Pretoria on software patents.

Running time: 52:51.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:33)

• Karen and Bradley thank listeners for providing ideas for future episodes. (01:05)
• Dan Ravicher, our “elusive” guest, is the Legal Director of SFLC. (02:40)
• The Bilski decision did not come out this week. The Supreme Court publishes all decisions on its website. The SCOTUS blog provides up to date information about the court schedule, including a live blog on the mornings when decisions are announced.(03:34)
• Karen mentioned Patent Absurdity, a short movie that features Dan (Karen's also interviewed). (06:21)
• Bradley points out the previous episodes about patents: Episode 0x18: Re Bilski's Briefs and Episode 0x0C: Patently False. (06:43)

Segment 1 (07:06)

• Slides for the talk are available here.

Segment 2 (50:11)

• The audio for the speech is also available on PubPat's website. (50:35)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, patents, ravicher

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October 13, 2009

Bradley and special guest co-host, Aaron Williamson, discuss all about the amici briefs filed in the Bilski Supreme Court case.

Running time: 01:19:14.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:33)

• Aaron Williamson is the co-host this week, filling in for Karen Sandler. (01:10)
• Bradley discussed the differences between Classic Latin pronunciation Church Latin pronunciation. (03:30)
• Bradley pointed out that declined language. (04:40)
• Aaron explained what an amicus curiae brief. (06:30)
• Bradley mentioned that we also discussed the lower court's decision in Bilksi case in Episode 0x01. (06:53)
• Aaron explained what it means for the Supreme Court to “grant cert”. (07:44)
• Aaron explained the details of the Benson case. (11:05)
• Aaron explained what dicta is, and discussed some of the dicta in Benson. (11:54)
• Aaron discussed the details of the Flook case. (13:50)
• Aaron explained the Diamond v. Diehr case, which discussed patents on vulcanized rubber. (16:30)
• Aaron discussed the State Street Federal Circuit case. (22:30)
• Bradley mentioned that the Benson case reminds him of Benson, the television show. (30:05)

Segment 1 (33:52)

• Aaron described the arguments in SFLC's Bilski amicus brief. (35:15)
• Aaron mentioned the Feist copyright case, which shares a name with a musician. (41:40)
• Bradley encouraged the listeners to convince Feist to write a song about Feist. (43:40)
• Aaron discussed Larry Lessig's Eldred case. (45:10)
• Aaron mentioned that Eldred was attempting to overturn the Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (45:42)
• Aaron discussed the FSF's Bilski amicus brief, which goes into greater detail of the negative impact of patents on Free Software. (52:20)
• Aaron and Bradley discussed the Red Hat's amicus brief (PDF), which is mostly supportive of Free Software. (55:00)
• Aaron and Bradley discussed how IBM's Bilski brief (PDF) is unfriendly to Free Software (57:20)
• Aaron and Bradley discussed how the Hollaar/IEEE brief (PDF) specifically attacks Free Software. (61:00)
• Bradley mentioned the Quagaars from the Red Dwarf episode, “Waiting for God”. (66:05)
• Bradley mentioned again that patent reform isn't helpful, and referenced Stallman's essay, Patent Reform is not Enough. (71:22)

Tags: bkuhn, patents, bilski, aaronw

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July 7, 2009

Bradley and Karen discuss the community debate regarding C# and Mono, and its inclusion in GNU/Linux distributions.

Running time: 00:37:23.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:30)

• Karen pointed out that some of the recent arguments about C# started due to RMS' statements on the matter. Others have also blogged. (04:24)
• Bradley mentioned the launch of the DotGNU project (04:30), which included Portable.NET (05:04)
• Bradley mentioned that C# descends from J++ work inside Microsoft, which became a point of contention between Sun and Microsoft. (06:50)
• Bradley mentioned his blog post that has the same topic as this podcast. (11:17)
• Meanwhile, back at the point is a reference to LUG Radio, which is based on the phrase Meanwhile, back at the ranch. The origins of the latter phrase is likely unclear, although an unsourced Wikipedia article claims it was a phrase frequently used by narrators of black & white American cowboy movies and TV shows of the 1940s and 1950s. (12:18)
• Bjarne Stroustrup (15:09) published his first article on C++ in February 1983 (15:21). His paper on C++ history tells the story of its creation.

Segment 1 (16:05)

• Bradley mentioned John Case, his Theory of Computation professor from graduate school, who always does proofs by “cases” (16:32).
• Bradley and Karen mentioned they used to have the SFLC phone system hooked up to Zoip. (17:39)
• Bradley mentioned that we should End Software Patents.(20:35)
• Bradley mentioned the TomTom case, which he's blogged about and was the topic of Episode 0x0B. (26:15)
• Debian now includes Mono in its base install (28:03), and Ubuntu published a position statement, which Karen read from in the show (26:30). There is an Ubuntu wiki page opposing it. Fedora has included it for some time.
• Bradley mentioned AT&T antitrust divestiture. (30:10)
• Bradley mentioned that very few companies have made an overreaching promise to licenses all their patents in a way acceptable for Free Software. Red Hat is one of them, although their promise isn't perfect, it has some value. (33:34)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, fsf, red hat, patents, gnome

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April 28, 2009

Karen and Bradley discuss the intersections of software patents with FLOSS licenses. They give a general overview of how patents generally interact with FLOSS, and then discuss the patent provisions of specific FLOSS licenses.

Running time: 00:46:50.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:35)

• Bradley suggests that more knowledgeable listeners might want to skip the first segment. (02:22)
• RMS rightly dislikes the term “intellectual property”. He's written about it often. (02:58)
• Karen noted that the USPTO uses term property to describe patents, which Bradley points out isn't actually accurate. (03:10)
• RMS didn't invent, although he did popularize the phrase , “perpetual copyright on the installment plan”. (05:08)
• The USPTO website confirms that the term limits on patents are 20 years. (05:25)
• Bradley mentioned that RSA Data Security, Inc. liberated the RSA a patent a few weeks before it expired. (05:40)
• Bradley and Karen explained what patent trolls are. (08:50)
• The patent section of SFLC's legal guide explains the interactions of FLOSS with the patent system, including covering issues such as what a patent is and what willful infringement is. (10:36)
• Bradley mentioned that Jeremy Allison gave an award reading FATtest Patent Troll to Sam Ramji at the Linux Collaboration Summit, although the only URL we could find documenting this is a identica statement by Bradley himself. (14:25)

Segment 1 (15:08)

• Bradley noted that GPL is a copyright license. This is discussed in detail in the Copyright section of SFLC's legal guide. (16:03)
• GPLv2§6 and GPLv2§7 are the two sections that might interact with patent issues, particularly §7. (20:30)
• Our colleague, Dan Ravicher, has often spoken about the implied patent license GPLv2 grants, including in seminars run by the FSF itself. (21:20)
• Bradley attempted to concisely explain the patent provisions of GPLv3 (mostly in §11). (27:20)
• Bradley mentioned the discussions in the GPLv3 Drafting committees, such as Committee B and Committee C (29:53).
• Ultimately, Bradley took 8 minutes exactly, not counting Karen's 28 second interruption. That's pretty concise, he thinks.
• GPLv3§12 is nearly identical to GPLv2§7. (37:18)

Segment 2 (38:20)

• Bradley explained the patent provisions of the Apache 2.0 license.
• Bradley and Karen discussed SFLC's work against the Blackboard patent. There were news items on SFLC's site when the reexam was filed and when the USPTO ordered the reexam. (42:05)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, sflc, gplv3, patents

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April 14, 2009

Bradley and Karen discuss the settlement of the Microsoft/TomTom law suit and the implications for the software freedom community.

Running time: 00:34:36.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:29)

• Bradley and Karen were in San Francisco attending the Linux Foundation's Collaboration Summit (00:46)
• “Producer Dan” is Dan Lynch of half baked media. (01:10)
• Bradley mentioned Nehru jackets, notably worn by Ricardo Montalbán as Khan in Star Trek. (01:23)
• On 30 March 2009, Microsoft and TomTom settled their patent dispute. (2:30)
• Bradley mentioned two articles on 29 December 2008 and on 29 January 2009 in SD Times where he and Sam Ramji debated Microsoft's policies toward the FLOSS community. (04:20)
• Karen and Bradley talk about Microsoft's historic patent threats against Linux. Bradley refers to Microsoft's assertions just 16 months before its aggression with TomTom. (4:29)
• Bradley mentions that many agree that Microsoft's FAT file patent should not be considered a valid patent. (6:30)
• Karen discusses periodic filings required by the U.S. securities laws and thresholds of materiality for information to be included in those filings. (12:34)
• Bradley mentioned Section 7 of GPLv2. (14:20)

Segment 1 (17:53)

• Karen discusses the Edgar system, which has since been succeeded by IDEA. The filings that Karen mentions of Novell's agreements with Microsoft (with confidential treatment) are available here and here. (21:40)
• Bradley explained the date in Section 11 of GPLv3 that puts companies on notice that side patent deals after that date would violate GPLv3. (23:18)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, gplv3, patents

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March 3, 2009

Bradley and Karen discuss the issues and considerations for a FLOSS project selecting a license.

Running time: 00:40:30.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:25)

• Bradley mentioned license proliferation. (02:50)
• Karen mentioned the FSF License List. (04:40)
• Although they are saying it too fast, Bradley and Karen are saying the word “Affero”, referring to the Affero GPL. (06:50)
• Bradley and Karen discussed weak copyleft, such as the Lesser GPL. (16:00)
• Bradley mentioned thisSoftware Freedom Law Show: blog post of his where he says most developers have traditionally seen a licensing decision as something you think about once and never revisit!. (22:35)
• Karen mentioned the SFLC Primer.
• Bradley mentioned checking if a license is on the FSF License List, on the OSI License List and if it's DFSG-Free before using it. (27:21)

Segment 1 (28:15)

Karen and Bradley debate various issues about license selection.

Tags: agpl, patents, trademarks, copyrights, bkuhn, karen, fsf, gplv3

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February 17, 2009

In this episode of the Software Freedom Law Show, Bradley and Karen interview Van Lindberg of the law firm, Haynes and Boone. The discussion centers around explaining the difference between copyrights, patents and trademarks to Free Software developers.

Running time: 00:40:18.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:28)

• Unlike our previous guests Scott and Richard, Van is an external, or outside counsel, who are lawyers hired by the company or organization that advise it from the outside. External lawyers are often employees of law firms, as Van is. (02:07)

Segment 1 (03:47)

Interview with Van Lindberg.

• Van is an associate at a law firm called Haynes and Boone (04:15).
• The term we don't like that Bradley keeps referring to is “intellectual property”, which has often been criticized by people in the Software Freedom world, initially in the writings of Richard Stallman. (12:29)
• Karen asked if Van is a patent lawyer. “Patent lawyers” are lawyers who are the member of the bar in some state, and have also taken a special exam to allow them to practice before the United States Patent Office. “Patent agents” are non-lawyers who have taken the same exam and can also practice before the United States Patent Office. Practicing before the patent office is unique in the USA, as you can do so without going to law school and passing a state-level bar exam. (13:30)
• Van's book is Intellectual Property and Open Source, published by O'Reilly. (36:50)

Tags: bkuhn, karen, lindberg, patents, copyrights, trademarks