Last week, Microsoft extended the terms of their Community Promise to implementations of the ECMA 334 and 335 standards. You might think this means it's safe to write your software in C#. However, this promise is full of loopholes, and it's nowhere near enough to make C# safe.

The classic choice for the community license has been the GPL. The GPL supports building a community of users and customers while stalling competitors through its reciprocal nature.

When Amazon deleted content from Kindle Readers last week without warning or permission, they released a firestorm of criticism. Although they backed down, the same day it showed the power the proprietary format has over Kindle owners and crystallized the need for open eBook standards.

Wikipedia users will be getting new tools for uploading, editing, and viewing video very soon. According to a Beet.TV interview with Erik Moller, who is the deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation, these features will be made available shortly. What's interesting, however, is the Web encyclopedia's choice of video formats and how it fits into a fracas in the browser world.

Book burning, at least in modern democracies, is supposed to be something of the past. Indeed, with books taking to devices like the Kindle, burning would seem an unlikely, if possible, exercise. That may or may not be quite so, however, depending on how you read last week's news

Old dogs may struggle with new tricks, but they seem to be able to figure out new licenses. In a shocking move, Microsoft announced Monday the release of Hyper-V Linux Integration Components (LinuxIC).

Here you go, the IBM and Novell objections you have been turning blue waiting for...

Another look at notable policies that are still ignored by some