Microsoft is trying to sneak patents-encumbered MPEG formats into the Web using Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9); Microsoft threatens (again) to go after Linux legally

Our reporter from the courtroom in the SCO v. Novell jury trial, Chris Brown, has now filed his first report for today, which I'll add to as his further reports arrive.

Chris Brown attended the jury trial today for us in SCO v. Novell, and he has the details about the mistrial motion, the denial of the motion to allow evidence, and there was testimony today from Kim Madsen and Darl McBride and a deposition played of Steven Sabbath. The mistrial was related to the denial of Novell's motion to allow evidence.

We have the Novell's Petition for a Writ of Ceriorari [PDF] as text. This is its petition, asking the US Supreme Court to review the decision by the US Court of the Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Odds are always against the petitioner to the U.S. Supreme Court, of course, and the earliest it could be heard would be in April, we learned from a remark at Friday's trial in SCO v.

By a remarkable vote of 633 to 13, the Parliament rebuked European negotiators who have been drafting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in a series of confidential meetings around the globe. No version of the document has been disclosed by the participants, which include the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and Canada.

In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass*, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.” My response was simple.

The parties are still going back and forth over pre-trial issues, specifically over the jury instructions and the verdict form. We may see even more on this, because jury instruction and the verdict form come at the very end, so there is still time to try to get it just right. Not that either side will be entirely happy with the result.

Combining freedoms and copyleft in the Gnu GPL license (invented by Richard Stallman) was the cornerstone of free software. This is now questioned due to the proliferation of incompatible copyleft licenses.