By the time you read this (actually probably by the time I finish writing this post) a ballot approving the Public Review Draft of ODF 1.2, Part 1 will have passed.

European regulators have given Oracle the tentative green light in its long-delayed merger with Sun Microsystems now that Oracle has assuaged concerns about the stewardship of the open source MySQL database.

Bruce Perens, former Debian project leader and co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, has been critical of the most recent GPL infringement lawsuits filed by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). On behalf of several BusyBox developers, the SFLC sued 14 vendors over devices running embedded Linux and including the BusyBox tool. Perens is the author of the first few versions of BusyBox.

Edward Cahn, SCO's appointed Chapter 11 Trustee, now making decisions for SCO, has filed an opposition to SUSE's request to lift the bankruptcy stay so the arbitration can go forward.

Some lawsuits take longer than others to settle -- just ask Linux vendor Red Hat. Today, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) announced that it had reached an agreement to settle a class-action lawsuit from some of its shareholders that started back in July 2004."

Retail giant is among 14 vendors sued over a GPL violation. Now how did Best Buy violate the GPL?

Michael Geist writes, "The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is generating growing concern as many people learn about the secret copyright treaty for the first time. I've create a visual timeline to trace its emergence that includes links to the leaked documents, official government statements, and NGO letters and work in the area."

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) filed a copyright infringement suit against Best Buy, Samsung, JVC, Westinghouse, and ten other consumer electronics brands for using BusyBox in violation of the terms of the GPLv2.