A little while back, Michael Meeks published a lengthy piece about copyright assignment (not nearly as lengthy as the articles he links to on untangling Wittgenstein's net). Go on, read it (Michael's stuff, not the net). It's worth your time. When you get to the bottom, follow the link to Dave Neary's take on assignment as well.

The practice of selling license exceptions became a hot topic when I co-signed Knowledge Ecology International's letter warning that Oracle's purchase of MySQL (plus the rest of Sun) might not be good for MySQL. As the following article explains, my feelings about selling license exceptions are mixed. Clearly it is possible to develop powerful and complex software packages under the GNU GPL without selling exceptions, and we do this. MySQL can be developed this way too. However, selling exceptions has been used by MySQL developers. Who should decide whether to continue this?

Novell has filed its Reply [PDF] in support of its Motion for Summary Judgment in Novell v. Microsoft, the antitrust litigation in Maryland regarding WordPerfect. Technically, it's Novell's Reply in Support of its Motion for Summary Judgment and Opposition to Microsoft's Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment. Here's that Cross Motion and here's Microsoft's Opposition [PDF] to Novell's motion.

Sharp contrast between Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Edison; China falls into the trap of greed for monopoly

Would you like to see some places where Caldera has copyright notices in Linux on code it contributed under the GPL, and you're frustrated because some of us have Caldera CDs and you don't? Just go to Google code search and search forlicense:gpl "caldera.com" You'll be buried in GPL'd Caldera code, 5,000 hits.

Michael Meeks's posting on copyright assignment is not a quick read, but it's worth the effort; this is a more thorough look at the issue than your editor has seen elsewhere.

I see that Microsoft lost an appeal in the "Custom XML" litigation, and may be forced to disable that functionality in Microsoft Office. This is a short backgrounder explaining what "Custom XML" is about, and why nobody should care.