In a huge win for open standards, free and open source software and the public, the long-awaited UK government definition of open standards has come down firmly on the side of royalty-free, not FRAND. The UK government list seven principles as defining an open standard.

UK student to be extradited to the lawless madhouse of Soviet America for doing what is perfectly legal in Britain. How safe is anyone from the profit-crazed moguls of Hollywood?

Culture minister Ed Vaizey has backed a "two-speed" internet, letting service providers charge content makers and customers for "fast lane" access. In other words, welcome to the slow lane!

"The UK's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has released a report (PDF) related to the new Digital Economy Act." Sounds exactly like the good old MAFIAA racket.

In the United States, the White House has led the march towards open source and free software by switching the http://www.whitehouse.gov/ website to the Drupal content management system. The government of the United Kingdom has decided to follow their lead.

In an effort to cut costs, British Prime Minister David Cameron has called on state officials to submit proposals on how to save the government money. The newly published list includes migrating entirely from Microsoft products to Linux and other open source software

As the mission of the Free Software Foundation is to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users, they also have to defend against ill-conceived and misguided laws.