Weekly news wrap-up: GPL faces court test, Sun faces more Open Source critics

Two companies with Free Software ties faced off in court this week, in what the Free Software Foundation is calling the first court test of the GNU General Public License, the popular license that Linux and many other Free Software products are released under. In the case, MySQL AB is asking that NuSphere stop using the MySQL trademark because of alleged GPL violations.

A Boston judge granted a preliminary injunction in the case, barring NuSphere from the use of the MySQL name, but there’s more to come in the case. Adam Kessel was at the hearing and suggested the GPL was not at risk. Our own Tina Gasperson was the first to report on the case going to court; also, see her reporting on NuSphere’s side of the situation.

Sun’s Open Source commitment, part II (or III?)

Just weeks after Sun Microsystems announced it was embracing Linux, questions continue about its seriousness. Some reports this week had Sun planning to charge for its previously free StarOffice suite. NewsForge/Linux.com columnist Jack Bryar noted Sun’s half-hearted denial and suggested Sun has other credibility problems among Open Source/Free Software fans.

On the other hand, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols also reported that Sun is tempting soon-to-be-abandoned Windows NT users with a discounted Linux/Cobalt package.

In other news …

Programmers discovered a security flaw in some versions of Linux that could “allow protective firewall software to grant malicious computer users access to protected networks.” The flaw could be exploited when two computer users chat on IRC.

A U.S. Senate committee conducted the first hearing for the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, which “would require government mandated copy prevention technology in future digital devices that would give Hollywood control over how consumers can use digital content,” according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Tech leaders told senators to back off, but Democrats seem to be fond of the bill.

Microsoft’s and the U.S. Justice Department disclosed several changes to the proposed antitrust settlement between the two after criticism from legal experts and the public over the slap on the wrist Microsoft was getting. Apparently, Microsoft thought the changes minor enough to call them “clarifying changes,” and some critics are still being critical.

Newly reviewed