Simon Phipps @webmink@mastodon.cc

The thinking behind the Copyright Directive is not too worried about most of the actual creators – just the big-money ones. They’re keen to preserve a retired superstar's pension but not too bothered about my income, because only one of those makes the publisher rich.

https://meshedinsights.com/2018/09/11/settling-scores-with-giants/

FOSS vs FRAND is a collision of worldviews
https://meshedinsights.com/2019/03/18/foss-vs-frand-is-a-collision-of-worldviews/

☝ My new paper, published today

The software and wireless technology worlds are heading for a confrontation over patents in standards. My new paper explains the problem of FRAND-licensed patents in standards in terms of innovation flow and resulting market worldviews, rather than reducing down to an argument over legalities, since the legalities turn out to merely be an expression of the underlying worldview.
http://www.openforumeurope.org/release-of-opinion-paper-on-open-source-and-frand-by-ofa-fellow-simon-phipps/

The sickos on Slashdot who harassed OSI's Board candidates will be unhappy, but the rest of us are thrilled the electorate has picked an all female cohort to the new Board. https://opensource.org/node/974

If you are an OSI member or Affiliate and left it late to vote you may have found the polls closed early. This was an error - they have been re-opened for an extra day. Go vote right now!

Inexplicably excited to discover my laptop actually has an IPv6 connection via my ISP to the web.

The story of what happened on that FLOSS Weekly show
https://www.patreon.com/posts/floss-weekly-521-25363041

Software Freedom Conservancy continues to have a profound effect on the world of free, open source software both through its work sustaining important projects and by engaging more widely on topics of general concern. OSI is delighted to welcome them as an Affiliate and looks forward to working with them to promote software freedom.

https://opensource.org/node/973

On the new Linux Foundation "Community Bridge":

"Historically, fiscal sponsors in FOSS have not treated each other as competitors. ... The launch of this platform, as proprietary software, without coordination with the rest of the FOSS organization community, is unnecessarily uncollaborative with our community"

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2019/mar/13/lf-community-bridge/

Don't try to use FLOSS Weekly to market your parasitic proprietary offering or this will happen to you too (around 40 mins in)

https://youtu.be/uComi1-8drM

The most common reason a clever new open source licensing or governance hack is wrong is a lack of appreciation for the role and value of community.

Always amazed when I discover open source people who haven't heard of meet.jit.si

Some may mock Microsoft's release of Calculator as open source, but it's a non-trivial act and we should welcome it. This 2016 article explains the work involved.

https://meshedinsights.com/2016/09/20/open-source-unlikely-to-be-abandonware/

Apologies for the intrusion, but I do need to remind a few folk that I am not employed by or pushing the agenda of anyone and rely on patronage for income to support my digital rights activities.

I work full time on open source and digital rights at OSI, ORG and TDF but don't draw salary from any of them. I would welcome your support - thanks!

https://www.patreon.com/webmink

This open source job fair in Belgium looks cool.

https://opensourcejobfair.be/

I'm disgusted by attacks some individuals have been making on candidates in the OSI Board election. Behaviour like this has no place in our community.

The Board is supporting the candidates privately as well as taking action to ensure attacks do not happen in any OSI-run venue. Contact us if you see something that slips by.

Details of the elections: https://opensource.org/elections