Licenses in open software have a double purpose: set conditions of use for end users and reflect the values of the community of developers working on open source model.
Article although from earlier this year is an interesting comment from Lessig in which he praises Google for the Book Settlement allowing the public more access than fair use, but which he speaks out against in the level of control control the settlement which allows different types of licensing on word/quote/page basis.
Potentially it could be a permissions nightmare for people who would like to use excerpts from the books.
In 2005 Creative Commons launched Science Commons, a project that seeks to provide a model of rights for scientific material that is available on the web. The project grants different types of licenses to improve the protection of material produced by researchers at the same time that aims to promote this material and its fair use.
Microsoft Corp and I-O Data Device have entered into an agreement that will provide I-O Data's customers with patent coverage for their use of I-O Data's products running Linux and other related open source software.
Find the whole idea vaguely repulsive.
See Slashdot:
"The Japanese computer manuracturer IO Data is the latest in line to license Microsoft's so-called 'Linux patents,' following the likes of Novell, Samsung, and Amazon. Yes, even the press releases use the word 'Linux' to describe these patents. From the press release: 'Specifically, the patent covenants apply to I-O Data's network-attached storage devices and its routers, which run Linux. Although the details of the agreement have not been disclosed, the parties indicated that Microsoft is being compensated by I-O Data.'"
http://bit.ly/bmxIO4
Really enjoyed this article and its historical account of Hollywood on the defensive to any new emergence of technology is apt. Unlike the open source software movement, this industry fails to understand that the circulation of its content, whether licensed or not, eventually produces indirect benefits. Hollywood defends its position through laws created in a time when the internet was yet to be conceived. The obvious flow on discussion here is that the law simply can't stay abreast of rapid technology changes.