May 2006

The European Commission, which originally supported software patents has reversed its position, and now wants to exclude software from being patented. Last year the commission fased off against the European Council which opposed software patents. This is in stark contrast to the proposed New Zealand Patent Bill which not only does not exclude software, but also fails to address concerns over the ease which software patents are granted, leaving citizens to fight expensive legal battles even when prior art exists.

The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) has threatened to prosecute educational establishments who use improperly licensed software.

The pressure group, which lobbies on behalf of the proprietary software industry, has threatened to take headteachers, schools, and Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to court if they are found to have any unauthorised software.

see: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/windows/0,39020396,39270906,00.htm

Today the State Services Commission released a new version of its Legal Guidelines for Open Source Software. This document was largely the result of a very productive cooperation between the NZOSS and the SSC after the publication of the first version of the document in March.

Good news from ISO/IEC. Apparently there is still a bit of paperwork to do to formalise the acceptance but the votes are all in and ODF is go!.

The ODF Alliance press release is here (pdf) and Andy Updegroves Standards Blog entry is here.

On Sunday the NZOSS held its first AGM over the Phone and using an online form of meeting called Internet Relay Chat (IRC). IRC is the oldest form of chat technology on the Internet, predating services such as ICQ and MSN. This allowed members who were not in the main centres to attend the meeting on the same basis as other members.