Oracle has announced that it will move OpenOffice.org to a community based open source project. This follows the foundation of The Document Foundation and the start of LibreOffice in September 2010. At the time The Document Foundation asked for the trademarks of OpenOffice.org to be donated by Oracle to The Document Foundation.
The Copyright Amendment Act is now law. Those who opposed the original law which would allow for disconnection of Internet connections without legal oversight are no more pleased with the amendment which while introducing a copyright tribunal to hear cases of copyright infringement they will assume that a notice is positive evidence for infringement.
Red Hat has opened up shop in New Zealand saying it has done so to "further promote open source including Red Hat's Linux, middleware and cloud computing offerings." Heading up the new push into New Zealand will be Country Manager Craig Nielsen. He will be leading efforts to establish stronger links with customers, the open source community and government organisations. He will also be aiming to foster the development of innovative ideas and technologies that can be showcased to the rest of the world.
Google have made a bid for a patent portfolio owned by Nortel. From the official Google Blog they make clear their continued opposition to software patents, saying that "The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits.". Google and it's partners have been the target of numerous patent lawsuits over the last year, primarily related to Android.
