Red Hat: Open source driven by anti-US sentiment Anti US sentiment is driving up the demand for open source software, according to Red Hat boss, Jim Whitehurst. "I never thought I would say this but, actually, being very unpopular in the world, as frankly the US is these days, is a huge benefit to open source," said Whitehurst at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. In ... Read full entry

"Intellectual property" is a silly euphemism Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow argues that ideas, knowledge, and information, should not be referred to as "property", as they are intangible and cannot effectively be owned by anyone once they have been shared with someone else. If you trespass on my flat, I can throw you out (exclude you from my home). If you steal my car, I can take it back (exclude ... Read full entry

Mattel in war of words over Scrabulous. Assuming Facebook stays in the headlines long enough - that is, it isn't superceded by something else next week - we're probably going to see more stories like this. Addicts of Scrabulous, an online word game played by millions of office workers on Facebook, may soon have to go cold turkey because of a looming copyright battle with the owners of Scrabble. The ... Read full entry