Eben Moglen (needs no introduction) and Mattew Small, Senior Vice President BlackBoard, discuss the patterns (or non-patterns) of the developments behind BlackBoard.
6. December 2006, 6th Sakai Conference, Atlanta GA.
Recordings available as mp3 here:
http://issues.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/CONF06/Lunchtime+Discussion+with+Eben+Moglen+and+Matthew+Small
Lunchtime Discussion with Eben Moglen and Matthew Small
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Number of replies: 6
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: Lunchtime Discussion with Eben Moglen and Matthew Small
by Martín Langhoff -
I listened to it a few days ago. Very interesting, and very harsh words from Eben -- so much so that some people ended up feeling it was a bit too much.
AFAICS, the reason Eben is acting like that is that there are many companies that are considering threatening FOSS with patents, and they are taking a wait-and-see approach before exposing themselves.
Given the situation, Eben (who is an outstanding lawyer and lecturer in IP law) needs to make an example of the first company who tries anything.
Blackboard have been a bit foolish in that their patent is weak, and the educational community very strong. And that their timing puts them right in Eben Moglen's cross-hairs. So he wants to make sure they are going to get trounced at the USPTO, the court and the media.
Listen carefully when he says that FOSS is being threatened by a company with huge resources... that is not Blackboard. That is exactly who he is talking to.
It doesn't make me happy to be part of this larger war, but in any case, it's good to be part of one of the easy scare-the-wits-out-of-them battles.
AFAICS, the reason Eben is acting like that is that there are many companies that are considering threatening FOSS with patents, and they are taking a wait-and-see approach before exposing themselves.
Given the situation, Eben (who is an outstanding lawyer and lecturer in IP law) needs to make an example of the first company who tries anything.
Blackboard have been a bit foolish in that their patent is weak, and the educational community very strong. And that their timing puts them right in Eben Moglen's cross-hairs. So he wants to make sure they are going to get trounced at the USPTO, the court and the media.
Listen carefully when he says that FOSS is being threatened by a company with huge resources... that is not Blackboard. That is exactly who he is talking to.
It doesn't make me happy to be part of this larger war, but in any case, it's good to be part of one of the easy scare-the-wits-out-of-them battles.
In reply to Martín Langhoff
Re: Lunchtime Discussion with Eben Moglen and Matthew Small
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Hi Martin
Thanks for the revealing "background" information!
> It doesn't make me happy to be part of this larger war, but in any case, it's good to be part of one of the easy scare-the-wits-out-of-them battles.
May I sig-quote that, with due references of course?
Thanks for the revealing "background" information!
> It doesn't make me happy to be part of this larger war, but in any case, it's good to be part of one of the easy scare-the-wits-out-of-them battles.
May I sig-quote that, with due references of course?
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: Lunchtime Discussion with Eben Moglen and Matthew Small
by Martín Langhoff -
Hmmmm. Strange request. Yes, you can... but there are better quotes than mine out there 
(As a general practice, I'd say that all my postings here in moodle.org are GPLd
)
(As a general practice, I'd say that all my postings here in moodle.org are GPLd
In reply to Martín Langhoff
Re: Lunchtime Discussion with Eben Moglen and Matthew Small
by Iñaki Arenaza -
So, can I make GPL-derived quotes from your original ones? That can be quite amusing (like taking one of your pro-emacs quotes and making a GPL-derived 'vim' one 
)
Saludos. Iñaki.
Saludos. Iñaki.
In reply to Iñaki Arenaza
Re: Lunchtime Discussion with Eben Moglen and Matthew Small
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
How about the slogan
My word is GPL'd
Make MS to utter that and you made MS WORD free (as in freedom)
In reply to Iñaki Arenaza
Re: Lunchtime Discussion with Eben Moglen and Matthew Small
by Martín Langhoff -
Ha ha ha! That would be a regression