SCL Meeting: "Demystifying Open Source" - 28 May 2012 - London

A bit of a plug — for anyone in the UK who might be interested in a discussion of open source, I am one of the speakers for the Society of Computers and Law's upcoming presentation on "Demystifying Open Source." I'll be speaking on the practical implications of open source usage in a commercial context.

If I'm honest, it seems rather expensive, but I mention it just in case.

Getting rich off iPhone apps is difficult

An interesting report on the Register, commenting on a briefing to MPs representing the Science and Technology Committee in the UK.

"Almost no apps cover their development costs and software services only make money in "extremely unusual" cases, some proper engineers have told MPs."

The article goes on to reflect the view that:

"Some innovative software-based services have been commercialised extremely successfully – Facebook and Google being the leading examples – but the commercial model is extremely unusual, as it requires huge investment to provide free services so that a vast population of users is developed and monetised through advertising revenue and added-value services."

Perhaps the Internet is not a solid basis for economic growth, and the commercialisation of research?

Oracle thinks you can copyright a programming language, Google disagrees

Google and Oracle will start their courtroom fight next next Monday on whether a computer language is copyrightable or not.

Read the article here and here too

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

a very interesting topic I read about TPP, and how it may impact citizens' rights by imposing more restrictive requirements than current international ones.

read the whole topic and a leaked version of one of its chapters here

Copyright lectures on Youtube

In search for more sources to have a full view on copyright topic, I found this material on Youtube, and I thought it would help me and my E-classmates.

a short lecture titled as "copyright in the 21st century" you can find here