Looks like Sony has gone from prosecuting pirates to becoming one.  Only days after the PS4 announcement too.

Over at the KDE Blog, Jonathan Riddell explains that Sony is using a KDE icon in violation of the LGPL3 license under which it is released:

“Nowhere on their website terms of use does it list the LGPL 3 licence it may be copied under (It does say “Any unauthorised use or copying of site content, or use of site content which breaches these Terms (or their spirit) may violate trade mark, copyright and other proprietary rights, and have civil and criminal consequences” although it also says “You must seek and obtain the written consent the operator of this site before creating any link to this site” so I don’t give that page any legal credit.)”

The page in question is a ‘Choose your Vaio‘ webpage on the Sony UK site.

What does one do in cases like this?  It seems that legal action would be a waste of time and money…hopefully, Sony takes note of this and corrects the issue.  They’ve been heavily invested in Linux and Open Source for many years now with their platforms and I’d like to think they’d have learned from their rootkit debacle that you should act quickly to fix things before they blow up on the internet.

Sony Violates the LGPL3 and Steals KDE Icon originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on 22 February, 2013.

Sometimes I read comic books.  I would hope that some of you do as well.  I collected the paper version of comic books when I was a kid (Mostly Superman and Spiderman) and I’ve graduated up to the digital version now.  Comic books in digital format usually use the .cbz or .cbr file extension.  To read these in Windows or on my Linux desktop (I was running XFCE for the year or so) I had to use a specialized application…a comic reader…to do this.

The program I used in Linux was called Comix and it did a great job when I used XFCE.  I know you can also use Evince and I’m sure it does every bit a good job as Comix does.  Both are GTK applications though.  Since I now use KDE 4 on my primary workstation, I wanted to see if there was a Qt application that I could use and I was very disappointed when I didn’t find any.  So, there I was with comics in my Home Directory collecting dust with nothing preferable (read: Qt based) to open them up to read them.  I double clicked on one of them in frustration….and I was surprised when it opened right up.

Okular, the do-it-all reader for KDE4 opens up every comic book I throw at it.  I was saved…rather, my comic collection was saved.  Very handy that the KDE4 devs put in such a great tool to open so many formats.  So if you’re looking for something that can handle your comic collection, look no further than Okular which comes preinstalled with most KDE4 based distributions.

Okular with PDF

Comic Books, Linux and KDE 4 originally appeared on Yet Another Linux Blog on 25 January, 2013.

Reglue (formally The HeliOS Project) will be having an organizational day on the 9th of February, from 9 AM until everyone gets tired and wants to go home.  We'll be concentrating on tearing older machines down for parts and getting them ready for recycle as well as prepping suitable machines for deployment.  We'll probably only have enough room for about 10 people to work comfortably so this won't be a full-blown affair like Linux Against Poverty.

Thanks for passing this on.  If you are interested in helping, email me - helios@fixedbylinux.com or go to reglue.org and hit the contact us tab at the top of the page.

Hope to see you there.

I'm not.

I'm not happy at all sitting at the kid's table.  But that's where I am.

And if you are a Linux user, you are too.  Bet you didn't know that didja?

Neither did I.  Until two weeks ago.

That's how long it's taken me to decide whether I'm going to even talk about this in public.  I decided that it's probably something you knew in your gut anyway.

Yeah many of you did.

I made a good friend at Google three years ago.  We became friends when I was offered an interview for a job there.  Fact is...I would have been this new friend's replacement.  He would have trained me in, if I was hired on.

In that I turned the offer down due to the commitment I now have really wasn't a surprise to many.  Friend was able to find work with Google in another city where his wife was being transferred so it all worked out in the end.

And I gained an extremely good friend.  He'll be reading this as soon as it's published.  I am sure he suspected it would be a topic for discussion.

Two weeks ago, Friend was in Texas and He drove down to see me.  We knocked back a few beers on some small patio bar in Round Rock.  When the subject turned to work, I knew Friend was in a position to answer a question for me.  It's probably something you knew in your gut anyway.

Yeah you did.

I asked him the question:

"Why does Google refuse to reference that Android or Chromebooks are Linux-based?"

He took a pull on his Shiner Bock and did something I didn't really expect.

He answered me.  And I'm not going to use quotes because I didn't write it down but this is awful close:

Because Linux Users can't be trusted to behave if they are taken out into public.

He went on to explain that the powers that be (of which he is not one but within that circle) simply don't want anything getting in the way of Google's march to their phone, tablet and computer market supremacy.  Their Chromebook slayed the numbers this Christmas season and many within the marketing effort at Google believe NOT associating their brand with Linux may have helped tremendously.

Is Linux mentioned anywhere in the Android Marketing?

No.

Is Linux mentioned anywhere in Chromebook Marketing?

No.

From our public infighting, to our fragmentation in distro and desktop wars, to our inability to even give decent application names to our programs.....

We act like a bunch of children fighting  over the drumstick at Thanksgiving.

In other words.

Let the grownups take care of business, and be quiet....don't make us stop this car.

And no, don't rage at me.  I wrestled with this for a couple of weeks, knowing it would piss some people off, but more importantly.....

It would validate what many of you already knew.

Many of the grownups just don't want to be seen in public with us.

Maybe not you, and I certainly hope not me, but still...

It is felt that Linux as a brand name is tainted, and for far more reasons than I mentioned above, but those are pretty much the heavy hitters.

If it makes you feel better to yell at me in the comments, go ahead.  I've pretty much accepted that it would happen anyway.

And by doing so....you fairly well prove Google's point.  See?  Sometimes, the grownups are right.

All-Righty Then