Licensing: All

Free software is a different beast from gratis software. Free software activist, Richard Stallman, discusses the importance of freedom across all modes of computing.

Organizations that are interested in using open source in their own products but are wary of intellectual property issues might want to examine a new, mostly free, assistance program just launched by the non-profit Linux Foundation.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ducked the question of whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should continue to issue software patents in a ruling Monday striking down a business-method patent.

No change: That's the result of an 18-monthlong appeals process that the president of the European Patent Office hoped would clarify the rules on whether software may be patented.

A U.S. federal jury has found that Novell and Red Hat were not guilty of infringing on user interface patents held by IP Innovation.

As if Oracle did not have enough work convincing MySQL users of its good intentions, the company also should set its sites on getting the Java platform back on track, contends a Google chief architect.

IBM will not use its open-source patents in any potential legal actions it may bring against TurboHercules, an IBM company executive seemingly asserted on Wednesday.

Software developer and political lobbyist Florian Mueller weighed in on the European Commission's investigation of monopoly abuse claims against IBM, accusing the computing giant of deserting the interests of the open-source software community.

In an open letter to Google, the Free Software Foundation has urged Google to open source a video codec that it acquired in its purchase of On2, completed Monday.

Incomplete laws and intense lobbying from the software industry are contrary to the values of free software and continue to pose a threat to its existence says an independent technology consultant and writer from New Zealand.