Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
  • CNET
  • All licensing posts

licensing

iStock launches iStockaudio for royalty-free clips

As expected, iStockphoto launched its audio clip licensing service, called iStockaudio, on Wednesday.

The move marks another expansion for a site that pioneered the "microstock" business of inexpensive, royalty-free image licensing over the Internet. The company, acquired by stock art power Getty Images in 2006, also offers video, Flash animations, and vector illustrations.

iStock Chief Executive Bruce Livingstone announced the availability of the audio licensing Wednesday in a blog posting. The company has been accumulating audio clips over the last year, and now 10,000 are available.

"You can use our iStock tracks as many times as … Read more

Why open-source licensing still matters

The Open Knowledge Foundation blog provides some excellent reasons to take open-source licenses seriously, especially for data on the Web, but these struck me hardest:

Together, a definition of openness, plus a set of conformant licenses, deliver clarity and simplicity. Not only is interoperability ensured, but people can know at a glance, and without having to go through a whole lot of legalese, what they are free to do...Thus, licensing and definitions are important, even though they are only a small part of the overall picture.

If we get them wrong, they will keep on getting in the way … Read more

YouTube users caught in Warner Music spat

Corey Vidal is no pirate, but he's been branded one as a result of the licensing spat between Warner Music Group and YouTube.

On YouTube, Vidal posted a humorous video tribute to John Williams, the man who scored the soundtracks for such blockbuster films as Indiana Jones, and Star Wars. In his clip he included some of Williams' music. By now, everybody knows that YouTube removes videos that violate copyright law. What's different about Vidal's work getting pulled is that when he posted it in October, he was permitted to use Warner's music.

Until last month, … Read more

AMD's $1.4 billion loss bigger than expected

Updated at 6:15 p.m. PST with AMD statement about a letter it received from Intel on January 20.

Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday reported a bigger-than-expected net loss of $1.4 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008. This is the chipmaker's ninth consecutive quarterly loss.

AMD also disclosed that it received a letter from Intel regarding the two companies' patent cross-licensing agreement.

The $1.42 billion loss, or $2.34 per share, was below the $1.77 billion loss, or $3.06 per share, reported a year ago but worse than Wall Street analysts had expected… Read more

Open-source developers' heads are in the cloud

Evans Data has published the results of a 360-person survey suggesting that 40 percent of developers working on open-source projects plan to deploy applications via the cloud, as OStatic reports.

The big winner here? Google. Twenty-nine percent of developers surveyed plan to use Google App Engine to deploy their applications, while 15 percent will look to Amazon.com.

Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce.com, and other cloud initiatives? They apparently don't make the grade, netting far less developer attention.

Other interesting data:

Types of open-source applications being developed: "enterprise business application" (30.7 percent), "developer tool" (20.… Read more

Want to eliminate Psystar? License Mac OS X

Psystar, the homegrown computer vendor selling its brand of Open Computers with Mac OS X installed, is back in the news this week, thanks to another court filing claiming that it can do whatever it wants, courtesy of the first-sale doctrine.

Psystar contends that because it bought copies of Mac OS X from Apple and its partners, it has every right to install that software into its own brand of computers and sell the hardware to its customers.

Does it make sense? Not really. Much like Psystar's contention that Apple was operating a monopoly and abusing its copyright, the small firm's pleas to courts have been suspect, at best.

And yet Apple continues to play the legal game with Psystar and pay its lawyers to engage this annoyance in court when Steve Jobs has more pressing issues (like running a public company) to address.

Say what you will about the Psystar's court battle with Apple, but there's really an easy solution to all this, if you're Apple: license Mac OS X.… Read more

Patent wars: RealNetworks wins; Global Crossing pays up

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

RealNetworks defeated a patent infringement suit that was trying to come back from the dead. Meanwhile, Global Crossing licensed a portfolio of call center patents from Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, an outfit that collects dough from a who's who of corporate America.

First, RealNetworks said Tuesday that it defeated an attempt by Friskit to revive a patent infringement suit that sought damages of $70 million. In a statement, RealNetworks outlined:

The Federal Circuit in Washington D.C. upheld a 2007 ruling in which Judge William W. Schwarzer of … Read more

Talks break down; Warner Music pulls videos from YouTube

Negotiations between Warner Music Group and YouTube over renewing the licensing agreement for the record label's music videos broke down Friday. Early Saturday, Warner, the third largest record label, removed videos from the Google-owned video site.

The impasse comes at a time when all four major labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and EMI, are renegotiating their licensing deals with YouTube.

"We are working actively to find a resolution with YouTube that would enable the return of our artists' content to the site," Warner said in a statement. "Until then, we simply cannot accept terms … Read more

Yet another overblown open source debate

Matt Aslett of The 451 Group and I met in London this morning, and discussed a range of issues. One thing that came up, which Aslett discusses on his blog, was the furor over CPAL, AGPL, and other open-source licensing designed for the Internet. I heavily contributed to that furor but, looking back, it would seem that the concerns were almost completely overblown.

Mea culpa.

A year and a half later, very few open-source projects use the CPAL license, which introduced a specific form of graphical attribution for open-source projects. There was sound around it, and there was fury, but … Read more