Skype fought the GPL and the GPL won. The OLPC XO project abandons free software just as RMS switches to an XO; RMS not happy. New monthly newsletters from the FSF and FSFE. GNOME and KDE want to have a joint development conference in 2009. GNOME and GCC conferences coming up later this year. Plus all the usual news: more GPL v3 conversions, HURD news, GNOME news, GCC news, and more.

Skype Takes on the GPL in German Court. GPL Wins

In July of 2007 Harald Welte of GPL-violations.org successfully won an injunction against Skype for their violation of the GPL in the distribution of the WSKP100 VOIP handset. It initially appeared that Skype might follow the court's ruling but then they appealed, asserting that the GPL violated German anti-trust regulations and was invalid. The judge was not impressed with their argument and hinted that any rulings made would not be in Skype's favor.

RMS Laments OLPC's Decision to switch to Windows

The bizarre changes in the OLPC project have been heavily covered in the new media. President Walter Bender is out. GNU/Linux is out. The XO as a path to teaching children about computers by letting them tinker with the software is out. Instead the XO will be cheap advertising for MS Windows in the developing world. Nicholas Negroponte accused free software advocates of being "open source fundamentalists" and said open source software "hampered usability" and "scared developers".

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