h-online.com: Opera's multi-million dollar lawsuit against a former employee who, it claimed, had leaked trade secrets to Mozilla has been settled. Details of the settlement are, however, confidential.

arstechnica.com: A Spanish group that represents open source software users has accused Microsoft of using an "obstruction mechanism" to prevent buyers of Windows 8 computers from installing Linux-based operating systems.

Also: Ultimate PC security requires UEFI

computerworlduk.com: The Python Software Foundation (PSF) have announced they have reached a settlement with POBox Hosting Ltd of the UK over their trademark application for the term 'Python' in connection with cloud hosting.

lawandlifesiliconvalley.com: The year 2012 had many important FOSS legal developments which reflects the continued increase in FOSS use. Continuing the tradition of looking back over top ten legal developments in FOSS my selection of the top ten issues for 2012 are as follows:

techeye.net: A row has erupted between two Linux distributors with one of them accusing the other of breaching the GPL.

datamation.com: Red Hat is the most successful pure play open source company on the planet, generating over $1 billion in revenue a year. Its success is rooted in a strong legal basis and understanding of how open source software works.

zdnet.com: Microsoft's latest patent licensing deal isn't like its recent Android/Chrome OS arrangements. It is with a service provider running Linux boxes in its own datacenters.

• BOOM! BOOM! Out Go The Lights on Oracle v Google
• Ah! The Morning After...
• Roundup: Oracle API Claims Defeated

itworld.com: The Electronic Frontier Foundation is touting a victory in a copyright lawsuit that had the potential to shut down the database that all Linux and UNIX-based platforms and many time-based applications use to keep track of the ever-changing global timezones.

wired.com: As Oracle and HP’s lawsuit over the doomed Itanium chip drags on like some Dickensian subplot, it’s time to introduce two new characters: Microsoft and Red Hat.

A few years ago, I discovered a site called "FreeSound.org" which sounded quite exciting, but turned out to be rather disappointing because the content was released under the Creative Commons "Sampling+" license, which is not a free license.

softwarefreedom.org: At the beginning of December, we warned the Copyright Office that operating system vendors would use UEFI secure boot anticompetitively, by colluding with hardware partners to exclude alternative operating systems.

groklaw.net: If you were a patent holder contemplating suing a bunch of companies for patent infringement, what's the first thing you would want to know? Do you think maybe it would be that you actually own the patent(s) you are asserting.

lawandlifesiliconvalley.com: This year, 2011, was one of the most active years in legal developments in FOSS. This activity reflects the increase in FOSS use: Laura Wurster of Gartner, noted in the Harvard Business Review blog that open source has hit a “strategic tipping point” this year.

• Hung jury in Novell v. Microsoft lawsuit
• Novell-Microsoft WordPerfect Lawsuit Ends In Mistrial
• Microsoft, Novell Negotiating WordPerfect Settlement?