Carlo Piana :: Law is Freedom ::

URL shorteners are "cloud" services that do basically one thing: they take a long URL (such a web address) and transform it into a short one. They became popular with the explosion of microblogging facilities like Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook et al.

Today "@AndyC", who is a UK person that posts a lot on Identi.ca, ranted about URL shorteners, and about a new one called ow.ly. He wondered what in heaven could be their business model, and I discovered some not-so-good things. That ignited me to write a little bit about them, hoping to receive more feedback and provide more reasoning later.

It was yesterday in the Herald Tribune, but the news was lingering around even before. Really soon the European Commission will finalize a settlement with Microsoft, possibly closing two big antitrust issues: the tying of the browser with Microsoft Windows and the withholding of interoperability information. I have had the opportunity to comment on the proposal of Microsoft earlier this August, because the Commission has formally asked the opinion of FSFE, which is an interested third party in the procedure. I hope things have improved from then, because there were serious gaps in the proposed commitment.

The point is that the current Commission is going to step down in a few weeks, and Commissioner Kroes – who has an incredibly good track record on the Microsoft case – might feel the urgency to close everything behind her, leaving the office empty and her case teams without a case. But at which conditions?

To use my good friend Jeremy Allison's words, will we be able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?

Andy Updegrove has published his own take on the Rambus case, which he was following more closing from an US perspective. Andy is a leading authority when it comes to the law in the standards world, and beyond. We have had the opportunity to discuss this case earlier on, and I find his insight very valuable.

We have just heard of a proposed settlement of an  EC antitrust action against a private company named Rambus. Rambus has reportedly tabled an undertaking to reduce its royalties for DRAM patents, which would lead, technically, to a decision according to Art. 9 of EC Regulation 1/2003. The Commission has published it for market testing, inviting comments by the middle of July. Although the proposed licenses and royalties still raise questions, it is in the line of successes of EU antitrust activities where USA initiatives have most remarkably failed. But more importantly, it is the first signal to the world of standards that the recent free rides by some players in that field are going to be under vigilant scrutiny of the antitrust authorities.

I wanted to keep a low key on that, but the news hit the press and the avalanche started mounting.

I have submitted for approval to OSI a license on behalf of my good friend and client Mr. Leonardo Chiariglione, convenor of the ISO/IEC JTC1 WG11 (also known as MPEG).

Linux Journal, followed by many others, has a story:

Also in Milan, upon an initiative of FSUG (Free Software User Group), an event organized in the framework of the Document Freedom Day will take place. It is one of the many events organized in Italy. It will be the day when we will promote the possibility to be independent from a single vendor and free in preserving our data in documents. Open Standards are only supported. Next 25th day of February.

During the Cross section of WCC 2008 held in Milan on 9 September 2008, Workshop has been programmed, entitle  "Workshop Open Format: quali proposte per il nuovo Governo? Open Standard, Formati dei dati e dei documenti" (Workhop Open Format: what proposals for the new Goverment? Open Standards, Formats for data and documents) in which, beside my humble self, some of the protagonists of the recent debate on standardization in Italy have been invited. From Andrea Valboni of Microsoft, to Domenico Squillace of Uninfo, to Angelo Raffaele Meo of Politecnico di Milano, former president of the governmental commission on open source bringing his name and my friend Roberto Galoppini.