[GNU/LinuxInIndia] GNU/LinuxIndia * July 06, 2004

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              Compiled by: Frederick Noronha * July 06,  2004
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PlayFair defies Apple; Web site back up                               
By John Ribeiro, IDG News Service                                     

May 11, 2004 8:20 am ET                                               

The PlayFair free software project is back online, with both the maintainer
of the project and the hosting service willing to face a legal challenge
from Apple Computer Inc.

        Apple last month shut down the free software project, which enables
        AAC (advanced audio coding) files downloaded from Apple iTunes to be
        played on platforms that Apple does not support. It does that by
        stripping the DRM (Digital Rights Management) mechanism from a song,
        provided the key for playing the song is available.

The project has been renamed Hymn, according to Anand Babu, the maintainer
of the project. It is being hosted on two sites (http://playfair.org/ and
http://hymn-project.org) by a U.S.-based hosting service provider. Babu said
last month that the project would be hosted outside the U.S.
                                                                                
                  
        "This (hosting service) provider is well aware of the DMCA (Digital
        Millennium Copyright Act) and DRM issues and is very much willing to
        defend us in case Apple threatens to bring down the site," Babu said
        in an e-mail Tuesday, announcing the return online of the PlayFair
        project.

Apple shut down the free software project after serving a legal notice,
alleging infringement of copyright, to the sponsors of Sarovar, a free
software development community site based in Thiruvanthapuram, India, that
was hosting the PlayFair project.

The project had earlier been brought down from SourceForge.net, an
open-source software development Web site in the U.S. owned by Open Source
Development Network Inc. (OSDN), after Apple invoked the DMCA.

The new release of the software is pretty much a complete rewrite, according
to a posting on the two sites.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 

        No, I don't agree with the project being taken down.  Enough
        arm-twisting by corporates who want to protect their "Intellectual
        Property" by killing innovation and the individual hacker (not
        cracker!).  If the project is taken down it will create a bad
        precedent in India, which will eventually lead to DMCA, PATRIOT and
        similar restrictions being placed on Indian developers without
        anyone having raised his/her voice against it. Sarovar, CVR, etc,
        please fight this case.  And to put my money where my mouth is, I'm
        putting in Rs. 1000 to help you get a lawyer.  I'm also forwarding
        this message to more lists and requesting people to come up and help
        defray your legal costs. -- Raj Mathur <raju@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

        This case sets dangerous precedents, and if I am right is the first
        use of litigation against a free software site in India. 
        Corporations are using litigation as a very effective weapon against
        freedom...  -- Rajkumar S <s_raj@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

        We were previously known as PlayFair and now Hymn. playfair.org
        points to our new domain hymn-project.org. -- Anand Babu, Free as in
        Freedom <www.gnu.org>

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* INDIC COMPUTING: To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/indic-computing-users

See the Indlinux Newsletter Issue 4 available at:
http://indlinux.org/newsletter/4.html

* URLs OF RELEVANCE AND INTEREST: Some links to work on the Kannada front,
coming from a South Indian language with an estimated 32 million speakers.

        http://kannada.sourceforge.net/ - Project Home page
        http://sourceforge.net/projects/kannada - Sourceforge Project page

        OpenOffice.org screenshots
        http://kannada.sourceforge.net/openoffice.org/screenshots

        Gnome screenshots
        http://kannada.sourceforge.net/gnome-screens/screenshots.html

        Mozilla rendering Kannada
        http://kannada.sourceforge.net/mozilla-with-pango.png

        XFCE in Kannada
        http://kannada.sourceforge.net/xfce-panel-kannada.png

        KDE with QT 3.2.0 http://kannada.sourceforge.net/kde-preview

* GOOD NEWS FROM THE DEBIAN FRONT: Debian installer to support
bi-directional scripts: It has been announced in Debian i18n list that the
current version of the Debian installer supports bi-directional scripts like
Farsi, Hebrew, and Arabic using libfribidi. This means that the support for
Indic scripts is possible and somebody has to do the footwork.

* EMAIL2MOBILE: Abhishek Jain says he has worked on a GNU/Linux project --
email2mobile -- which allows any email coming to you wil be forwarded to
your mobile. It also enables one to send free sms to all numbers in india
including the BSNL and Reliance networks. See http://www.goyali.com Says
Jain: "This project was completed entirely by me and on (the GNU/)Linux
platform. If anyone of you have any queries get onto the chat or email me.
My yahoo id is ejaincom". He adds that the project was completed using a
paid SMS gateway and is on the lookout for a cheaper gateway.

        * OPEN OFFICE IN SOUTH ASIA: Omi Azad from Bangladesh
        <omi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> says that considerable work is going into Open
        Office. Said he, in a recent Asian discussion: "We have done a lot
        from India and Bangladesh. The Hindi version of OO is ready and you
        can find it in http://hi.openoffice.org/ I'm working on the Bangla
        project with my team and that will be available soon on
        http://bn.openoffice.org/ "

        He also points to another source for South Asian fonts:
        http://guca.sourceforge.net/typography/fonts/saab/

LINKS TO INDIA INITIATIVES: There was this discussion on the Bangalore LUG
list, asking for listings of India-related initiatives. Offline, I wrote to
Kenneth Gonsalves, and pointed out to one earlier initiative --
http://linuxinindia.pitas.com  He comment: "Went through it -- needs to be
organised." Sure does. Since I don't have the bandwidth to maintain this, is
any volunteer willing to take-over and collaborate?

* Check out the FSF-FRIENDS mailing list in India
Fsf-friends@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends

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