OSS law review assembled

In a sign of just how far open source has come in the past decade, the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSSLR) was published, aiming to "bring the highest standards to bear in analysis and comment on all aspects of free and open source software," writes CNET News.

The journal is peer-reviewed by an editorial committee made up of members of the European Legal Network which, despite its name, actually includes legal experts from all over the globe.

A few of the better-known names include Andrew Katz, Amanda Brock (Canonical), Mark Webbink (former general counsel at Red Hat), and Lawrence Rosen (noted author and author of the Open Source Licence).

The US Postal Service has come up with a foolproof way to track mail, using an open source tool for its Product Tracking System (PTS), reports FierceGovernmentIT.

The USPS has upgraded its 15-year-old mainframe-based system to handle more transactions and lower the cost of the system.

It's a good idea for an agency that recently reported that it's billions of dollars in the red.

The Symbian Foundation has released its first open source software package, the first step in the organisation's plan to eventually open source the entire Symbian mobile operating system, says Builder AU.

The Symbian Foundation was set up in June 2008 by Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, NTT DoCoMo, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, Samsung, LG and AT&T to oversee the development of the Symbian OS as an open-source platform, licensed under the Eclipse Public Licence (EPL).

Symbian made available its first package covered by the EPL, the OS Security Package, according to Symbian developer Craig Heath.