“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.”
I seem to live by those words. The backlog of books to read keeps growing after a trip to Half Price Books this evening with my wife.
Ironically, we went to get her some books and I was just tagging along. Instead, I walked out with a book on intellectual property (another one!) and a copy of the 1st Edition Warhammer RPG book and she had nothing. Life isn’t fair sometimes. 
I received this book for Christmas, along with about 10 others, so I imagine that my next several posts will be book reviews.
This is a good book. The only knowledge of the subject I had prior to reading it was from wikipedia articles and online discussions, so I cannot judge the book for accuracy, but it does agree with what little I’ve heard.
The first third of the book deals with the types of intellectual property and the laws that govern them. There are chapters on patents (2), copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets. These are presented in an objective way, with comparisons between software engineering and IP law where applicable.
The chapters on patents seemed the most confusing to me. After reading it, my position has leaned towards not wanting to allow software patents. (I thought the book objective on the subject. It was my own conclusion regarding software patents.)
The second third of the book is about applying IP to software projects, mostly open source. I asked for the book to read Chapter 9 specifically. I have a side project that I would like to perhaps develop commercially, but I don’t want to run afoul of my employer. Unfortunately, that chapter seemed the weakest to me, but that’s probably because I was expecting the most out of it.
I did gain a much better understanding of open source licenses from the respective chapter. Rather than help you “roll your own”, the author makes a good case for choosing one of several standard licenses and compares them side by side based on their approaches to free or open source software philosophies.
The last third was pretty much a waste. It includes the text for several of the licenses in print form. It also included some sample legal agreements that, while probably accurate, are not anything like what I’ve seen from my various employers.
Still, the first and second third of the book are well worth the money and time invested. After reading it, I would hardly consider myself an expert on intellectual property law, but it did help me make a few decisions about my next project (not the one I need permission from my employer for, but my “other current project” ). I think it will be licensed under the Mozilla Public License.
It’s been a while since I’ve written, and it’s been a while since I finished this book, so this won’t be a detailed review. Also, I’ve not reviewed the first two of the books in this series, the First Law series, by Joe Abercrombie.
The Last Argument of Kings concludes the First Law trilogy. The name of the book is from the inscription found on the cannons of Louis XVI, which I think is appropriate given the story.
The plot centers around a conflict between two ancient wizards and their puppet countries. The plot is pretty mundane but properly sets the stage.
The author’s true talent lies in his characters. The main characters are all seriously flawed, but that makes them all the more engaging. My favorite is Logen, the barbarian from the northlands, with his comrade, the Dogman, a close second. Opposed to others, I’m not such a big fan of Glotka, the tortured turned torturer, but I do admit he is an extremely interesting character. Probably the weakest character is the wizard himself, Bayaz. Only in the closing moments do we begin to see his true character, but that is probably for the better and allows the smaller characters seem to play a bigger part than they really have.
As much as I liked the books though, I have a hard time recommending them. They are full of brutality. There are also several sexual situations that are very descriptive. Thankfully none of the sexuality is violent, or I wouldn’t have been able to finish the books.
Also, the book kind of winds down with a little less steam than I thought it could have. Fortunately the very end of the book puts things in motion for the inevitable sequels, though no such sequels are as of yet announced. There are forthcoming books, but they are not within the series themselves, but self contained stories set in the same world.
In the end, if you’re not turned off by extreme violence and blunt sexual descriptions, the book, and the entire series, is a good read about a mundane fantasy setting viewed through several excellent characters.
