Patents
Amazon Wants Patent For Inserting Ads Into Books
theodp writes "Three Amazon inventors set out to correct what they felt was a real problem: that 'out-of-print or rare books ... typically do not include advertisements ...Slashdot
Browser Vendors Force W3C To Scrap HTML 5 Codecs
snydeq writes "Major browser vendors have been unable to agree on an encoding format they will support in their products, forcing the W3C to drop audio and video codecs from HTML 5, the forthcoming W3C spec that has been viewed as a threat to Flash, Silverlight, and similar technologies.Slashdot
TiVo Wants to Be the Google of Television. How?
By helping viewers search for programs and by selling ads and ratings data to advertisers. A still-potent brand name and 140 patents should help .BusinessWeek.com --
Patent Judgment on TiVo Is Stayed
A federal appeals court stayed a court’s order that would have forced Dish Network and EchoStar to disable millions of digital video recorders that infringe a patent held by TiVo.New York Times
March 12, 1838: Chemist Gets a Mauve On
Wired News
The First Phone Call Was 133 Years Ago
magacious writes "March 10 is the 133rd anniversary of the first telephone call. It occurred between Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson back on this day in 1876.Slashdot
Copyright and Patent Laws Hurt the Economy
Norsefire writes "Two economists at Washington University in St. Louis are claiming that copyright and patent laws are 'killing innovation' and 'hurting [the] economy.' Michele Boldrin and David K.Slashdot
Tech/Pharma Battle Over Patent Reform Seems Headed for Compromise
Wired News
March 10: Jefferson the Paleontologist, Lincoln the Inventor
Wired News
IBM Wants Patent For Lotus Notes-Free Meetings
theodp writes "Over at IBM, the Lotus Notes team has 'invented' preventing the use of their own product during meetings. Self-described patent reformer Big Blue has asked the USPTO for a patent covering Suppressing De-Focusing Activities During Selective Scheduled Meetings by forcing meeting attendees to 'submit to the computing system suspension requirements.' What's next — a patent for Verizon for blocking cellphone usage during movies?" .Slashdot
March 6, 1899: Tales of Hoffmann’s Aspirin
Wired News
Amiga Community Collaborates On Restorative Gel To Brighten Your Old Plastic
jamie pointed out an Amiga community that took a discovery of how to restore old computer plastic, super-charged it, and then opened the process to the public domain.Slashdot
March 2, 1887: Birth of the Master Locksmith
Wired News
Analyzing Microsoft’s Linux Lawsuit
jammag writes "Open source advocate Bruce Perens takes a close look at Microsoft's lawsuit against TomTom (discussed here last week), which involves an implementation of the Linux kernel, and calls it essentially a paper tiger.Slashdot
How To Hijack an EU Open Source Strategy Paper
Glyn Moody writes "Thanks to the indispensable Wikileaks, we have the opportunity to see how an organization close to Microsoft is attempting to re-write — and hijack — an important European Union open source strategy paper, currently being drawn up.Slashdot
TomTom To Contest Microsoft Patent Lawsuit
Wired News
Has Microsoft’s Patent War Against Linux Begun?
Glyn Moody writes "Microsoft has filed a suit against TomTom, 'alleging that the in-car navigation company's devices violate eight of its patents — including three that relate to TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel.' What's interesting is that the intellectual property lawyer behind the move, Horacio Gutierrez, has just been promoted to the rank of corporate vice president at Microsoft.Slashdot
1-Click Smacked Down Again, While Reexam Languishes
theodp writes "Pressed on Amazon's 1-Click patent, then-USPTO Chief Q. Todd Dickinson got testy: "I make this challenge all the time. If you're aware of prior art out there that invalidates a patent that is existing, file a re-examination.Slashdot
Freeing and Forgetting Data With Science Commons
blackbearnh writes "Scientific data can be both hard to get and expensive, even if your tax dollars paid for it. And if you do pay the big bucks to a publisher for access to a scientific paper, there's no assurance that you'll be able to read it, unless you've spent your life learning to decipher them.Slashdot
DIY 1980s “Non-Von” Supercomputer
Brietech writes "Ever wanted to own your own supercomputer? This guy recreated a 31-processor SIMD supercomputer from the early 1980's called the 'Non-Von 1' in an FPGA.Slashdot
iPhone Features Everywhere in Rivals’ New Phones
Wired News
Microsoft Accused of Squandering Billions On R&D
Julie188 writes "Even as Microsoft celebrates its 10,000th patent, angry shareholders are starting to speak out against what they say is the squandering of billions of dollars on pointless R&D projects.Slashdot
Feb. 10, 1957: Birth of the Cool…er
Wired News
Microsoft Agrees To License ActiveSync To Google
JacobSteelsmith writes "Microsoft agreed today to license ActiveSync to Google. Google is using ActiveSync as part of Google Sync, which enables the synchronization of data between mobile devices and, presumably, Google Calendar and your contacts stored at Google.Slashdot
Is Apple’s Multi-Touch Patent Valid?
An anonymous reader writes "There is evidence that Apple's multi-touch patent application may have failed to list some prior art that showed gestures in multi-touch interfaces as early as the mid 1980s.Slashdot
Best Approach To Keeping a Virtual World Protocol Free to All?
arkowitz writes "I invented a protocol called CICP for interacting with virtual worlds, and filed a provisional patent application on it March 20 of last year. I have since declared the protocol open and public, and contributed an implementation of it to the Sun Wonderland project, which is GPL; and made public the LSL code and accompanying Java servlet for the Second Life implementation of the protocol.Slashdot
LinuxDefenders.org Launches To Fight Patent Trolls
eldavojohn writes "The Linux Defenders Network is a new organization sponsored by the Open Invention Network, the Software Freedom Law Center, and The Linux Foundation to help the community defend itself against patent trolls.Slashdot
Jan. 30, 1975: Rubik Applies for Patent on Magic Cube
Wired News
Microsoft Files a Patent for a Desktop Dock to Hold Smartphones
Microsoft has filed for a patent around a docking system for a smartphone that will come with a output for an external display, an ethernet jack and a USB hub to connect a keyboard or a mouse, among other things.Wired News
Jan. 29, 1895: Steinmetz Makes AC Practical
Wired News
Burden of Proof: Spurned Scientists Vindicated
Wired News
Firm Seeks To Ban Mobile Companies’ Imports To US
snydeq writes "Texas-based Saxon Innovations has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission to bar six companies — including Research in Motion, Palm, and Nokia — from importing handheld devices into the US.Slashdot
Business Briefing | Court Action: Chip Maker Rambus Loses Patent Case to Micron
Rambus, a designer of high-speed memory chips, may not use 12 of its patents to demand royalties from Micron Technology, a federal judge ruled.New York Times
Gadget Roundup: Innovation Is Back at CES 2009
Wired News
Burning Question: Why Are Faxes Still Around?
Wired News
Panasonic Working On 2-Terabyte SD Cards
An anonymous reader writes "SD cards with a theoretical maximum capacity of 2TB are in development by Panasonic and the SD Association, it has been announced. The technology is called 'Secure Digital Extended Capacity', or 'SDXC', and Panasonic has announced it will soon show off a 64GB SDXC card.Slashdot
The 2008 Linux and Free Software Timeline
diegocgteleline.es writes "Here is LWN's eleventh annual timeline of significant events in the Linux and free software world for the year. As always, 2008 proved to be an interesting year, with great progress in useful software that made our systems better.Slashdot
Jan. 8, 1790: Father Knows Best — Embrace Science
Wired News
Oprah Sued For Infringing “Touch and Feel” Patent
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Oprah Winfrey, or to be more precise, Oprah's Book Club, is being sued by the inventor/patent attorney Scott C. Harris for infringing upon his patent for 'Enhancing Touch and Feel on the Internet.' So Oprah's Book Club is now one of many people and entities being sued over this patent because they allow people to view part, but not all, of a book online before purchasing it.Slashdot
Are My Ideas Being Stolen? If So, What Then?
BinaryGrind writes "I just got started taking Computer Science classes at my local university and after reading Universities Patenting More Student Ideas I felt I needed to ask: How do I tell if any of my projects while attending classes will be co-opted by my professors or the university itself and taken away from me? Is there anything I can do to prevent it from happening? What do I need to do to protect myself? Are there schools out there that won't take my work away from me if I discover TheNextBigThing(TM)? If it does happen is there anything I can do to fight back? The school I'm attending is Southern Utah University.Slashdot
What’s Inside Raid? Watch Out, Kitty!
Wired News
Universities Patenting More Student Ideas
theodp writes "Working as a NASA intern, grad student Erez Lieberman had a eureka moment, resulting in an algorithm that detects whether a person is standing correctly or is off balance.Slashdot
Dec. 31, 1938: Set ‘em Up, Joe … for a Breath Test
Wired News
King of Bionic Ag Uses Turbocharged Seeds, Precision Chemistry, and a Little TLC
Wired News
Dec. 29, 1766: He Put the Mac in Mackintosh
Wired News
Dec. 24, 1968: Christmas Eve Greetings From Lunar Orbit
Wired News
The Post-Bilski Era Gets Underway
bfwebster writes "A set of pharmaceutical process patents for 'evaluating and improving the safety of immunization schedules' (Classen v. Biogen et al.; see US Patents 6,420,139; 6,638,379; 5,728,385; 5,723,283) were held to be invalid due to unpatentability.Slashdot
Scientist Patents New Method To Fight Global Warming
SUNSTOP writes to tell us that a relatively unknown Maryland scientist has proposed a public patent that he claims could combat global warming. The proposed plan would require massive amounts of water to be sprayed into the air in an effort to bolster the earth's existing air conditioning system.Slashdot
Apple’s 3D Desktop Patent Filing Examined
phantomfive writes "The patent office has released some patent filings by Apple which indicate that the company is working on a 3D desktop of some sort. They call it a multi-dimensional desktop, according to the patent filing." There's also some commentary at ZDNet; both stories link to a detailed run-down at AppleInsider. .Slashdot
Russian Hopes To Cash In On Emoticons
drewmoney writes "According to a BBC article, Entrepreneur Oleg Teterin said the trademark for the ';-)' emoticon was granted to him by Russia's federal patent agency. 'Legal use will be possible after buying an annual licence from us,' he was quoted by the newspaper Kommersant as saying.Slashdot
Trademarks
March 10: Jefferson the Paleontologist, Lincoln the Inventor
Wired News
March 6, 1899: Tales of Hoffmann’s Aspirin
Wired News
Psion Accuses Intel of Cybersquatting
Save the Netbooks writes "We discussed Psion sending C&Ds late last year over international trademarks held on the term 'netbook' and Dell accusing Psion of fraud last week.Slashdot
Artist Dave Gibbons’ Gut Feelings on the ‘Watchmen’ Movie
Wired News
Filming the Unfilmable: Behind the Scenes of the Watchmen Movie
Wired News
Dell Accuses Psion of “Fraud” Over Netbook
Barence writes "Dell has issued court papers in the US, accusing Psion of fraudulently laying claim to the term netbook. Psion sent out warning letters late last year to PC manufacturers, retailers and bloggers alike, asking them to stop using the term netbook, which the company registered as a trademark in the late 1990s.Slashdot
‘Pull My Finger’ iPhone Fart App Dispute Lingers
Farting iPhone apps popular enough that two makers of the flatulence apps are engaged in a trademark dispute over the phrase, "pull my finger."Wired News
Jan. 30, 1975: Rubik Applies for Patent on Magic Cube
Wired News
Sporty BMW Pocket Truck Runs Errands in Style — for a Sticker-Shock Price
BMW's pocket truck is handsome and well equipped, and you'll love the company's trademark sports-car feel. But is it worth the hefty price tag? .Wired News
Image of Popeye Enters Public Domain In the EU
Several readers wrote in to mention that the copyright on the image of the character Popeye expired in the EU as the year began, 70 years since the death of its creator Elzie Segar.Slashdot
OpenSUSE 11.1 License Changes Examined
nerdyH writes "Novell's recent openSUSE 11.1 release includes a new end-user license agreement modeled after Fedora's EULA, says Community Manager Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier in this detailed interview.Slashdot
Soak It to Me: Inside Liquid-Suspended Gaming PC
Wired News
Russian Hopes To Cash In On Emoticons
drewmoney writes "According to a BBC article, Entrepreneur Oleg Teterin said the trademark for the ';-)' emoticon was granted to him by Russia's federal patent agency. 'Legal use will be possible after buying an annual licence from us,' he was quoted by the newspaper Kommersant as saying.Slashdot
Online Rebel Publishes Millions of Dollars in U.S. Court Records for Free
Wired News
FOSS Community Can Combat Bad Patents
An anonymous reader lets us know about a new initiative designed to help shield the open source software community from threats posed by patent trolls. The initiative, called Linux Defenders (the website is slated to go live tomorrow, Dec.Slashdot
New .tel TLD Now In Use
rockwood reports that the .tel top level domain has been deployed, "in a first attempt at pushing the recently approved .tel. The top-level domain .tel was approved by ICANN as a sponsored TLD launching on Wednesday, December 3, 2008[1] to trademark owners of national effect and on February 3, 2009 to anyone who wishes to apply.Slashdot
Music Game Competition Heats Up
With Guitar Hero: World Tour set to launch on October 26th, Activision has released a list of downloadable content that will be immediately available. Activision has also apparently included a trailer for Guitar Hero: Metallica (which will arrive sometime next year), and they recently trademarked the name 'Guitar Hero Modern Hits,' which may be part of their plan to increase the amount of Guitar Hero content they produce.Slashdot
Google Profiting From Typo Squatting, Report Charges
A report out Monday says Google is profiting by generating ad revenue from so-called typo-squatting websites. Such websites usually have one letter different from the URL of the original, trademarked site. .Wired News
Chicago Law Firm Sues Over Hyperlink To Trademarked Name
TheSpoom writes "Large Chicago law firm Jones Day are suing internet startup BlockShopper over the issue of whether linking to a business with their trademarked name should be legal.Slashdot
Gallery: Emoticons Jump From Web to Real World :-)
Wired News
Mozilla Admits Firefox EULA Is Flawed
darthcamaro writes "Mozilla has now come around and is taking seriously the concerns of Ubuntu and others about the Firefox EULA, which we discussed vigorously the other day.Slashdot
A New Battle Is Beginning in Branding for the Web
Trademark issues may take on a higher profile, fueled by the escalating value of brands in general and trademark holders increasingly trying to assert their rights, especially on the Internet.
New York Times
Dell Tries To Trademark “Cloud Computing”
Ian Lamont writes "The Industry Standard reports that Dell is trying to trademark the term cloud computing . The phrase entered the tech lexicon years ago, but Dell's application (serial number 77139082) was made in early 2007 to the US Patent and Trademark Office, apparently in connection with data center products and services that it was promoting around that time.Slashdot
Wikileaks Releases ACTA Negotiations As “0-Day”
An anonymous reader writes "Wikileaks has released a new document about the ACTA negotiations occurring in Washington over the next three days. This might be the shortest time between authorship of a document and its publication on Wikileaks so far.Slashdot
The Death of Nearly All Software Patents?
An anonymous reader writes "The Patent and Trademark Office has now made clear that its newly developed position on patentable subject matter will invalidate many and perhaps most software patents, including pioneering patent claims to such innovators as Google, Inc.Slashdot
American Airlines Drops Trademark Lawsuit Against Google
American Airlines has dropped its lawsuit against Google, which claimed the Internet company used the airline’s trademark to trigger paid advertisements for other companies.New York Times
GOP ‘Caving’ From Trademark Lawsuit Threats
The Republican National Committee on Monday backed down on its threats to sue CafePress for allowing its online vendors to sell GOP-related merchandise. The GOP, however, said while it is backing off on litigation threats, it will demand vendors acquire licenses of shirts, stickers or other goods if they solely display the trademarked letters G-O-P or the trademarked GOP elephant. .Wired News
Could Mattel End Up With Bratz?
In winning its trademark case against MGA, Mattel could grab hundreds of millions in back royalties—and maybe even ownership of the superhot Bratz dollsBusinessWeek Online --
GOP Threatens CafePress over Shirts, Stickers and Logos
The GOP is threatening to sue online vendor host CafePress for allowing vendors to sell trademarked GOP regalia such as T-shirts, stickers and images of the trademarked Republican elephant.Wired News
Bits: Apple Sues Psystar to Block Macintosh Clone Sales
Apple has sued Psystar, a Florida-based maker of Macintosh clones, claiming that the company makes poor-quality machines that infringe on Apple’s trademarks.New York Times
Apple Files Suit Against Psystar
Reader The other A.N. Other, among others, alerts us to the news that Apple has filed suit against Psystar, the unauthorized clonemaker. (We've been discussing Psystar from the start.) The suit alleges violation of Apple's shrink wrap license and trademarks, and also copyright infringement.Slashdot
Judge to Tiffany: Police Your Own Brand
EBay has won a crucial victory for Web sales of trademarked goods, but the ruling doesn't apply to Viacom's copyright suit against YouTubeBusinessWeek Online -- Technology
Judge to Tiffany: Police Your Own Brand
EBay has won a crucial victory for Web sales of trademarked goods, but the ruling doesn't apply to Viacom's copyright suit against YouTubeBusinessWeek Online --
eBay Beats Tiffany In Net Trademark Case
sm62704 notes a Reuters story reporting that eBay has beat Tiffany in court in a "knockout" decision. If this had gone the other way, not only would eBay be in trouble (especially after the loss of a similar case in France), but so would Net commerce as a whole.Slashdot
Judge Doesn’t Give Tiffany a Trademark Silver Spoon in eBay Flap
A federal judge on Monday ruled that eBay is not required to police its site for knockoffs being auctioned on its online site. Jeweler Tiffany claimed eBay had a duty to perform such duties to keep counterfeited goods from being sold on the site.Wired News
eBay Claims Victory in Tiffany Lawsuit
The jewelry maker had sued for trademark infringement, hoping to force eBay to remove items from its site listed under Tiffany's name brandBusinessWeek Online --
Google Abandons the Gmail Name In Germany
praps writes "A three-year trademark conflict has ended with Google withdrawing its use of the Gmail brand in Germany. On Friday, a plain-text message appeared, beginning 'We can't provide service under the Gmail name in Germany...Slashdot
Bezos Buries Patent Office in Paper
theodp writes "On June 2nd, almost two-and-half years after the USPTO initiated a reexamination of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click Patent, Amazon dumped another load of documents on the USPTO Examiner assigned to the case, asking for consideration of the 185 or so listed references and 'favorable action.' Peter Calveley, the LOTR actor whose do-it-yourself legal effort prompted the reexam, notes that he was cc'ed on 20 kg of documents that Amazon sent earlier to the USPTO as it tried to stave off last October's nonfinal rejection of all but 5 of Amazon's 26 1-Click patent claims.Slashdot
Swiss Army Knife Launches the Age of the Multitool
Wired News
Gallery: The iPhone 2.0 Keynote
Wired News
Google and Louis Vuitton Face Off in Trademark Spat
Google has appealed a decision by France’s highest court, which in ruled in favor of Louis Vuitton in a trademark infringement suit over Google’s AdWords system.New York Times
Wolfgang Puck vs. Wolfgang Zwiener
Two restaurant chains with similar names are about to square off in a trademark-infringement showdownBusinessWeek Online --
The Beauty of Bridges
Wired News
Why Does This Prominent Amazon Researcher Face 14 Years in Prison for Biopiracy?
Wired News
Craigslist’s Countersuit Criticizes eBay’s Tactics
The online classifieds company filed a countersuit against minority owner eBay, accusing it of unfair competition, false advertising, trademark infringement and diluting the value of the Craigslist trademark.New York Times
Theorizing a Big Apple Push Into Gaming
Ian Lamont writes "Terrence Russell has outlined an interesting theory about what industry Apple intends to break into next. He points to games. Forget Pippin II, or an iMac gaming rig — he thinks the mobile realm is where Apple will make a big product push.Slashdot
May 2, 1887: Celluloid-Film Patent Ignites Long Legal Battle
Wired News
Major ISPs Injecting Ads, Vulnerabilities Into Web
Rebecca Bug writes "Several Web sites (Wired, eWEEK, The Washington Post) are reporting on Dan Kaminsky's Toorcon discussion of a serious security risk introduced when major ISPs serve ads on error pages.Slashdot
DealBook: Facebook Hit With Another Suit
In a petition filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Aaron Greenspan, a former Harvard classmate of Mr. Zuckerberg, is seeking to cancel Facebook’s legal claim to its name. .New York Times
Trademark Dispute Pits Apple vs. The Big Apple
The apple logo for a New York environmental-awareness campaign provokes the ire of Apple, which says it infringes on the iPod maker's trademarks.Wired News
Copyrights
Copyright Should Encourage Derivative Works
Techdirt has an interesting look at copyright and the idea that an author is the originator of a new work. Instead, the piece suggests that all works are in some way based on the works of others (even our own copyright law), and the system should be much more encouraging of "remixing" work into new, unique experiences.Slashdot
Buyer of Pirate Bay, a File-Sharing Site, Plans to Go Legal
Global Gaming Factory X said that it had bought Pirate Bay for $7.8 million and that it would start a business model intended to compensate both content operators and copyright owners.New York Times
Supreme Court: Cablevision Remote DVR is OK
BusinessWeek.com --
Gear gallery: The iPhone 3GS, GPS Grandmaster and Split Personality Samsung Phone
Wired News
Fighting For Downloaders’ Hearts and Minds
iateyourcookies writes "As opposed to enforcement which usually makes the headlines, The BBC is running an article called Inside A Downloader's Head which looks at the film and music industries' attempts to prevent copyright infringement.Slashdot
Swedish Court Says IP Numbers Privacy Protected
oh2 writes "The highest applicable Swedish court, Regeringsrätten, has ruled that IP numbers are protected (in Swedish) since they can be traced to individuals. This means that only government agencies are allowed to track and store IP addresses, leaving 'anti-piracy' advocates with no legal way to find possible copyright infringers." Update: 06/18 14:42 GMT by KD : The original linked article had been pulled due to factual errors and a new article has been posted (link replaced above).Slashdot
Harvard Study Says Weak Copyright Benefits Society
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist summarizes an important new study on file sharing from economists Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf. The Harvard Business School working paper finds that given the increase in artistic production along with the greater public access conclude that "weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited society." The authors' point out that file sharing may not result in reduced incentives to create if the willingness to pay for "complements" such as concerts or author speaking tours increases." .Slashdot
RIAA Wants To Bar Jammie From Making Objections
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In the Duluth, Minnesota case headed for a re-trial on June 15th, Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset, the RIAA has filed a motion seeking to bar the defendant, Jammie Thomas-Rasset (she got married recently), from making objections to the plaintiffs' copyright registration documents.Slashdot
Eric Baptiste Weighs In On Copyright Summit Issues
With the upcoming biennial summit of authors and composers in Washington D.C., The Register has an interview with Eric Baptiste head of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC) that touches on some of the hot issues.Slashdot
Gear Gallery: MacBook Air Slayer, Luxury Ragtop, Touchy-Feely Kitchen PC
Wired News
EFF Posts ‘Terms of Service’ Tracker
Internet giants are constantly changing their terms of service agreements with their customers. The EFF crafts a new website tracking those changes, which often have an impact on privacy and copyright. .Wired News
Music Labels Want Pirate Bay Shuttered
The recording industry wants to add new fines to the $3.6 million levied against the four co-founders of The Pirate Bay. The four face a one-year prison term and fines for copyright infringement for running the world's most notorious BitTorrent tracker. .Wired News
Canadian Pirates Sell Spurious Songs — In 1897
Reservoir Hill writes "The NYTimes reported in their June 13, 1897 edition that 'Canadian pirates' were flooding the country with spurious editions of the latest copyrighted popular songs.Slashdot
Gear Gallery: Freewheeling DVR, Bumpin’ Earbuds, Waterproof Backpack, More
Wired News
Music Copyright In EU Extended To 70 Years
rastos1 writes "The European Parliament extended the copyright in the EU for the performers of musical works from 50 to 70 years. The legislation will be reviewed in 3 years.Slashdot
The Circus Widens In Aftermath of Pirate Bay Verdict
MaulerOfEmotards sends along an in-depth followup, from the Swedish press, of our discussion the other day about the biased trial judge in the Pirate Bay case. "The turmoil concerns Tomas Norström, the presiding judge of The Pirate Bay trial, who is suspected of bias after reports surfaced of affiliation with copyright protection organizations.Slashdot
Pirate Bay Judge Exposed as Member of Pro-Copyright Groups
The Pirate Bay's lawyers are seeking a new trial after Swedish National Radio discovered that judge Thomas Norström is a member of some of the same pro-copyright groups as the entertainment industry representatives who appeared in his courtroom.Wired News
AP Blasts Obama ‘Hope’ Artist in Copyright Flap
The copyright flap around the Obama "Hope" image takes a twist Wednesday when The Associated Press derides Los Angeles street artist Shepard Fairey's style "computerized paint by the numbers."Wired News
Copyright and Patent Laws Hurt the Economy
Norsefire writes "Two economists at Washington University in St. Louis are claiming that copyright and patent laws are 'killing innovation' and 'hurting [the] economy.' Michele Boldrin and David K.Slashdot
Minnesota File Sharing Retrial Hangs in Balance
Lawyers for Jammie Thomas and the Recording Industry Association of America are to meet within days to see if they can hammer out a settlement agreement to prevent a retrial of the nation's first and only file sharing civil trial.Wired News
New Zealand’s Recording Industry CEO Tries to Defend New Draconian Law
An anonymous reader writes "Campbell Smith, CEO of the RIAA equivalent in New Zealand, has written an opinion piece for one of New Zealand's largest daily papers, in which he tries to justify the new 'presumed guilty' copyright law.Slashdot
Timetable App Developer Gets Nastygram From Transit Sydney
mikesd81 writes "ZDNet Australia writes that NSW state corporation RailCorp has threatened a Sydney software developer with legal action if he fails to withdraw a train timetable application that is currently the second-most-popular application in its category in Apple's App Store.Slashdot
MediaSentry & RIAA Expert Under Attack
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Jammie Thomas, the defendant in Duluth, Minnesota, RIAA case Capitol Records v. Thomas, has served her expert witness's report. The 30-page document (PDF), prepared by Prof.Slashdot
Leaner RIAA Still Moves to Ban Copyright Scofflaws’ Online Access
The Recording Industry Association of America may be shrinking because of layoffs, but it is still vigorously lobbying internet service providers to ban copyright scofflaws from the internet.Wired News
Trial Shows Pirate Bay’s Crew Is All Hat and No Rum
Wired News
“Authors Guild” Skims Half of Google Book-Rights Settlement
Miracle Jones writes "A recent memo from the 'Author's Guild' to the writers and publishers that it supposedly represents shows that only $45 million of the $125 million dollar settlement with Google will be paid to writers, and that the most a writer can receive for a book is $300.Slashdot
Supreme Court to Hear Freelance Writers’ Settlement
Wired News
Copyright Challenge for Sites That Excerpt
As copyrighted material is excerpted online, some owners would rather have clicks than credit.
New York Times
RIAA, Stop Suing Tech Investors!
The RIAA isn't just suing tens of thousands of music consumers; they've also begun filing lawsuits naming the directors of and investors in tech companies that they believe contribute to copyright infringement.Slashdot
French President Busted For Copyright Violation
An anonymous reader writes "ZeroPaid has an interesting take on the story of Nicolas Sarkozy being accused of copyright infringement. The irony, of course, is Sarkozy's pushing of a 3-strikes law — disconnecting from the Internet those accused of file sharing — in France and across the EU.Slashdot
Canadian ISPs Speak Out Against Net Neutrality
Ars Technica reports on a proceeding being held by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regarding net neutrality. They requested comments from the public as part of the debate, and several Canadian ISPs took the opportunity to explain why they think it's a bad idea.Slashdot
Amazon Caves On Kindle 2 Text-To-Speech
On Wednesday we discussed news that the Authors Guild had objected to the text-to-speech function on Amazon's Kindle 2, claiming that it infringed on audio book copyright.Slashdot
Creative Commons Releases “Zero” License
revealingheart writes "Plagiarism Today reports on the release of the Creative Commons Zero license, which allows you to waive copyright and related rights to your works, improving on the existing public domain dedication.Slashdot
Nintendo Asks For Government Help To Fight Piracy
Nintendo, in its annual report to the USPTO, has requested help in dealing with piracy overseas, both from the US government and from several other countries in particular.Slashdot
Authors Guild President Wants To End Royalty-Free TTS On Kindle
An anonymous reader writes "The president of the Authors Guild has launched a rant in the NY Times about how the Kindle 2 provides Text-to-Speech capabilities that, oh the horror, allow the user to have any text on the Kindle read to her.Slashdot
Court Upholds AP “Quasi-Property” Rights On Hot News
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A federal court ruled that the AP can sue competitors for 'quasi-property' rights on hot news, as well as for copyright infringement and several other claims.Slashdot
Prosecution Alters Pirate Bay Charges in Bid to Win Conviction
The second week of the Pirate Bay trial continues in Sweden on. Hollywood investigators have testified how easily they obtained copyright material using the BitTorrent tracker. And the prosecutor altered the charges making it easier to convict. .Wired News
Judge Nixes McCain’s ‘Completely Unaware’ Copyright Defense
Sen. John McCain says he was an unwitting dupe when the Republican National Committee used Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" in a presidential campaign commercial. The Arizona Republican is defending himself in a copyright-infringement lawsuit. .Wired News
Pirate Bay Prosecutor Probes Site’s Bad Attitude
Cross-examination of The Pirate Bay's official spokesman focuses on his attitude towards copyright law.Wired News
Defiant Co-Founder on Witness Stand Defends Pirate Bay
On the witness stand Thursday in Stockholm, Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg fiercely defends the BitTorrent tracking site. He and three other co-founders are on trial for facilitating copyright infringement in a closely watched case.Wired News
Pirate Bay Founder Begs For Hacker Ceasefire
Barence writes "Pirate Bay's co-founder has pleaded for hackers to stop attacking the sites of those organizations lined up against him. Peter Sunde is on trial with Pirate Bay's three other founders for allegedly distributing copyrighted material.Slashdot
Obama Administration Mulling Constitutionality of Copyright Act
The Obama administration is set to weigh in on a constitutional challenge to Copyright Act, the law the Recording Industry Association of America has used to sue more than 30,000 people for file sharing.Wired News
Copyright Fight Brewing Over Amazon’s Kindle 2
A copyright battle is brewing between the Authors Guild and Amazon's Kindle 2, a new e-book reader that has a read-aloud function. The writers claim they should be paid audio licensing fees.Wired News
Obama ‘Hope’ Artist Sues AP In Copyright Flap
Los Angeles treet artist who created the Obama "Hope" image during the presidential campaign is suing The Associated Press, which claims Shepard Fairey is violating the wire service's copyright.Wired News
ISP Agrees to Ban Copyright Scofflaws
An Irish internet service provider agrees to discontinue service to file sharing copyright scofflaws. The move comes a month after the Recording Industry Association of America said it was seeking the same cooperation from U.S.Wired News
Ireland’s Largest ISP Settles With Record Industry
An anonymous reader writes "In what has been billed as a world first, four music companies and Irish ISP Eircom have agreed to work together to end illegal music downloading.Slashdot
The Plot to Kill Google
Wired News
YouTube Muting, Removing Videos Involving Warner Music
notseamus writes "In the past few days, YouTube has started muting videos uploaded by users that use 'unauthorized copyrighted music' in response to Warner Music's threat over royalties, and so far appears to target only Warner Music related videos.Slashdot
Anti-Piracy Firm Offering ISPs Money For Outing File-Sharers
mytrip points out news that an anti-piracy firm called Nexicon has been offering financial incentives to ISPs in exchange for having the ISPs police their own networks for copyright infringement.Slashdot
SCO Proposes Sale of Assets To Continue Litigation
gzipped_tar sends in this excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune: "The embattled SCO Group Inc. is proposing to auction off its core products and use proceeds to continue its controversial lawsuits over the alleged violations of its copyrights in Linux open-source software.Slashdot
Technology
Bits: Apple, Acer, and…Arrington?
Michael Arrington, the founder of the TechCrunch blog, says he will begin selling the CrunchPad, a touch-screen tablet for Web surfing, later this summer.New York Times
What Did Shaq Just Tweet? A New Web Site Knows
With more athletes using Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs, one Web site is trying to provide a centralized place for fans to keep up with the increasing amount of content.
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Hawking Says Humans Have Entered a New Stage of Evolution
movesguy sends us to The Daily Galaxy for comments by Stephen Hawking about how humans are evolving in a different way than any species before us. Quoting: "'At first, evolution proceeded by natural selection, from random mutations.Slashdot
Internet Companies and Ad Agencies Go From Old Enemies to New Friends
The slowing growth in online advertising is pushing traditional ad agencies and Internet companies to work together.
By ERIC PFANNER
Fake Tamiflu “Out-Spams Viagra On Web”
cin62 writes "The number of Internet scammers offering fake versions of the anti-swine flu drug Tamiflu has surpassed those selling counterfeit Viagra, reports CNN. Since the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, was declared a global pandemic last month, there has been an increase in the number of Web sites and junk emails offering Tamiflu for sale.Slashdot
Source Code of Several Atari 7800 Games Released
jadoon88 writes to share a series of old Atari 7800 games that have been unofficially open sourced. "Remember Dig Dug or Centipede or Robotron? They used to be favorites when Atari's 7800 series was still around.Slashdot
How To Get Your Program Professionally Marketed?
one-man orchestra writes "I'm the sole programmer of a small, multi-platform, commercial audio program (a spectrogram editor). After over 6 months on the market, I realized that the program would never just sell itself, and that I need some real marketing done for it.Slashdot
Professor Gets 4 Years in Prison for Sharing Drone Plans With Students
Hugh Pickens writes "Retired University of Tennessee Professor Dr. John Reece Roth has been sentenced to four years in prison after he allowed a Chinese graduate student to see sensitive information on Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones.Slashdot
Open Source Facing a Difficult Battle for Cloud Relevance
A recent eulogy for open source's relevance to cloud computing by Redmonk analyst Stephen O'Grady caught the attention of Matt Asay, who breaks down the difficulty of this David and Goliath problem.Slashdot
Open Source Facing a Difficult Battle For Cloud Relevance
A recent eulogy for open source's relevance to cloud computing by Redmonk analyst Stephen O'Grady caught the attention of Matt Asay, who breaks down the difficulty of this David and Goliath problem.Slashdot
Phoenix Lander Discovers Nighttime Snowfall on Mars
Many outlets are reporting on the recently released results of the various experiments and observations of NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander. Most notable is the discovery of nighttime snowfall on the planet, lending credibility to the idea of a hypothesized active water cycle based on earlier data collection.Slashdot
Phoenix Lander Discovers Nighttime Snowfall On Mars
Many outlets are reporting on the recently released results of the various experiments and observations of NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander. Most notable is the discovery of nighttime snowfall on the planet, lending credibility to the idea of a hypothesized active water cycle based on earlier data collection.Slashdot
Seattle Data Center Outage Disrupts E-Commerce
1sockchuck writes "A major power outage at Seattle telecom hub Fisher Plaza has knocked payment processing provider Authorize.net offline for hours, leaving thousands of web sites unable to take credit cards for online sales.Slashdot
Is the Kindle DX Worth the Money?
An anonymous reader writes "Now that some little time has passed, and the hype has died down a bit, I'm wondering if anyone has taken the $500 plunge and gotten a Kindle DX.Slashdot
XHTML 2 Cancelled
Jake Lazaroff writes "According to the W3 News Archive, the charter for the XHTML2 Working Group — set to expire on December 31st, 2009 — will not be renewed.Slashdot
Practical Travel: Twitter Comes to the Rescue
From bad airplane seats to poor room service, customers are getting surprisingly fast responses to their tweets.
By MICHELLE HIGGINS
Squeezing a Wikipedia Snapshot Onto an 8GB iPhone
blackbearnh writes with this excerpt from O'Reilly Radar "Think about Wikipedia, what some consider the most complete general survey of human knowledge we have at the moment.Slashdot
Emulated PC Enables Linux Desktop In Your Browser
Ianopolous writes "Classic DOOM and DSL Linux Desktop inside your Java-enabled browser! The latest JPC, the fast 100% Java x86 PC emulator, is now available with online demos and downloads.Slashdot
The Medium: Street Smart: Urban Dictionary
The unruly, unlexicographical but surprisingly useful offerings of Urban Dictionary.
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
London Stock Exchange To Abandon Windows
BBCWatcher writes "Computerworld's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports that the London Stock Exchange is abandoning its Microsoft Windows-based trading platform: 'Anyone who was ever fool enough to believe that Microsoft software was good enough to be used for a mission-critical operation had their face slapped this September when the LSE's Windows-based TradElect system brought the market to a standstill for almost an entire day ....Slashdot
Survey Says Bigger Downpayments Prevent Foreclosures
BusinessWeek.com --
iPhone Vulnerability Yields Root Access Via SMS
snydeq writes "Pwn2Own winner Charlie Miller has revealed an SMS vulnerability that could provide hackers with root access to the iPhone. Malicious code sent by SMS to run on the phone could include commands to monitor location using GPS, turn on the phone's microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a DDoS attack or botnet, Miller said.Slashdot
US Couple Gets Prison Time For Internet Obscenity
angry tapir writes "The husband and wife owners of a California company that distributed pornographic materials over the Internet have been each sentenced to one year and one day in prison.Slashdot
Gadgetwise: Home Theaters in the Five (or Six, or Seven) Figures
If you're in the market for a custom-built home theater, what can you get for $1 million?New York Times
China National Petroleum Corp in $17 Billion Argentina Oil Bid
BusinessWeek.com --
RC Submarine Lays Fiber Through Sewers In Italy
Francesco Fondi writes "An Italian Company is using RC scale model submarines to lay fiber through Milan's sewage system. The RC submarine used is the Neptune SB-1, produced by Taiwanese company Thunder Tiger.Slashdot
IBM Releases Open Source Machine Learning Compiler
sheepweevil writes "IBM just released Milepost GCC, 'the world's first open source machine learning compiler.' The compiler analyses the software and determines which code optimizations will be most effective during compilation using machine learning techniques.Slashdot
Blog - AstroTwitter To Reveal Where Telescopes Are Pointing
The success of the Twitter feed from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is leading to a new generation of scientific comunicationsTechnology Review RSS Feeds
Peak Oil: Bugatti Makes a Car for the Ages
Bugatti's convertible is the pinnacle of internal-combustion car tech -- one that will probably never be surpassed with the auto industry's focus shifting to electric vehicles. Here's what it's like to drive it. .Wired News
Keeping It Reel — Five Pieces for Your Must-Have Angling Kit
Fly fishers dread the question: "Catch anything today?" Dazzling your interrogators with cool gear might let you dodge the question. No gadget can improve your cast, but tech can surely enhance life on the water. .Wired News
July 4, 1776: Preserving the Declaration
It's one thing to declare independence, but quite another to preserve the aging document from the ravages of time.Wired News
Blog - Gnip Is Hiring Software Developers
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HTML Tags For Academic Printing?
meketrefi writes "It's been quite a while since I got interested in the idea of using html (instead of .doc. or .odf) as a standard for saving documents — including the more official ones like academic papers.Slashdot
IBM Reinvents the 401(k)
BusinessWeek.com -- Technology
Govt. Releases $4 Bln Broadband Stimulus
BusinessWeek.com -- Technology
Bing: Not Really Gaining on Google
BusinessWeek.com -- Technology
Microsoft Changing Users’ Default Search Engine
BabyDuckHat writes "Cnet's Dennis O'Reilly caught "Windows Search Helper" trying to change his default Firefox search from Google to Bing. This isn't the first time the software company has been caught quietly changing user's preferences to benefit its own products." .Slashdot
DOJ Confirms Google Antitrust Investigation
An anonymous reader points to Digital Daily, writing "Looks like the fireworks have begun early in Mountain View. On Thursday afternoon, the Department of Justice officially notified Google that it is investigating its book deal for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act." .Slashdot
Enthusiasts Convene To Say No To SQL, Hash Out New DB Breed
ericatcw writes "The inaugural NoSQL meet-up in San Francisco during last month's Yahoo! Apache Hadoop Summit had a whiff of revolution about it, like a latter-day techie version of the American Patriots planning the Boston Tea Party.Slashdot
U.S. Inquiry Is Confirmed Into Google Books Deal
The Justice Department confirmed it was conducting an antitrust investigation into a settlement of a class action between Google and groups representing authors and publishers.New York Times
First Fully Programmable Gesture-Recognition Glove, Cheap
Al writes "The AcceleGlove from AnthroTronix, is the first fully programmable glove that records hand and finger movements. Other gloves--like 5DT's Data Glove, which is used primarily in virtual reality--normally cost $1,000 to $5,000, but the AcceleGlove costs just $499.Slashdot
Andreessen Readies a New Venture Capital Firm
BusinessWeek.com -- Technology
Chris Anderson: Not Just Info Wants to Be Free
BusinessWeek.com -- Technology
Penguin Parents Won’t Chip In to Help Handicapped Spouse
Penguins, famous for the lengths they go to to protect their eggs and rear their young, may not be the most supportive couples around. When one member of a penguin couple is handicapped, the other doesn't step in to pick up the slack. .Wired News
Judge Tentatively Dismisses Case Against Lori Drew
An anonymous reader writes "According to Wired, 'A federal judge on Thursday overturned guilty verdicts against Lori Drew, and issued a directed acquittal on the three misdemeanor charges.' A similar story in the L.A.Slashdot
200-Year-Old Cipher Finally Cracked
Attila Dimedici writes "A code expert just cracked a code used by a friend of Thomas Jefferson in a letter written to Jefferson some 200 years ago.Slashdot
HIV/AIDS Vaccine To Begin Phase I Human Trials
An anonymous reader writes "An HIV/AIDS vaccine developed in Ontario has applied for Phase 1 human trials. Safety and immunogenicity studies of the vaccine, dubbed SAV001-H, have already been completed on animals.Slashdot
Solar Racing Champs Roll Out New Car
Delft University is back, ready to take a fifth consecutive title with Nuna 5.Wired News
Judge Overrules Jury, Acquits Lori Drew in MySpace Cyberbullying Case
Federal judge throws out Lori Drew's three misdemeanor convictions.Wired News