Feb
25
Copyright cites: Google
Posted by Dirk Avery at 11:48 am under Copyright, Litigation.
Last week Reuters reports that a Viacom, YouTube/Google document production deadline has been extended two additional months:
A deadline for Google Inc to turn over documents in Viacom Inc’s $1 billion copyright lawsuit against the Web search leader has been extended by two months by a federal judge.
Google’s attorneys had asked that a March 7 deadline […]
Feb
22
Encrypted Data Thiefs
Posted by Keeley Vega at 12:53 pm under Technology.
In software news…
A group led by a Princeton University computer security researcher has developed a simple method to steal encrypted information stored on computer hard disks.The technique, which could undermine security software protecting critical data on computers, is as easy as chilling a computer memory chip with a blast of frigid air from a can […]
Feb
22
Girls Gone Geek
Posted by Keeley Vega at 12:43 pm under Technology.
“Sorry, boys, this is our domain.”
The prototypical computer whiz of popular imagination — pasty, geeky, male — has failed to live up to his reputation. Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are not misfits resembling the Lone Gunmen of “The X Files.” […]
Feb
22
Foo Fighters battle X-Men
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:02 am under Copyright, Litigation.
If you’ve seen the new trailers for Wolverine and X-Men, you might have noticed some cool Foo Fighters music. Unfortunately, Marvel allegedly did not get permission to use the music! Oops.
Feb
21
Wariness over Microsoft’s openness
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:38 pm under Uncategorized.
Last week we reported on Microsoft opening up its binary formats and promising to not sue when they’re used non-commercially. The openness is an attempt to get the world to standardize on Microsoft’s formats and is part of compliance with anti-trust obligations imposed by a European court. What do software developers think now […]
Feb
21
Patent reform more than domestic matter
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:49 am under Patent.
Bernard Frieder, of the Jerusalem Post, makes a case against the proposed reforms to the patent system based on international repercussions. His basic point is that the reform provides large companies with an unfair advantage over startups and foreigners.
THE PROPOSED changes would greatly increase the costs of securing a basic US patent and expand […]
Feb
21
Lessig for Congress?
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:16 am under Copyright, Internet.
Yesterday Keeley posted Lessig’s “final” lecture on free culture as he now plans to move his attention to congressional corruption. CNET’s Anne Broache reports that Lessig is considering running for congress himself. What better way to fight corruption than on the inside?
Larry Lessig, the Stanford University law professor and “free culture” icon, has confessed that […]
Feb
20
Lessig’s Final Lecture: Free Culture
Posted by Keeley Vega at 3:30 pm under Copyright, Events.
Feb
20
Patent news
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:04 am under Patent.
Alexander Graham Bell’s famous telephone patent secured by bribery?
Former patent examiner, Zenas F. Wilber, admits to being bribed by Alexander Graham Bell’s attorney to award Bell the telephone patent over rival Elisha Gray. Of course, that was 1876. However, a new book, The Telephone Gambit, by science historian Seth Shulman, sheds new positive […]
Feb
19
Wikinomics in action
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:03 pm under Copyright, Incentive, Wikinomics.
The Library of Congress has launched a pilot program with photo-sharing site Flickr to enable people to enhance the metadata on visual materials in its collection.
According to a blog posting by Matt Raymond, director of communications, the program is starting modestly — with 3,000 photographs that are out of copyright from two of the Library’s […]