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Comment Re:Mod parent down (Score 1) 517

by morganew (#24496485) Attached to: IBM Granted "Paper-or-Plastic?" Patent

Actually, it's not cruel. Although his language is abusive, his intention has some merit.

Studies by the National Science Foundation and others have shown that a disproportionate number of the really questionable patents have had the same examiners.

POPA, the Union that represents examiners, and the executives at the USPTO need to feel more pressure when it comes to correcting the mistakes of individual examiners or their managers.

RIght now, the system skews towards rewarding the examiner who approves a patent, rather than an examiner how gives final judgment against approval.

Anecdotally, it appears that some examiners are even more ready to approve patents than the rest of their colleagues, and public pressure to 'call them out' might be a useful tool for both the Union and Administration to find a resolution to a few bad, or at least misguided, apples.

It's worth noting that IBM is the largest patenter for the USPTO, and as such has incredible influence there. For all their Open Source marketing speak, they continue to pursue absurd patents and to collect royalties off of software patents.

For IBM to file for a patent like this demonstrates that either they are monumentally duplicitous in their intent with regards to method/software patents, or that they are a company where the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
Patents

Submission + - IBM tried patenting bathroom use, USPTO decries

Submitted by
morganew
morganew writes: " Ars Technica reports USPTO Chief Jon Dudas singled out an attempted IBM bathroom patent as a sign of current submissions from industry. Dudas, speaking before the Tech Policy Summit, said the USPTO is getting overworked by companies like IBM submitting unworthy applications. But the larger question raised here may be: Should IBM be patenting software at all? IBM makes billions licensing patents, including software patents, yet supports anti-software patent voices like the FSF. WIll the "Real" IBM please stand up?"
Security

Submission + - String Validation Routines in .NET Exposed (anachronic.com)

Submitted by ubiquitin
ubiquitin writes: Web application security researcher Arian Evans has posted previously unrelease details of Microsoft's .NET 1.1 string validation routines. This includes anti cross site scripting request validation routines as well as a more generic ValidateString method. Such disclosure is expedient for all appsec researchers wishing to find holes in .NET applications.
Security

Submission + - A Step Backwards in Online Banking Security

Submitted by Gates82
Gates82 writes: I have recently been frustrated by "added security" questions on banking and credit card websites. It seems that all of these institutions are heading towards a regular login and a second (3rd or 4th) security question to be used as a second authentication or as verification to reset your primary password. These questions seem a step backwards in security; now all that it is required to reset my password on these sites is to know my user ID and then answer a simple question (ie. place of birth, date of birth, pets names, etc) with most of the answers being quite publicly available. Personally, I normally bash on the keyboard and click continue not caring what the answer is; assuming that it will be more difficult to crack then guessing fluffy as a pet name. But to make matters more unbearable I attempted to login to a credit card website and was greeted with a second login and it was requesting an answer to one of these (hit-head-on-keyboard) questions. It took two calls to get logged in and I am now forced to use a password for each security question in place of the real answer.

This process seems like a way for companies to deal with joe blow who forgets his password every month when he goes to make a payment. But how insecure is this for the rest of us who are comfortable with our password making/remembering capabilities?
Google

Thailand Sues YouTube 435

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the let's-all-take-off-our-left-shoe dept.
eldavojohn writes "Thailand is hitting YouTube with charges of lese majeste (up to 15 years in prison) regarding the recent videos on YouTube showing the king next to feet, something extremely offensive in Thailand. 'Since the first clip, more new videos mocking the king have appeared on YouTube, including pictures of the monarch that had been digitally altered to make him resemble a monkey. Thailand's 79-year-old king, almost universally adored by Thais, is the world's longest-reigning monarch, and one of the few who is still protected by tough laws that prohibit any insult against the royal family.'"
The Courts

How the RIAA has Dodged RICO Charges 126

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the still-quite-a-racket dept.
Gerardo writes "Wondering why the RIAA hasn't been hit with racketeering charges over its shady legal fight against file-sharing? Ars Technica looks at why the RIAA has been able to dodge RICO charges. '"Right off the bat there are some problems with the predicate claims for RICO," explained IP attorney Rich Vazquez. "You have to have a pattern of racketeering activity: either criminal acts where there is a one-year jail penalty, or mail or wire fraud." Any RICO action brought against the RIAA would have to focus on the wire fraud component, likely accusing the record labels of poking around someone's PC without permission.' That's going to be a difficult argument to make, given that Kazaa's default settings give users no reasonable expectation of privacy."
Censorship

Submission + - State laws target used CD sales

Submitted by NetDanzr
NetDanzr writes: According to this article in PC World, at least four US states have passed or are considering legislation that would curb the resale of used CDs. In Florida, for example, a store that wishes to sell used CDs must post a $10,000 bond, fingerprint CD sellers, hold onto the CDs for 30 days and only offer store credit (no cash) for CDs. While these rules are in line with existing pawnshop laws, they haven't been applied to used records and book stores previously. Used video and video game resellers have gotten a break, though: they'll have to hold onto the merchandise for only 15 days.
United States

Submission + - GAO Study Contradicts Counterfeiting Claims

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new study (pdf) from the U.S. General Accounting Office contains data confirming that claims about counterfeiting are massively overstated. Michael Geist notes that the report found that less than one percent of shipments entering the U.S. contained counterfeit goods, a far cry from the 5 to 7 percent of international trade that is often claimed.
Education

Submission + - Improve Our Knowledge Through The Internet

Submitted by
madalinna
madalinna writes: "As we all know, the Internet represents nowadays one of the most important means of communication. Its use is due to our constant need of getting new information in different fields, such as: culture and civilization, science, education. The Internet also facilitates communication between individuals, realizing virtual communities among people united by the same passions and ideas; and by doing this they overcome political, social and linguistic boundaries.

We can also use the Internet to enrich our knowledge, our culture, but, at the same time, we shouldn't forget the traditional methods of improving our knowledge. I t is said that the Internet gives us different points of view or different perspectives on how to approach a certain situation, but it's our job to establish a relation between the traditional methods of learning and the modern methods. I know that the advantages of using the Internet can be sometimes overwhelming, in a good way. The choice is ours. We can use it to enjoy ourselves or we can use it to solve our tasks, related to school. No matter what we choose, we know that we can learn a lot by connecting ourselves to the system, that is the Internet.

The Way To Improve Our Knowledge Through The Internet "
Privacy

Submission + - Nordic ISP circumvents spying

Submitted by
Ceriel Nosforit
Ceriel Nosforit writes: "
The Swedish government has proposed a law which would allow the National Defence Radio Establishment to intercept all electronic communications passing the national border. To meet customers' demand for integrity, TeliaSonera has decided to move the production of e-mail services for Finnish customers to Finland.
— Kauppalehti

TeliaSonera's move is however not completely benevolent, but a necessity for compliance with Finnish privacy laws, as they state in their press release. This is interesting because even in the liberal paradise of Northern Europe Finnish and Swedish law and practice can be in such contradiction. Compare with Echelon & local variants and the rest of the world."
The Courts

Australian Extradited For Breaking US Law At Home 777

Posted by kdawson from the no-safe-haven dept.
An anonymous reader sends us a link to a report in The Age about an Australian resident, who had never set foot in the US and broke US intellectual-property laws in Australia, being extradited to the US to face trial. Hew Raymond Griffiths pleaded guilty in Virginia to overseeing all aspects of the operation of the group Drink Or Die, which cracked copy-protected software and media products and distributed them for free. He faces up to 10 years in a US jail and half a million dollars in fines.
Software

Submission + - Aussie 'pirate' pleads guilty in extradition case

Submitted by jaroda
jaroda writes: Australian, Hew Griffiths, is facing up to 10 years in United States jail after pleading guilty in one to the first extraditions for intellectual property crime. While this is a pleasing result for some, such as US Attorney Chuck Rosenberg, it has also caused some concern in the Australian legal community. FTA:

In a recent article for the Australian Law Journal, NSW Chief Judge in Equity, Peter Young, wrote: "International copyright violations are a great problem. However, there is also the consideration that a country must protect its nationals from being removed from their homeland to a foreign country merely because the commercial interests of that foreign country are claimed to have been affected by the person's behaviour in Australia and the foreign country can exercise influence over Australia."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - Map your School

Submitted by
dzafez
dzafez writes: "In Response to the Slashdot article covering a Student getting kicked off of his
regular school (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/02/1 839251:

Even though, I don't ever play games anymore, I think this map should be published.
I would even go further, hell kids pick some good anon nicks with a anon e-mail address
and start sending me maps of your schools. I will host them on my german website.
(http:/www.dzafez.de)
Don't forget to let me know where (google maps) exactly the Highschool is, which
you rebuild. I will put that google maps link next to it. Also let me know, for
which game (version) this map is. I would love to see some older games as well.
If you do 3D rebuilds of your School in Autocat, Blender, VRML ... whatever 3D.

Bring it on, map at dzafez .de"
Privacy

Submission + - American copyright arms get longer

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "In Australia, you are no longer safe from the long arms of American law as the Australian Government recently agreed to extradite an Australian citizen for breach of copyright. As mentioned in The Age, the punishment for copyright crimes in the USA is worse than rape in Australia. Which is the greater crime? And in the Czech Republilc, The Prague Post carries a story about how the police there are now carrying our raids and arrests (at the behest of American copyright giants), now that they can legally download music locally in their country."
Censorship

EFF and Dvorak Blame the Digg Revolt On Lawyers 262

Posted by kdawson from the jet-fuel-on-a-fire dept.
enharmonix writes "A bit of an update on the recent Digg revolt over AACS. The NYTimes has taken notice and written quite a decent article that actually acknowledges that the take-down notices amount to censorship and documents instances of the infamous key appearing in purely expressive form. I was pleased to see the similarity to 2600 and deCSS was not lost on the Times either. More interesting is that the EFF's Fred von Lohmann blames the digg revolt on lawyers. And in an opinion piece, John Dvorak expands on that theme."

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