Last month, news spread concerning a somewhat odd lawsuit involving the Internet Archive and the question as to whether or not a computer spider can enter into a contract just by indexing a website. The case involved a woman who ran a website and had put some text at the bottom claiming that just visiting the website was entering into a contract, and part of that contract included not copying or distributing the content. The Internet Archive's spider did what it does and archived the page, leading to the threat of a lawsuit. The Internet Archive preemptively went to court to have a judge say they were in the clear, at which point the woman countersued. Of course, she didn't just countersue for copyright infringement, but a range of charges including racketeering. Most of the discussion focused on whether or not a spider could enter into a contract, though an equally compelling question is whether or not you can automatically force someone to give up their fair use rights. Unfortunately, neither question is going to be decided in this case. WebProNews reports that the woman and the Internet Archive have settled the case out of court with both sides putting happy faces on the story. At the same time, however, WebProNews also reports that the woman in question is still going after some of her critics, including publishing all sorts of personal information about at least two of them, potentially violating some privacy laws (at least one of the critics she's revealing info on is a minor). So perhaps there will still be a lawsuit stemming from this situation after all.

Filed under: Transportation

We understand, it's practically impossible to either bike everywhere you need to go or have your General Motors' Flex-Fit rack ready to rock when you're far from home, but the suitcase bike can seemingly tackle both of those issues with ease. Amazingly, the oft talked about, but hardly taken seriously Suitcase Bike has apparently been green-lit for production, and could be available to suckers interested consumers "later this year." While it shouldn't be too hard to guess, we'll do the honors anyway: the presumably hefty suitcase can morph into an unsightly form of transportation with just a few clips, folds, and snaps, and while public humiliation isn't necessarily included in the price, we can't help but imagine that it'll be bundled in whether you like it or not. Still, having a pair of wheels on your person at all times could certainly come in handy, so be sure you click through and catch the unfolding video to see if it's really worth the reported $399 asking price.

[Via TreeHugger]

Continue reading The Suitcase Bike finally unfolds, should hit production soon

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Peripherals

Hopefully that'll be the last time we're forced to write "mouse" three times in a headline, although the quality of these two mouse mods makes it completely worth it. First is the Steampunk mouse, which would look brilliant sitting next to your steampunk laptop and steampunk keyboard. You could even get your steampunk robot to help out with the construction, which took around 10 hours and only cost the creator Jake $5 to make. If you skip to the real -- as opposed to steampunk roleplay -- description you'll see that it's made up of an nameless laptop mouse and a "big jumble of bits and bobs from [Jake's] parts bin", which tends to be the case with most steampunk efforts. We wouldn't be surprised if the next mouse mod, the mouse mouse, was made using material found in a bin either. In this mod, noahw and canida over at instructibles stuffed a real, taxidermy mouse with the parts from a hacked computer travel mouse. Words cannot describe the combination of horror and awe at seeing the electrical guts of a real rodent being splayed for all to see. Now all that's needed is a PC case modded into a burrow and a mousepad with fake droppings.

[Via MAKE; thanks, jiltedcitizen]

Read -- The mouse mouse
Read -- The Steampunk mouse

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Media PCs, Peripherals

We're hearing some fairly bold words from a startup company with a purported Wiimote killer, even though it's about as far from the gaming realm as it could possibly be. In what's likely a shameless attempt to link the WavIt 3D Media-PC Remote to the well-regarded Wiimote, ThinkOptics has reportedly "made a pointing system for the computer and TV that makes the Nintendo Wii's controller look downright primitive." Realistically, the Wavlt doesn't look much better than any other overachieving wireless pointing device, but it does hope to interact with TVs and HTPCs in order to make on-screen navigation a bit less painful. Additionally, the creator is looking to incorporate the motion-sensing device into home automation in order to raise and dim lights, crank up the furnace, or mute your youngster's blaring music from the living room. The controller supposedly utilizes both RF and infrared technologies, and although it can track minute twists, flips, and turns, it does lack both an accelerometer and built-in Bluetooth. Notably, the wand will rely on the 2.4GHz band as well as Zigbee's 802.15 protocol, and while no firm release date was set, official pricing information should be unveiled shortly. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Spherical challenge

Exclusive Apple and Google have abandoned their individual mobile phone projects for a joint venture, The Register has learned.