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Comment Re:Prior art design (Score 1) 181

Now, don't get me wrong..
I think 90% of the tablets out there look like each other; a large screen with a bezel with rounded corners and rounded-corner icons laid out on a straight grid (I so do wish Microsoft would have continued their hexagonal grid, it was refreshing).

But that is the point of these court hearings. Apple does not use patents or copyright, but merely aspect or design. They got an injuction on the basis that they filled a device drawing that is rectangular and black. This existed long before Apple, and should be taken into account in the court. Furthermore, in the German decision, Samsung was not even notified and did not defend their case!

Comment Prior art design (Score 5, Informative) 181

Samsung is now showing to a court in Netherland 20 cases of prior art in tablets, such as this one from 1994: the Knight Rider http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2011/04/tablet-computers-as-seen-from-1994.html As seen on these videos, this looked exactlty like an iPad! You may follow the courtroom debates thanks to Andreas Udo de Haes https://twitter.com/#!/andreasudo and on OsNews: http://www.osnews.com/

EU

Submission + - Community Design: (osnews.com)

zebslash writes: OsNews has published a very comprehensive analysis of the Community Design, the regulation that Apple has used to block Samsung (and is now trying with Motorola) from selling their own tablets on the quasi-totality of the European Union market. They point out how bad it is, being halfway between a patent and a trademark, can cover software, hardware and packaging. They also show how this favours large companies, which can own zillions variations of the same designs, even on the obvious, such as Microsoft having a design on an envelope icon or any type of windows!

Comment Re:Carpentry (Score 1) 2288

That is a fallacy. The problem is exactly the same for imperial units, e.g. when you want to cut a yard into tens. If you round down, obviously the sum of all parts will not match the size of the whole. Nothing prevents you to cut a meter board into thirds, the same way you can cut a foot into ten pieces. Do you think that buildings are badly adjusted in the rest of the world?

Comment Re:Wow indeed (Score 1) 90

Is the GPL legally binding in Australia?

Well, for their sake, it better be. Because if it were not binding, default copyright regulation would apply and these companies would not have the right to reuse and redistribute this code from the first place. Arguing GPL does not apply (as SCO claimed in the past) is shooting in its own foot.

Comment Re:Stop trying to resolve them! (Score 0) 536

Out of curiosity, like what?

Simple: thanks to the Bible, the number Pi is exactly equal to 3, which is simple to remember and has a lot of advantages, like being rational. Whereas the scientific answer for pi makes it extremely complex and annoying. With religion, Man would have built rockets to the Moon a lot earlier than in the late 20th century.

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