Comment Re:Key passage: (Score 1) 97
"Far" is a matter of perspective.
Comment Re:Key passage: (Score 1) 97
I've seen the patents and they're a joke. They've been discussed here before. What are my qualifications? Like many others here on /. I'm "in the trenches" so as far as I'm concerned I'm more qualified to have an opinion than the lawyers and judges that YOU'd consider "qualified" to make that kinda statement.
Comment Re:Key passage: (Score 4, Insightful) 97
To be fair though, all of this is the result of google taking shortcuts in developing android instead of building their own product. No wonder they were able to create an os so quickly, then turn around and sell it for free.
You've got to be kidding. That sort of thinking not only undermines Google's effort of bringing a good product to market and making it so successful, it also undermines the very foundations of the OSS ideology.
The problem here isn't on Google's part, it's on the parts of the patent system (for allowing patents of highly questionable quality to be used in this way) and Microsoft (for being anti-competitive asshats as usual).
Comment Re:Joking about this is the height of stupidity. (Score 1) 709
Hey, they're doing the same to Richard O'Dwyer but in reverse!
Submission + - Protests erupt in Poland over ACTA
An anonymous reader writes: This week, the Polish government, along with 21 other EU members, signed on to ACTA (the treaty still has to be ratified by the parliament in order to become binding). A lot of Polish people are not happy about this. Earlier in the week, protests were organized in most of the major cities; the biggest one, in Kraków, had an estimated 10,000 participants. At the same time, the USA embassy is putting pressure on the parliament to vote correctly [in Polish].
Submission + - We need a new model. (occupyinside.org)
John Sokol writes: "We need a new model. Treating intangibles as a service makes far more sense then placing the intangible on something tangible. With a bar code, or now days RF id. Then try to then charge for it as it it were a bar of soap or a bag of pretzels. That worked really well, ahuu for a while, maybe 80 years. Right until people started to gain tools work with the intangibles. So they thought they could fix it with laws, technical hacks, lawyers and finally police.
The Internet's created such apprehension for those in power and control the purveyance of intangibles.
It's up to us to re-invent, re-educate and forge new solutions or there only be further escalations.
I was thinking of compensation right instead of copyright. As much as I love FOSS and P2P, You need to be able pay if you want talented people. We weren't all born rich, or willing to live in abject poverty to hack code. Been there done that, not fun after a while.
Does anyone have any ideas or opinions?"
The Internet's created such apprehension for those in power and control the purveyance of intangibles.
It's up to us to re-invent, re-educate and forge new solutions or there only be further escalations.
I was thinking of compensation right instead of copyright. As much as I love FOSS and P2P, You need to be able pay if you want talented people. We weren't all born rich, or willing to live in abject poverty to hack code. Been there done that, not fun after a while.
Does anyone have any ideas or opinions?"
Submission + - Legality Of ACTA In U.S. Questioned In Petition (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Techdirt reports that a petition on the US Government's We the People website raises the question of whether ACTA is enforcable as an executive agreement — which allows the President to sign the agreement without getting approval — when it covers intellectual property, which is the mandate of Congress, and would require a vote before it becomes a treaty.
Slashdot has previously covered Senator Wyden questioning the constitutionality of ACTA before its signing last year; while the EU is said to be signing ACTA into force from today.
Slashdot has previously covered Senator Wyden questioning the constitutionality of ACTA before its signing last year; while the EU is said to be signing ACTA into force from today.
Submission + - Petition Requests Formal ACTA Ratification In Sena (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Techdirt reports that a petition on the US Government's We the People website raises the question of whether ACTA is enforcable as an executive agreement — which allows the President to sign the agreement without getting approval — when it covers intellectual property, which is the mandate of Congress, and would require a vote before it becomes a treaty.
Slashdot has previously covered Senator Wyden questioning the constitutionality of ACTA before signing; while the EU will be imminently signing ACTA into force.
Slashdot has previously covered Senator Wyden questioning the constitutionality of ACTA before signing; while the EU will be imminently signing ACTA into force.
Submission + - Was mega upload crushed to stop mega box? (dslreports.com)
MrShaggy writes: "Our friends at dsl-reports that 'The kicker was Megabox would cater to unsigned artists and allow anyone to sell their creations while allowing the artist to retain 90% of the earnings. Or, artists could even giveaway their songs and would be paid through a service called Megakey. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works,” Kim Dotcom told TorrentFreak in December. Megabox was planning on bypassing the labels, RIAA, and the entire music establishment.'"
Submission + - Obama to Create Special Global Anti-Piracy Unit (activepolitic.com)
bs0d3 writes: Obama has announced the creation of a global "trade enforcement unit". One of the units tasks will be to prevent "counterfeit or unsafe goods from crossing our borders". Obama says "it's not right when another country lets our movies, music and software be pirated". Apparently Obama is unaware of ICE and the FBI.
Submission + - Changes coming to Google Privacy policy (washingtonpost.com) 1
parallel_prankster writes: Washington Post reports Tuesday it will require users to allow the company to follow their activities across e-mail, search, YouTube and other services, a radical shift in strategy that is expected to invite greater scrutiny of its privacy and competitive practices.
The information will enable Google to develop a fuller picture of how people use its growing empire of Web sites. Consumers will have no choice but to accept the changes. The policy will take effect March 1 and will also impact Android mobile phone users. “If you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services,” Alma Whitten, Google’s director of privacy, product and engineering wrote in a blog post.
The information will enable Google to develop a fuller picture of how people use its growing empire of Web sites. Consumers will have no choice but to accept the changes. The policy will take effect March 1 and will also impact Android mobile phone users. “If you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services,” Alma Whitten, Google’s director of privacy, product and engineering wrote in a blog post.
Submission + - Senator Leahy newest IT legislation (thehill.com)
CapitalOrange writes: Senator Leahy, of PIPA fame, is pushing one new bill and may be involved with a second. The first new tech bill is dealing with data breach legislation. Data breach, much like piracy is an important topic. Consumers deserve to know what information has been leaked about them. However as almost all the political blogs (and tech blogs have said) when one road closes for politicians, they often try to backdoor their message into other legislation, through a concept called riders. Riders equivalent in the IT world is the annoying animated gif in an email signature. They often serve no purpose, increase the bloat and are often used to introduce unpopular legislation into popular bills. Hollywoods bought and paid for senators and congressman are going to try to try to get SOPA/PIPA through congress another means and its up to the IT world to make sure they don't sneak it by on our watch.
Also he is working to create our next cyber security bill, which is a great chance for him to slip in SOPA related laws. The idea that someone with such a fundamental lack of understanding of the internet is going to write anything Cyber related is quite scary.
The bottom line, don't rely on the net coalition or the EFF to do this job by themselves. We need to stay vigilante in reviewing the proposals coming out of congress, because if we don't no one else will.
Also he is working to create our next cyber security bill, which is a great chance for him to slip in SOPA related laws. The idea that someone with such a fundamental lack of understanding of the internet is going to write anything Cyber related is quite scary.
The bottom line, don't rely on the net coalition or the EFF to do this job by themselves. We need to stay vigilante in reviewing the proposals coming out of congress, because if we don't no one else will.
Submission + - HR 1981 should be called 1984: SOPA masquerading a (examiner.com) 1
msheekhah writes: "Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers is sponsoring a bill to make your internet data available to investigators if you are even accused, and to require your ISP to retain 18 months of your internet access logs. This is under the guise of a child pornography protection act, but is in fact giving the police to, without probable cause, look through all of your internet activity. All you have to do is be accused. Is this something the internet cares to allow?"
Submission + - Polish websites to go dark to protest ACTA (yahoo.com)
Jacek Poplawski writes: Hundreds of people waged a street protest in Warsaw on Tuesday to protest the government's plan to sign an international copyright treaty, hours before several popular websites plan to go dark for an hour over the issue.
Submission + - WSJ: Patent troll trend "starting to accelerate" (wsj.com)
AdamnSelene writes: "The Wall Street Journal has an article profiling why partners in top patent law firms are leaving to start their own 'Non-Practicing Entities' (aka Patent Trolls). Apparently corporations are now approaching lawyers to sell of their patent portfolio in order to squeeze cash from their IP without the embarrassment of suing their own customers. One lawyer says that 'As patents develop from a nascent to a mature asset class, you're just going to see a whole different set of players enter this game. The curve is just starting to accelerate.'"
