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Submission + - Google Books case dismissed on Fair Use Grounds

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: In a case of major importance, the long simmering battle between the Authors Guild and Google has reached its climax, with the court granting Google's motion for summary judgment, dismissing the case, on fair use grounds. In his 30-page decision (PDF), Judge Denny Chin — who has been a District Court Judge throughout most of the life of the case but is now a Circuit Court Judge — reasoned that, although Google's own motive for its "Library Project" (which scans books from libraries without the copyright owners' permission and makes the material publicly available for search), is commercial profit, the project itself serves significant educational purposes, and actually enhances, rather than detracts from, the value of the works, since it helps promote sales of the works. Judge Chin also felt that it was impossible to use Google's scanned material, either for making full copies, or for reading the books, so that it did not compete with the books themselves.

Comment Photos or not? (Score 1) 381

by Thyamine (#45210625) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best SOHO Printer Choices?
Since everyone is sharing anecdotal stories, I'll throw in my two bits. I have an HP ColorSmart C7280 and I love it. It's an inkjet, and we usually print fairly regularly, but it does still run through it's little maintenance run now and then. And photos look great usually. I use it for scanning fairly often as well, and it has a flatbed and a feeder. I wouldn't mind a laserjet, but I haven't sat down to figure out costs and determine if the quality would be as nice.

Comment Scripting / PowerShell (Score 1, Interesting) 577

by Thyamine (#45091343) Attached to: If Java Is Dying, It Sure Looks Awfully Healthy
I'm surprised no mention of PowerShell was listed. It's obviously platform specific, but Microsoft has done a nice job of including it in all their major platforms and products in recent years. I've used it on site for several customers, and I've had customers who are more technical asking about help with it. I'd be interested to see what sort of growth it's seen, and how it is supplanting (one can hope) old vbscript files that still linger.

Submission + - Aereo required to testify about non-public patent info

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: In ABC v Aereo, a copyright infringement action against Aereo, the Magistrate Judge has overruled Aereo's attorney/client privilege objection to being forced to divulge non-public details about its patented technology. In his 15 page decision (PDF) he ordered the continued deposition of the company's CTO and CEO about their patent applications. My gut reaction is that this sets a very dangerous precedent, giving the big copyright plaintiffs yet another 'in terrorem' device to use against technology startups — the power to use the lawsuit as a chance to delve into a defendant's non-public tech secrets.

Comment Re:Logical fallacy (Score 1) 621

by Thyamine (#44938889) Attached to: GTA V Proves a Lot of Parents Still Don't Know or Care About ESRB Ratings
I was thinking the same. That anecdotally it is an interesting point, but we don't know for certain that a parent/child combo means that the child will be playing. And really as a game store employee, that's all they can really do: point out what they saw, and then let other people draw conclusions. I'm sure some of them don't care or fall into the bad parent category, but like parent post said, a lot of those people may be buying it just for themselves.

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