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Submission + - Companies Petition Congress to Reform 'Business Method' Patent Process (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: This week, a coalition of more than 40 companies sent a letter to Congress asking for legislation that expands the Covered Business Method (CBM) program, a move some feel would stem patent abuse in the United States. Expanding the scope of CBM—a program that grants the Patent and Trademark Office the power to challenge the validity of certain business methods patents—would expedite the patent review process and significantly cut litigation costs, they say. "The vague and sweeping scope of many business method claims covering straight forward, common sense steps has led to an explosion of patent claims against processes used every day in common technologies by thousands of businesses and millions of Americans," says the letter, signed by companies like Amazon, Netflix, Red Hat, Macy's, and Kroger).

Submission + - Google 'Glass' to be banned while driving (stuff.tv)

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: "Stuff" magazine, a "gadget" oriented mag, is reporting that the UK's Department for Transport is planning to ban drivers from using Google "Glass", using the same law (1988 Road Traffic Act) that is used to ban drivers from using hand-held mobile phones.

While there are obvious parallels between the distraction potential of the mobile phone and of "Glass", there are arguments in the other direction that the speech-control aspects of "Glass" could make it less distracting than, say, a touch-screen SatNav. So, to ban "Glass" driving or not?

Typical fines for using a mobile phone while driving are £60 cash plus three penalty points on the driving license ; the points expire 3 years after the offence and if you accumulate 12 points then you've lost your license. Repeat offenders may experience higher fines and/ or more points. Around a million people have received the penalty since the mobile phone ban was introduced in 2003.

Submission + - All Facebook Users Get Secure Browsing By Default

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After having introduced secure browsing as an option in 2011, and having begun rolling out always-on HTTPS by default for users in North America late last year, Facebook is finally making it the default option for all users. The feature makes sure that the information sent by the users / browsers to the company servers is always sent via the Transport Layer Security (TLS) cryptographic protocol, making it more secure if intercepted. According to Facebook software engineer Scott Renfro, when the feature was first introduces two years ago, more that a third of users had enabled it immediately despite the fact that it could slow down their Facebook use.

Submission + - iPhone Hacked in Under 60 Seconds Using Malicious Charger (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Apple's iOs has been known as a bastion of security for many years, but three researchers have now shown iPhones and iPads can be hacked in just under 60 seconds using nothing more than a charger. OK so it's not just a charger but the Mactans charger does delete an official app (say Facebook) replacing it with an official-looking one which is actually malware which could access your contacts, messages, emails, phone calls and even capture your passwords. Apple says it will fix the flaw, but not until the release of iOS 7, the date of which hasn't been confirmed yet. So watch out for chargers left lying around.....

Submission + - Pinch-to-zoom Apple patent rejected by USPTO (pcworld.com)

Submitted by freddienumber13
freddienumber13 writes: In another patent surprise, this week from the USPTO, where a claim by Apple for pinch-to-zoom has been rejected by the USPTO on the grounds that the claims were anticipated by previous patents or unpatentable. This will be welcome news for Samsung that back in April asked for a stay of the trial [http://phandroid.com/2013/04/18/samsung-apple-trial-stay-request/] however Apple have a short period of time in which they can appeal this finding.

Submission + - German Court Finds Fantec Responsible for GPL Violation on Third-Party Code (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: Are firms responsible for GPL violations on code they receive from third parties? A German court thinks so. The Regional Court of Hamburg recently ruled that Fantec, a European media player maker, failed to distribute "complete corresponding source code" for firmware found in some of its products. Fantec claims its third-party firmware supplier provided the company with appropriate source code, which Fantext made available online. But a hackathon organized by the Free Software Foundation Europe discovered that this source code was incomplete, and programmer Harald Welte filed suit. He won.

Mark Radcliffe, an IP expert and senior partner at DLA Piper who specializes in open source licensing issues, has analyzed the case—and argued that it underscores the need for companies to implement internal GPL compliance processes. "Fantec is a reminder that companies should adopt a formal FOSS use policy which should be integrated into the software development process," he writes. "These standards should include an understanding of the FOSS management processes of such third-party suppliers. The development of a network of trusted third-party suppliers is critical part of any FOSS compliance strategy."

Submission + - Android Fragmentation Triples as 12,000 Distinct Devices Recorded in Use (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Last year when OpenSignalMaps reported that there were almost 4,000 distinct Android devices in use, people were pretty surprised at the number. Well prepared to be even more surprised as the number has trebled in just 12 months to 11,868 distinct Android devices, of which 47.5% are Samsung devices and which, in total, are running eight different versions of Android.

Submission + - Kovacs, Mozilla's Exec Who Made Firefox OS Appealing, Now CEO at AVG (firefoxosblog.net)

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: FirefoxOS is still a very young mobile operating system. The real image and branding breakthrough moment was a year ago, in July 2012, when Booth to Gecko was rebranded into FirefoxOS and that happened under Gary Kovacs’ rule at Mozilla. From late 2010, when he joined Mozilla as CEO and up until April, this year, when it was announced that he would retire, the company has seen significant growth, especially in new areas, especially in mobile. Kovacs was also the one to preview Firefox OS at the Mobile World Congress 2013 from Barcelona. That’s when Firefox OS managed to attract the attention and the support of 18 major worldwide mobile operators. Last year, Gary Kovacs also managed to sign a $1 billion deal with Google , keeping it the default search engine in the Firefox browser. Kovcs basically moved from a company that was looking to impress in the mobile field, competing with Android and Wndows Phone to what most of us know to be an antivirus company. Apparently, Mozilla's former boss was attracted by the fact that AVG Technologies is increasing its presence in the mobile space.

Submission + - The Old Reader To Close Public Site In Two Weeks

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When Google first announced Google Reader would be shut down, the news kick-started a very competitive race to create the best alternative. At least one service, however, did not welcome the change, and is now planning to close up shop next month: The Old Reader.

In fact, if you navigate to the service’s homepage now, you’ll be greeted by this sad message: “Unfortunately we had to disable user registration at The Old Reader.” In two weeks, the public site will be shut down and a private one, available to a select few (accounts will be migrated automatically), will take its place.

Submission + - Evernote Wants to Become the Nike for Your Brain (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Another way to think about it is session lengths. Microsoft Office was the definition of productivity for like 25 years. The average session length was probably an hour or two. You would sit down at your PC and you would like type stuff on Word or Excel. Then smartphones shrank the average session time to like two minutes, maybe five minutes. That’s part of why I think Microsoft is continuing to have a such a hard time getting into mobile, because it’s a fundamentally different way of thinking. “What can I do to be productive two minutes at a time?” It isn’t Office.

Submission + - ASCAP petitions FCC to deny Pandora's purchase of Radio Station

Submitted by chipperdog
chipperdog writes: NorthPine.com reports: "ASCAP is firing back against Pandora Radio's attempt to get lower music royalty rates by buying a terrestrial radio station, "Hits 102.7" (KXMZ Box Elder-Rapid City). In a petition to deny, ASCAP alleges "Pandora has failed to fully disclose its ownership, and to adequately demonstrate that it complies with the Commission’s foreign ownership rules." ASCAP also alleges that Pandora has no intention of operating KXMZ to serve the public interest, but is rather only interested in obtaining lower royalty rates. Pandora reached a deal to buy KXMZ from Connoisseur Media for $600,000 earlier this year and is already running the station through a local marketing agreement.

Submission + - Metadata on Open Education Resources Raises Legal and Ethical Questions (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: Open education resources (OER) are valuable for teachers all over the world. But organizing those resources takes work—and produces a good deal of metadata. Lisa Petrides, president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), writes about the legal and ethical issued raised by OER metadata.

Organizations like ours (and we are not alone) are having second thoughts about how much metadata we share and with whom. Some are becoming skittish, because the tides have turned once again and quality metadata is in high demand. We decided at OER Commons, for example, to place an "all rights reserved" notice on our website (meaning, you can’t scrape metadata and reuse it), and a license for non-commercial use on our metadata, with the goal of working with partners who desire something more than faux collaboration.

Submission + - Massachusetts enacts 6.25% sales tax on "prewritten" software consulting (codingoutloud.com) 1

Submitted by marshallr
marshallr writes: Technical Information Release TIR 13-10 becomes effective in Massachusetts on July 31st, 2013. It requires software consultants to collect a 6.25% sales tax from their clients if they perform "computer system design services and the modification, integration, enhancement, installation or configuration of standardized software." TIR 13-10 was published to mass.gov on July 25th, 2013 to provide the public a few working days to review the release and make comments. Can someone clue me in on what's meant by "prewritten" or "standardized" software?

Submission + - Geoblocking in Australia to be dismantled (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Major software and content players such as Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft face a raft of measures which could dismantle their business models and their ability to enforce regional restrictions, or ‘geoblocking’, on the use of their products if key recommendations of the Australian Government’s Inquiry into IT Pricing report are adopted.

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