I was claiming that the length or existence of copyright is affected not one iota by how vigorously defended it is. It's a bit of a stretch to say the claim related to "back damages" which may or may not be affected by previous enforcement efforts, since it is at the whim of the presiding judge.

1- It is not clueless to say they have to defend their patent or lose it. That's how it works. You lose patent and trademark protection if you don't try to defend any infringement you know about.
Try again. Trademark works that way since trademark is basically perpetual. Patent protection doesn't work that way, though it should, since it'd take care of a lot of submarine patents and patent trolls who wait until a product is big to sue. So yeah, still clueless.

2- This isn't about patent, it is about copyright. They are different.
On this we agree. But again, at the same time, copyright still doesn't get affected by attempts of enforcement. Only trademark does.

3- You can hate the current copyright laws, but that doesn't mean someone who acknowledges them is clueless.
The irony in that statement is hilarious given the above.

4- Don't buy products from manufacturers who play this game. Do your research before purchasing.
Noble gesture. Not sure it'll make even a dent in their bottom line, but noble nonetheless and something I try to do myself.

Minus the sort of over-embelishment which I would otherwise have dismissed as slashvertisement, and the somewhat over the top movie trailer they used, the underlying object, being a seemingly easy to assemble off the shelf volumetric display, is pretty darn cool.

While none of the technique is oevrly new, having it nicely put together using kit that is well within the means of many is not. Opening it up makes it better.

Good on them :) May try to build one myself :D

My calendar agrees with you. /badpun

Not a gag. This isn't an April fools trick. Read about this earlier in the week. It's just that Slashdot was late in reporting it. Just more US gov't exported bullshit.

Total population of the EU: 500 000 000
Total population of the US: 309 000 000

The EU has 101 million more people in it. Yet they consume millions less of those bbls.

Running on sunshine and happyness they ain't, but quoting just those two numbers is disingenuous. The US, by proportion, is still hogging most but pays by far less.

As a Canadian, let me respond as soon as I finish being angry at the editor...

Seriously, why post the results of an oligarchical industry funded story as if fact? Seriously, what the hell, editors?

Let me put how offensive and misleading this is in perspective by changing the quote a tad:

"Americans enjoy among the fastest, most widely available and least expensive broadband Internet in the developed world, says a report released Thursday. The report, based on the results of 52 million speed tests of broadband users across the G7 countries and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) membership, was produced by NY-based consulting firm SomeGuy Associates Inc. on behalf of AT&T Communications Inc., the country's largest broadband service provider. It disputes the OECD's own report, published in July, that ranked Canada's high-speed Internet offerings significantly below those of other countries. The report comes days after the FCC revealed a sharp jump in the number of complaints it has received regarding Internet traffic-management practices, or 'throttling' in recent months."

By helping spread this FUD you are literally doing harm to us. Due diligence, do you speak it?

I've been visiting this site for a long time. I've not liked some of the things and mistakes I've seen posted here, but this is actually making me angry. Congratulations.

a) Repeat after me: China will NOT shoot at the US any time soon. The two nations are connected at the hip economically. They'll continue to play games with each other, for sure. there will be some sabotage, some espionage, some tensions, but China and the USA have the dollar bill version of Mutually Assured Destruction.
b) Both the Russians AND the USA have weapons in space regardless of treaties. How's that World War with Russia going?
c) How much did the USA expand their military budget last year? Or the year before that? Or before that? Heck, when's the last time it DIDN'T? How did that affect the ability of the last space race to allow a man to walk around on the moon?
d) Doesn't the tinfoil hat itch?
e) Given current sentiments(as demonstrated by your post) and the fact that the USA owes all the money, it's technically more likely the USA would act first. but again, see point a) for why this won't happen any time soon.

Sorry, not even going to post this anonymously.

Whatever you think of how China's gov't works. No matter the motivations. How is this anything other than an overall good thing? Seriously? We have a space agency in the world right now with both the government funding, the will and potentially the skills to advance manned spaceflight again!

Worse case scenario, things don't work out and remain as they are(not counting deaths here since that's always a possibility with these and NASA as well as the Russians have had their fair share).

Best case scenario: They pull off something here and either succeed or encourage this awesome spirit of competition we've been sorely lacking since the Soviet Union and the US fought over the moon.

Please, keep your racist, xenophobic, nationalist or just plain ignorant bile to yourselves and enjoy what MOST people who admire the stars have been wishing for for a very long time: a renewed interest in space travel.

Seriously, it looks like the "Share with" feature in the Android browser as well(which leverages the Intent system).

Not saying it's a bad thing(I love the idea)...I just fail to see how this is a "New Cross-App Data-Sharing System"....heck, if Google tended to play this game as dirty as Apple and MS do, they'd probably be doing a software patent suit by now O_o

More and more, I keep remembering Spider Robinson's Melancholy Elephants.

http://www.spiderrobinson.com/melancholyelephants.html

Yes, I know that deals mainly with copyright, but the points about the damaging effects of intellectual property protectionism is still relevant. Besides, these days, the main differences between patents and copyright are mainly that one costs more money and effort to file for while the other is implicit.