Fluffeh - Slashdot User

Submission + - Congress Asks Patent Office To Consider Secret Patents (techdirt.com) 2

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Sunday April 29, 2012 @07:21PM

Fluffeh writes: "The USPTO is considering a rather interesting request straight from lobbyists via congress. That certain "Economically Significant" patents should be kept secret during the process (PDF Warning) of being evaluated and granted. While this does occur at the moment on a very select few patents "due to national security" for things like nuclear energy and the like — this would allow it to go much, much further. "By statute, patent applications are published no earlier than 18 months after the filing date, but it takes an average of about three years for a patent application to be processed. This period of time between publication and patent award provides worldwide access to the information included in those applications. In some circumstances, this information allows competitors to design around U.S. technologies and seize markets before the U.S. inventor is able to raise financing and secure a market.""

Submission + - Telcos Oppose Bill To Respect 4th Amendment (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Monday April 23, 2012 @06:21PM

Fluffeh writes: "A story that is breaking on a number of sites is that CTIA (The mobile operators' industry association) is opposing a Californian law being proposed that a court order is required prior to disclosing personal information. The law seems to be in opposition to the federal governments attempts to wash away the last requirements to get at any information about citizens, but CTIA claims (PDF) "... the wireless industry opposes SB 1434 as it could create greater confusion for wireless providers when responding to legitimate law enforcement requests " The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California have been arguing strongly for the bill which is to be voted on shortly."

Submission + - Google puts its Lobby Hat on (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Monday April 23, 2012 @06:11PM

Fluffeh writes: "Google has been spending big on lobbying this year, a 240% increase on last year in fact. From January to March of this year, Google spent over $5 million on lobbying, nearly matching its entire 2010 lobbying budget of $5.2 million. Comparing this same rate with 2011 figures, Google would outspend the entire tobacco industry ($17.07 million), the combined spending of JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup ($18.67 million), but would be just barely behind the combined budgets of pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Merck ($20.685 million). For comparison, Apple spent only $500,000 for the same 2012 quarter; Microsoft spent $1.79 million. While some of this has been to get out of trouble with things like that pesky wifi sniffing debarcle, a good part ($4 Million) has been to assist with quashing SOPA and PIPA."

Submission + - The "Studios Vs iiNet" Case and Global Implications (theconversation.edu.au)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Monday April 23, 2012 @12:06AM

Fluffeh writes: "Nicolas Suzor lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology has a wonderful and insightful op-ed on the recently covered High Court case and the effect it has on Australians as well as internationally. "It’s a very important decision worldwide. We’ve only seen a few of these decisions so far. There was one in the Irish High courts where the Irish ISP Eircom was found liable for infringement on its network. This decision in Australia is the most considered decision that we have seen in common law countries. It represents the next iteration of an attempt by copyright owners to enlist the aid of internet service providers to police infringement on the internet. [...] This decision provides a good deal of certainty to Australian ISPs under current law, so copyright owners will likely increase pressure on policy makers to develop a new legislative regime.""

Submission + - EU Commissioner: "We cannot allow ISP disconnects" (techdirt.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Friday April 20, 2012 @05:55AM

Fluffeh writes: "The EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, has been making some interesting comments about privacy, copyright and many aspects of the digital age. Going so far as to quote the Free Software Foundation and Yochai Benkler, she says: "Openness is also complex because sometimes it's unclear what it means. ... We cannot allow democratic voices to be silenced in that way. And I am committed to ensuring "No Disconnect" in countries that struggle for democracy. We must help such activists get around arbitrary disruptions to their basic freedoms. ""

Submission + - Microsoft Posts Record Profit, But Entertainment In the Red (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Thursday April 19, 2012 @07:37PM

Fluffeh writes: "Microsoft has published its numbers for the third quarter of its 2012 financial year and the company reports record revenue for the period with double digit operating income growth. Revenue for the quarter was $17.41 billion, up 6 percent year over year. The Entertainment and Devices Division was the only loser: revenue is down 16 percent year on year, at $1.62 billion. The group has gone from a $0.21 billion operating profit in third quarter 2011 to a $0.23 billion loss this quarter. Xbox 360 sales have declined sharply, down 48 percent year on year, though it retains its top spot in the US market, with a 42 percent share, and market-leading sales for the last 15 months. The company neglected to offer any Windows Phone sales figures. The Numbers for the second quarter are also available."

Submission + - Cosmic Rays still a mystery as IceCube array fails to find Neutrinos (newscientist.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @11:48PM

Fluffeh writes: "The failure of ghostly subatomic messengers called neutrinos to show up at an Antarctic telescope has knocked down a major astrophysical theory involving some of the most dramatic explosions in the universe. The IceCube telescope monitors a cubic kilometre of iceMovie Camera beneath the South Pole for neutrinos of various types, including the cosmic variety. Vertical strings of detectors frozen into the ice watch for flashes of blue light emitted when neutrinos strike. The energy of the neutrino determines its source. One source of neutrinos was thought to be explosions known as gamma ray bursts (GRBs) and IceCube has been looking for neutrinos occurring at the same time as GRBs. From May 2009 to May 2010, gamma-ray satellite observatories saw 190 GRBs. Theory predicts that IceCube should have seen a handful of neutrinos at the same time, from the same region of the sky. But today IceCube reports that it saw absolutely nothing – a serious blow to a cascade of processes astrophysicists thought they understood."

Submission + - UnwiredPlanet/Openwave keen to announce it is becoming a Patent Troll (techdirt.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @11:16PM

Fluffeh writes: "Openwave, a pioneer of smartphone internet and once a major player, has just announced a "major milestone" after selling off its legitimate businesses but keeping its patent chest handy. Under its original 1996 name of Unwired Planet, the company plans to use the patents that it has in chasing down money from other more successful businesses.

"As we complete the sale of our product businesses, we will continue to focus on a multi-pronged strategy to realize the value of our unique patent portfolio," — CEO Mike Mulica."

Submission + - Judge Grudgingly awards $3.6 Million in DRM Circumvention Case (techdirt.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @09:02PM

Fluffeh writes: "The case involves an online game, MapleStory, and some people who set up an alternate server, UMaple, allowing users to play the game with the official game client, but without logging into the official MapleStory servers. In this case, the people behind UMaple apparently ignored the lawsuit, leading to a default judgment. Although annoyed with MapleStory (The Judge knocked down a request for $68,764.23 — in profits made by UMaple — down to just $398.98), the law states a minimum of $200 per infringement. Multiply that by 17,938 users of UMaple... and you get $3.6 million. In fact, it sounds like the court would very much like to decrease the amount, but notes that "nevertheless, the court is powerless to deviate from the DMCA's statutory minimum." Eric Goldman also has some further op-ed and information regarding the case and judgement."

Submission + - Verizon sued for false advertising about broadband (paidcontent.org)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @06:11PM

Fluffeh writes: "It seems that the days of getting "Up to" this or that speed may be coming closer to the end. A suit against Verizon, which is trying to become a class action suit, is putting some of these many shadier promises to light. This isn't just about the "up to" speeds being marketed though. In this case, a woman was convinced to upgrade her account from a 768k top speed account to a 1.5 Mb top speed account — at $10 more per month — only to find that her line could only handle the 768k, based on her distance from the CO. She then had a Verizon rep tell her she should downgrade her account, but the company was unwilling to reimburse her for the higher fees she paid on a level of service she couldn't technically get."

Submission + - Australian Government doesn't want to help Julian Assange more (abc.net.au)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Tuesday April 17, 2012 @06:38PM

Fluffeh writes: "The Australian Government’s hands are currently tied when it comes to the fate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said last night, with the maverick Internet publisher’s Australian citizenship mattering little in the scheme of Swedish legal process unless a formal extradition request was made to shift him out of the European Union. The Wikileaks activist, human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, said, wanted to “come back to Australia”, to contest a Senate seat in the next Federal Election likely to be held in 2013. However, Robertson said, the problem was that Assange would be liable to be extradited from Sweden to the US, which has reportedly set up a grand jury to try Assange under charges secretly drawn up more than a year ago. Despite Roxon’s statements, a vote taken during the ABC program showed that 78 percent of several thousand respondents did not believe the Australian Government had done enough to support Assange. In addition, a series of protests in Australian capital cities in late 2010 saw thousands of Australians organise to demand the Federal Government do more to support Assange."

Submission + - Magician suing for copyright over magic trick (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Tuesday April 17, 2012 @06:29PM

Fluffeh writes: "Teller, the silent half of the well-known magic duo Penn and Teller, has sued a rival magician for copying one of his most famous illusions. The case promises to test the boundaries of copyright law as it applies to magic tricks. A Dutch magician with the stage name Gerard Bakardy (real name: Gerard Dogge) saw Teller perform the trick in Las Vegas and developed his own version — then started selling a kit — including a fake rose, instructions, and a DVD — for about $3,000. Teller had Bakardy's video removed with a DMCA takedown notice, then called Bakardy to demand that the magician stop using his routine. Teller offered to buy Bakardy out, but they were unable to agree on a price. So Teller sued Bakardy last week in a Nevada federal court."

Submission + - Twitter: "We promise to not be a Patent Troll!" (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Tuesday April 17, 2012 @06:21PM

Fluffeh writes: "Twitter today unveiled a bold new commitment that will be made in writing to its employees—the company will not use any patents derived from employee inventions in offensive lawsuits without the inventor's permission. Twitter has written up a draft of what it calls the "Innovator's Patent Agreement," or IPA, which encourages its developers to invent without the fear that their inventions will be used for nefarious purposes. "The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes," Messinger wrote. "We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we sold them to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended.""

Submission + - Plans found through RFI (FOI) Request on Iran's Halal Internet (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Tuesday April 17, 2012 @06:14PM

Fluffeh writes: "Iran appears to have recently published a Persian-language "Request for Information" (RFI) for an even-more filtered and monitored version of the Internet than what presently exists in the Islamic Republic. The RFI calls for "proper conditions for domestic experts in order to build a healthy Web and organize the current filtering situation," and lists a deadline of April 19, 2012. "Threats and sanctions are practically being enforced against us. Communications have changed the picture of the world including threats and wars," Revolutionary Guard Deputy Cmdr. Hossein Salami said. Other Iranian experts have suggested that this apparent ramping up of the halal Internet has come as a direct result of American efforts to pierce what President Barack Obama recently called an "electronic curtain" over Iran. Since 2010, the State Department has been heavily involved in funding "Internet freedom" efforts to bring unrestricted access to various parts of the world, including Iran."

Submission + - US Judge: 'Don't Listen to the German Judge' in Motorola V Microsoft case (techdirt.com)

Submitted by

Fluffeh

on Monday April 16, 2012 @06:36PM

Fluffeh writes: "In an unusual case, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday that Motorola cannot enforce an injunction that would prevent Microsoft from selling Windows products in Germany, should a German court issue such an injunction next week. It's pretty rich that Microsoft should complain about the possibility of an injunction being granted against it by another jurisdiction when that is precisely what it is trying to do by filing an action against Motorola in the International Trade Commission as well as in a US District Court. If Microsoft says German courts shouldn't get involved in its dispute with Motorola, it's equally ridiculous that an international trade body should be dragged into a domestic dispute between two US companies"

Slashdot Top Deals