50013619
submission
Nerdfest writes:
New Zealand has finally passed a new Patents Bill that will effectively outlaw software patents after five years of debate, delay and intense lobbying from multinational software vendors. Aptly-named Commerce Minister Craig Foss welcomed the modernisation of patents law, saying it marked a "significant step towards driving innovation in New Zealand". An IITP poll of members at the time showed 94% of those with a view were in favour of banning software patents.
49460273
submission
Nerdfest writes:
Bruce Schenier writes: 'Bluntly: The government has commandeered the Internet. Most of the largest Internet companies provide information to the NSA, betraying their users. Some, as we've learned, fight and lose. Others cooperate, either out of patriotism or because they believe it's easier that way.
I have one message to the executives of those companies: fight."
41388215
submission
Nerdfest writes:
Venturebeat is reporting that:
Edison Junior, the technology and design lab behind the POP portable power station, is returning the full $139,170 in funding it received from Kickstarter backers to develop the device. Unfortunately, Apple has refused to give the project permission to license the Lightning charger in a device that includes multiple charging options.
“We are pissed,” Edison Junior CEO Jamie Siminoff told me on the phone today. “I think they are being a bunch of assholes, and I think they’re hurting their customers.”
35761363
submission
Nerdfest writes:
"The lawyers behind the upcoming Apple v. Samsung trial have been hard at work filing docket after docket as their court battle looms closer, and many of those dockets have just been released to the public. We’re now seeing a lot of previously secret information about the early days of iPhone and iPad R&D, and what’s happened behind closed doors at both Apple and Samsung."
Surprises include the iPhone design being 'inspired' by Sony product ideas, and that Samsung was warned that it was copying Apple.
5505227
submission
Nerdfest writes:
The Guardian is reporting that the major music labels are working on an 'album' format that contains music, lyrics, artwork, etc, called CMX. Apple had also been invited, but is working on it's own format called 'Cocktail'. No word here on whether or not the format supports DRM. Here's hoping an open standard is the result of this.
