The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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Google Seeks Patent for RSS Advertisements
According to The Register, ‘Google has filed for a patent that covers advertisements in syndicated content’. Application No 20050165615 concerns a method for ‘Embedding advertisements in syndicated content’: ‘Syndicated material, eg, corresponding to a news feed, search results or web logs, are combined with the output of an automated ad server. An automated ad server… Read more →
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New Open Source Licence in the Works
Lawrence Rosen, author of the Open Software License (‘OSL’), has announced on the OSI’s licence-discuss list a draft of version 3 of the OSL (pdf). Rosen explains that many of the changes are in response to a report by the European Commission on open source software licensing. While the OSL is used by fewer than… Read more →
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Scottish Police ditch open source software in favour of Microsoft Office
‘The Central Scotland Police is removing Sun Microsystems Inc’s StarOffice productivity software from about 400 PCs and switching to Microsoft Corp’s Office System, citing lower maintenance costs and the need to interoperate more smoothly with other departments running Windows. ‘It’s not really based on any ideological argument about open-source software, it’s based on pure business… Read more →
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‘Video Game Defence’ Rejected By Jury
‘FAYETTE, Alabama (AP) — A 20-year-old whose lawyers claimed the video game Grand Theft Auto and childhood abuse caused him to kill three small-town police officers was convicted Tuesday of capital murder. Defense lawyers had partly blamed Moore’s actions on the hours he spent playing video games from the Grand Theft Auto series, in which… Read more →
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Dell Website Blunder Results in Bargains for All
According to an article in The Age, ‘[a] website blunder by Dell Australia has allowed hundreds of customers to order 250GB hard drives for AUD$8.80, almost [$200] less than the actual price. According to posts on the Whirlpool and Overclockers Australia online forums, customers successfully ordered the hard drives online from 8.00am on Monday until… Read more →
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The Difference Between Software and Drug Patents
Brookings Institute Scholar Ben Klemens has a nice little OpEd over on BI’s site about patent reform and why there is an important difference between software patents and other kinds of patents: However, the key distinction between a drug and a method for using a computer is that few of us own the equipment or… Read more →
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The Myopia of Classical Labels
As the BBC prepares to announce the tremendous success of its free Beethoven downloads, the Independent reports that classical labels are less than rhapsodic: This week the BBC will announce there have been more than a million downloads of the symphonies during the month-long scheme. But the initiative has infuriated the bosses of leading classical… Read more →
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Perzanowski Comments On Grokster
Since the recent judgment in Grokster, there has been a flurry of activity analysing whether the Court impliedly altered or repealed the Sony v Betamax standard of secondary liability under US copyright law. On an initial read through, it looks as if Grokster offers little substantive clarification of the liability standard. The Court framed its… Read more →
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MGM v Grokster Handed Down
Predictable result, interesting ratio. Originally by Wendy at Wendy’s Blog: Legal Tags, 12:24 PM Read more Read more →
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An Economic Analysis of Copyright Term Extensions
The Financial Times is running an interesting editorial about the state of American (and, with the enactment of the United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act 2004 (Cth), Australian) copyright law. Professor Boyle argues (rightly, I think) that current intellectual property protections go beyond what is necessary to promote innovation: Thomas Macaulay told us copyright… Read more →