Archive
Category: Weblog
Random assortments, selected for semantic content.
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Google Defeated in Second French AdWords Suit
A French court on Friday ruled against Google in a trade mark infringement case brought by Louis Vuitton, in the latest legal setback to the search giant. The Paris District Court has sanctioned Google and its French subsidiary from selling search-related keyword advertisements against trade marks owned by the luxury fashion designer, which sued the… Read more →
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Rest in PC? Claim brought against deceased defendant
Apparently not satisfied with civil claims against earthbound mortals, the RIAA has taken to suing the dead. In one of the latest batch of lawsuits, the complaint named the recently deceased Gertrude Walton as sole defendant. She stands (or, perhaps, rests) accused of sharing over 700 songs owned by member publishers via peer-to-peer networks: ‘More… Read more →
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BitTorrent Sites Proliferate Despite Takedown
This is what industry groups like the Recording Industry Association of America (‘RIAA’) are afraid of: exponential and untraceable growth of underground data distribution networks. Analysis suggests that current technologies — in particular, a method of filesharing known as BitTorrent — are indeed capable of large-scale electronic duplication of copyrighted files in relative privacy. Despite… Read more →
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European Parliament Scraps Software Patent Proposal
In a victory for free software advocates of the European Union, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (JURI) has decided to restart the software patent directive from scratch. Since its introduction in May 2004, the proposal has been heavily criticised as inviting abuse by patent holders and placing overly restrictive covenants upon open… Read more →
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Nanotechnology Law Roundup
Law.com has published an interesting interview recently conducted by the New York Law Journal with several leading figures in nanotechnology research. They discuss the potential impact (which is, needless to say, huge) of nanoscale technological developments on law and society. With investor capital approaching USD $1bn in 2005, there is likely to be significant and… Read more →
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Eiffel Tower Prohibits Nocturnal Photography
The Eiffel Tower’s likeness has long been part of the public domain. However, in 2003 it was abruptly repossessed by the city of Paris. That’s the year that the SNTE, the company charged with maintaining the tower, adorned it with a lighting display, in which it asserts copyright, and reclaimed the nighttime image and likeness… Read more →
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A Year of the Can Spam Act
A year after a sweeping United States anti-spam law went into effect, there is more junk e-mail on the Internet than ever. Since the Can Spam Act went into effect in January 2004, unsolicited junk e-mail on the Internet has come to total perhaps 80 percent or more of all e-mail sent, according to most… Read more →
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RIAA Sues 717 for Unauthorised Distribution
The Recording Industry Association of America (‘RIAA’) has sued a further 717 US-based individuals it claims have been distributing music without permission on peer-to-peer (‘P2P’) networks. Among them are 68 university students. The latest bout of legal action brings the total number of individuals sued for filesharing to almost 8500. The RIAA last initiated a… Read more →
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Paying the Mafia? Intellectual Property Insurance
With the proliferation of open source software, the risks of unknowingly infringing a third party’s intellectual property have become alarmingly large. For example, infringing code produced by Developer A (and released under an open source license for distribution, such as the GNU General Public License (‘GPL’)) may be found and innocently used in a project… Read more →
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EFF Mixes Metaphors, Creates Endangered Gizmos List
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has today published The Endangered Gizmos List, a collection of products and technologies — some facing litigation, some extinct as a result — all threatened by restrictive copyright laws and the aggressive litigation strategies of copyright-holders in the entertainment industry. FCC Chairman Michael Powell calls TiVo “God’s machine,” and its devotees… Read more →