I attended the launch for ILAWS, a new IT centre at the University of Southampton led by our very own PanGloss. The introductory lecture was given by Professor Chris Reed, who talked about making business online, where he concentrated on legal issues ranging from some of the traditional IT subjects Read more…
Most people would agree that Windows Vista has been an unmitigated disaster. I have finally taken the plunge and sold my old and trusty Toshiba laptop to a friend (although I forgot to photograph all of the swag). I have migrated to a MacBook Pro, and I must say that Read more…
(via Groklaw) Red Hat and Novell, owners of the two largest Linux enterprise distributions, have been sued in Texas (where else?) by patent troll IP Innovation, part of the troll tribe Acacia. The subject of the litigation is U.S. Patent 5,072,412, which protects a user interface with multiple workspaces for Read more…
A couple of separate pieces exemplify some of the problems and opportunities for virtual worlds. Firstly, Reuters reports that several companies are re-thinking their virtual world strategy. Companies spent millions to jump into the Second Life bandwagon only to find that nobody visits the vast corporate environments (“if you build Read more…
(via EFF) Yahoo Music’s general manager has had it with DRM. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, the growing rebel alliance against technological protection measures now includes EMI, Apple, Universal, eMusic and Amazon. There is also the growing phenomenon of the DRM-free online release band. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have Read more…
Costa Rica held a referendum on Sunday October 7th to decide whether or not it would approve the Dominican Republic and Central America Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and the ayes have the day with 51.6% against 48.4% nays. I have always been conflicted about DR-CAFTA. This is Read more…
(via BBC) Tyre and brake fitters Kwik-Fit have been sued in Edinburgh by the UK’s Performing Rights Society. The subject of the action is the fact that according to the plaintiffs, Kwik-Fit employers have been playing their radios loudly, where it can be heard by other employees and customers. This Read more…
Jordan Hatcher has published a draft of the Open Database Licence, which is an agreement intended to allow users to “freely share, modify, and use” databases while maintaining the same freedoms for others. I’ve gone through the draft, and it is pretty good stuff. The licence clearly helps to plug Read more…
Jammie Thomas, the Minnesota woman on trial for making music available in the Kazaa network, has lost her jury case and will have to pay the plaintiffs $220,000 USD (that’s $248,000 AUS). The Duluth jury held her liable for $9,250 for each of the 24 songs that were subject to Read more…
The trial of Jammie Thomas in Minnesota continues. Some very interesting revelations so far, including an RIAA spokesman claiming that making even one copy of a song is “stealing”, and the prosecution proving conclusively that the KaZaa login subject of the trial is the same that Thomas used in several Read more…