Games
Marvel sues City of Heroes
This is a great article by Fred von Lohmann about the surreal case of Marvel suing the makers of the popular “City of Heroes” MMORPG game. Marvel complains that City of Heroes is guilty of contributory infringement of copyright and trademark because some players in their site are creating characters Read more…
Google
Digital trail
This is an excellent article by Regina Lynn about the dangers of Google and leaving a digital trail. We are increasingly leaving a digital footprint that tells people about our interests, opinions and tastes. People can Google and find some amazing details about who you really are. It makes one Read more…
Computing
Cheap Windows targets Asian markets
Reuters reports that Microsoft is targetting its cheap (sorry, “low cost”) version of Windows XP to Asian markets. The stated purpose of this is to try to make Windows more appealing in emerging markets. The real reasons are: to hook home users into Windows, to try to stop the rampant Read more…
Computing
Isn’t wireless wonderful?
Technollama is coming to you today from the Playfair Library, where we are attending the very interesting conference named “Towards Utopia or Irreconcilable Tensions: the interface between intellectual property, competition and human rights“. More reports later, but I am hoping to load the powerpoints from some of the talks later Read more…
Open science
Open Biotechnology
This is an interesting article in the excellent WorldChanging blog. The article looks at the possibility of using open source models in drugs and biotechnology. Although the article cites many of the possible uses for the technology, it fails to mention that the reason why this is still in “planning Read more…
Blogging
The year of the blog
2004 has been the year of the blog. The BBC reports that the word “blog” has now been included in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The definition reads: “BLOG noun [short for Weblog] (1999) : a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by Read more…
Cyber-liberties
Digital divide in the U.S.
This is a rather good report in The Register that talks about the digital divide in the United States, where internet access is still the realm of the high-income white guy. The idea of the cosmopolitan world wide web is still a fantasy, as the average netizen tends to be Read more…
Open source
All your code is belong to us
SCO’s website has been defaced by hackers for two days running. The website’s masthead was changed with a new banner that read “We own all your code – pay us all your money“. SCO has become the favourite target of software programmers around the world after its case against IBM Read more…
Copyright
The war against piracy
The movie industry keeps flexing their muscles to fight piracy. They have won a case against a website that charged its users to download music. Good for them! This serves to lend momentumn to their efforts to sue P2P users who download movies, which has been stopped in court recently.