The ECJ has returned rulings on four different cases that seriously diminish the claims of companies that claim that the investment in synthesizing data compiled in a database does not count as substantial investment as required by the Database Directive. In each case brought before the court, an organizer of Read more…
For all of us old enough to remember the early days of the internet, Internet Explorer was not always the only browser around. Most people used Netscape (before it was seduced by the dark side and was bought by AOL). Netscape has the great honour of prompting the coining of Read more…
A couple of days ago we commented that Tesco’s music download service is now online, a move that we believe is the death of the music download coolness. There appears to be a conspiracy by the music industry to make music download a thing of the past. It is now Read more…
For those of you following the BELETS scam saga, here is the latest reply from our friend, Mr. Dubs Parker. I think that I will stop the scam baiting here, I am not willing to give Mr Parker any physical info. Here is his latest email: Dear A, Thank you Read more…
35% of all internet traffic is Torrent traffic. As Kazaa and other P2P sites diminish because of legal attacks, BitTorrent increases. The problem for copyright owners is that Torrent technology is very much capable of non-infringing uses, as the recent lecture by Cory Doctorow proves. Nevertheless, the first case against Read more…
So, music downloads are now officially uncool. Yes, once Tesco starts offering “legal” music downloads; you know that the whole thing is now as cool as buying broccoli. Who is next? Asda? M&S?
A very interesting link that arrives courtesy of Bob Rietjens. A German court has given users the right to return items purchased from eBay within two weeks of purchase, provided that it has been bought from a commercial supplier. This seems consisten with the Distance Selling Directive, but this only Read more…
You may recall the letter from BELETS Consultants. I replied, and received another one that shows this to be a more complex 419 scam, perhaps the most complex 419 that I have seen before. The scam is actually rather elegant. They first send an email making enquiries about a possible Read more…
The Register reports that graphics company Tektronix is trying to enforce a 1987 patent (Patent 4,734,690) . This patent is for a “graphics display terminal performs a pan operation with respect to a view motion center to effectuate spherical panning, thereby providing perspective and non-perspective views“. In plain English, this Read more…