Excellent news coming from the Software Patent Law Center (SFLC). The USPTO has granted ex parte re-examination of US Patent 6,988,138, which protects “Internet-based education support system and methods”. As previously reported, this patent led to its owners, e-learning software firm Blackboard, to sue Desire2Learn, which also manufactures educational software. Read more
(Via SCRIPT News) The copy-protection system shipped with every HD-DVD has been cracked, according to the firm in charge of licensing, Advanced Access Content System (AACS). As with DVDs before, licensed players come with a built-in encryption key (device key) which can unlock the content within High Definition discs, protected Read more
I’ve just read a rather naive article in the BBC Technology website on the rise of BitTorrent TV-show sharing. According to the report this is the next stage in the fight against piracy, as the top shared material online now is made up of TV shows. I’m sure that TV Read more
(via Ashley Theunissen) I recommend that you watch this video from the UK’s Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). Apparently it is being distributed in rental DVDs instead of the annoying Piracy Crime video, but I don’t know if it is new. I initially thought it was a spoof, but apparently Read more
(via Open Access News) Journal publishers represented by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have hired a PR firm in order to raise morale and attack open access publishing, according to a report in the journal Nature. “We’re like any firm under siege, it’s common to hire a PR firm Read more
Licence geeks may have noticed the following information in the right-hand column of this blog: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 UK: Scotland License.<!– –> The terms of the licence are simple. I will allow people to reuse and republish my posts as long as Read more
(via Colin Miller. This post is best enjoyed while listening to either Iron Maiden’s “The Number of The Beast”, or R.E.M.’s “The End of The World As We Know It”) . Windows Vista is nearly upon us. Woe unto us, et cetera, et cetera. The Internet is abuzz with stories Read more
Abbe Brown, Jordan Hatcher and yours truly have started a new blog as part of a research project on the practicalities of free trade agreements in the signatory countries.
In a move that reminds me of the plot in Neal Stephenson’s novel Cryptonomicon, the popular torrent search engine The PirateBay has started asking for donations to purchase the independent micro-nation of Sealand. The people behind PirateBay have created a website to ask for donations to amass the £65 million Read more
Second Life is back in the news. This time, reporters are describing virtual protests and guerrilla warfare against Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National, which has opened virtual headquarters in Porcupine, an otherwise quiet region of the Second Life universe. Apparently protesters, not happy with placards, are using all sorts of Read more