Blogging
Slow August
I have been blogging only a little because I am busy with trying to finish my book this August, so expect only a few updates in the coming couple of weeks. Normal service will resume in September.
Cyber-liberties
BlackBerry vs The World
Internet freedom has a new name, and it is BlackBerry. It is hard to know when it happened, but at some point in the last month the BlackBerry became the enemy number one of those countries with strong Internet filters. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will ban BlackBerries, Read more…
Blogging
Blogging, anonymity and identity
As of today, I will semi-detach my personal and professional identity from the TechnoLlama online persona. This sounds more ominous than it actually is, what will happen is that I will remove my full name from the blog and my Twitter account, but will not hide who I am, will Read more…
Announcements
Announcing Digital Interactive Symposium
Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh 27 August 2010 (10:00 – 16:00) John McIntyre Conference Centre, Pollock Halls, the University of Edinburgh. Overview The Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh (DIS:E) is an annual event organized by the Virtual Policy Network in conjunction with the University of Edinburgh. The Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh 2010 Read more…
Cases
Landmark software copyright case in the UK
I have finally finished reading SAS Institute Inc v World Programming Ltd (the IPKat beat me to it). This is an important software copyright case for many reasons. After a decade of mostly software patent cases in English courts, it is refreshing to see a complex software case where it Read more…
Social media
Mob (a near-future science fiction story)
Should we be worried about social media? While this is sort of an exaggeration, the speed of information it describes is real. A girl in London rick-rolls a Japanese guy using Chatroulette, and as revenge he uploads her video on YouTube. What happens next? Mob (a near-future science fiction story) Read more…
Social media
Twitter, strangers and monocultures
I have been following with interest the suggestion by some Twitter users that they should start following strangers to diversify their Twitter feeds. First Joel Johnson at Gizmodo and Jonah Lerner in the Frontal Cortex commented that following random strangers was a very rewarding activity. I was truly interested by Read more…
Enforcement
Escalating the war on piracy: domain names
There have been several reports about the next stage in the War on Piracy (must avoid making off-topic comments about the inherent stupidity of declaring armed hostilities against abstract concepts). I am talking of course about “Operation In Our Sites” (must not comment about some poor smug bureaucrat who thought Read more…
ACTA
How will ACTA affect UK copyright law?
Thanks to La Quadrature Du Net we now have a leak of the consolidated text for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) after the Luzern round of negotiations. It is always difficult to analyse texts that are in the drafting process, but we can now get a better idea of possible Read more…
e-commerce
eBay sued over payment system patents
Online auction giant eBay has been sued for $3.8 billion USD by XPRT Ventures in a patent infringement suit over its use of PayPal as its preferred payment system. Do not adjust your monitors ladies and gentlemen, you read correctly, that is $3.8 billion dollars, enough money to buy a Read more…