Should Patents be Granted for Computer Software? (UK)
Country Watch: Britain
3/12/2001; 9:58:13 PM

'The Government’s conclusion is thus to reaffirm the principle that patents are for technological innovations. Software should not be patentable where there is no technological innovation, and technological innovations should not cease to be patentable merely because the innovation lies in software.'

'However, the Government agrees with those respondents who said that at present the law is not clear enough, and that this is damaging. Clarification is needed. This raises complex and technical questions, but the central difficulty can be expressed simply: how to define the boundary determining when software is, and is not, part of a technological innovation, so that what is patentable will be clear in specific cases in future. The Government intends to take this matter up with its partners in the European Union and the European Patent Convention as a matter of urgency.'

German Court Finds AOL Guilty of Internet Piracy
Country Watch: Germany
3/10/2001; 1:20:23 PM

'Restrictive online copyright protection may have been bolstered by a German appeals court, which has upheld a ruling against America Online (NYSE: AOL - news) that found the Internet giant responsible for pirated material swapped on its service...

'The Frankfurt district court ruling Friday upheld the determination of a Bavarian state court in Munich last April that Internet service providers (ISPs) are responsible for pirated material traded on their systems.'

Users, vendors face off over UCITA law in Texas
UCITA
3/10/2001; 12:01:45 PM

'A TITANIC STRUGGLE over the proposed new Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act -- one that pits large corporate users against a group of major technology vendors -- is under way in Texas and could become a key showdown for the controversial software licensing measure.

'The legislation, known informally as UCITA, was approved relatively easily last year in two states: Virginia and Maryland. But things are different in Texas, where opponents are moving aggressively to prevent the state legislature from passing the measure.

Law shelters AOL from child porn suit
Misc.
3/10/2001; 11:56:38 AM 'The state Supreme Court said Thursday that federal law shields America Online from illegal transactions--in particular, the sale of child pornography--taking place on its service.

'In a 4-3 decision, Florida's high court said the Communications Decency Act gives the Internet service provider, a unit of AOL Time Warner, immunity from a lawsuit filed by a Florida woman, whose 11-year-old son appeared in a lewd videotape sold by one AOL subscriber to another.'

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law after Napster
General IP Issues
3/8/2001; 7:57:01 PM

'This piece is meant as a general explanation of the U.S. copyright law principles most relevant to P2P file-sharing technologies. It is aimed primarily at:

• 'Developers of core P2P file-sharing technology, such as the underlying protocols, platform tools, and specific client implementations;
• 'Developers of ancillary services that depend upon or add value to P2P file-sharing networks, such as providers of search, security, metadata aggregation, and other services;
• 'Investors seeking to evaluate the potential copyright risks associated with the various ventures listed above.

'The following discussion is meant as a general introduction, and thus occasionally glosses over some of copyright law’s more subtle nuances. At the most basic level, it is aimed not at giving you all the answers, but rather at allowing you to recognize the right questions to ask your lawyers.'

Self-negating prophecy
Glossary
3/8/2001; 4:24:22 PM

Everybody's heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy... "Mr. National Anchorperson, I predict there will be a shortage of milk in the stores today, so I recommend that everybody immediately run to their local grocery store and buy all the milk they can possibly need." So of course there's a nationwide rush on milk.

Of course, self-fulfilling prophecies are not amazing when they come true; some, like the example above, would be amazing if they didn't come true. The prophecy itself has a hand in causing what it predicts.

Expert: Web gadgets threaten your privacy
Privacy from Companies
3/8/2001; 4:11:44 PM

Kind of on the theme from yesterday:

'Popular electronic gadgets with links to the Internet pose a mounting threat to consumer privacy, Richard Smith, a leading computer privacy expert, said in an interview on Wednesday.

'Such everyday "spy" devices include fitness monitors that track heart rates and pump out exercise-related advertising, digital music players that track listening habits, low-cost wristwatch and wireless surveillance cameras, as well as location-tracking mobile phones and other monitoring devices.'

Computer Programming for Everybody
Technology & Sociology
3/8/2001; 1:03:54 AM

'In the seventies, Xerox PARC asked: "Can we have a computer on every desk?" We now know this is possible, but those computers haven't necessarily empowered their users. Today's computers are often inflexible: the average computer user can typically only change a limited set of options configurable via a "wizard" (a lofty word for a canned dialog), and is dependent on expert programmers for everything else.

Survey of Intellectual Property Issues for Distance Learning
Misc.
3/7/2001; 6:38:11 PM A nice article on how IP issues are affecting educators.  I think a lot of what's mentioned applies to education in general, not just distance education. Of course, this is to be expected. While in some sense "distance education" might be moving more slowly then some predicted, a lot of "conventional classes" are taking on many aspects of distance learning. For instance, both classes I am currently taking post a lot of material online, including all class slides, sample code, project code, etc. IP issues are affecting all education.

The open PC is dead - start praying, says HD guru General IP Issues3/7/2001; 5:41:57 PM

'Hale Landis maintains the ata-atapi.com website, and has been working for open standards for twenty five years. He has been a participant in the ANSI X3/NCITS Technical Committees that developed the ATA and ATA/ATAPI standards since 1990, and works as a consultant and provider of test software. 'His chilling, deeply pessimistic view is that the good times are over. The fight for an open hardware platform is very real, and the power has swung from the PC leaders to the entertainment industry. It's a valuable strategic view from the trenches of the T.13 committee, where the fight over copy control mechanisms continues. It was posted to the private T.13 mailing list, and we cite it here with permission....'