Apple's "1-click" deal leaves a sour taste Patents9/20/2000; 2:32:23 PM 'By accepting the "1-click" patent as valid, Apple has for all practical purposes closed the debate about the patent's very legitimacy.'I have been waiting for an article, like this one from Salon, that covers what I didn't have time to cover: Apple's license legitimatizes the patent in the eyes of a lot of people, and will stifle debate.I wish they had stood up to Amazon, but it's just never worth it for one company to stand up alone, I suppose.

Expert: Go Easy on Privacy Regulations Privacy from Companies9/20/2000; 11:38:10 AM 'Say what you will about Richard Epstein, but don't call him a privacy zealot. 'The erudite University of Chicago law professor said Tuesday that instead of staking out extreme positions on both sides of the topic, advocates instead should consider the likely outcome of government regulations....'This is very true, and a Wired article from later today turns out to provide the perfect example to that.

Security firm tests FBI limits with e-mail surveillance tool Surveillance and Privacy from Government9/20/2000; 11:08:00 AM 'A security company has designed an open and free alternative to the FBI's Carnivore e-mail surveillance tool that it hopes will provide a more palatable choice to wary Internet service providers and privacy advocates....'While the FBI refuses to comment on specific products, spokeswoman Chris Watney confirmed that the information is all the bureau is interested in.

Linking In Germany... good guys win first roung Country Watch: Germany 9/20/2000; 9:21:43 AM Jan-Willem Swane points to Spicy Noodle's excellent coverage of the linking issue in Germany, including the best English description of the issue I've seen. Spicy Noodles also links to Tim Berners-Lee's comments on what linking means. (TBL is the inventor of the web, in case you're wondering.) Commentary on Web Architecture - Links and Law and Links and Law: Myths are critical reading for all involved in the Web.

The Right to Link in Germany Country Watch: Germany9/19/2000; 4:13:26 PM I'm fuzzy on the details, but Jan-William has brought to my attention that there is a legal scuffle in Germany regarding linking. 'Symicron accuses Müntz, author of the html-helpsite SELFHTML, of an illegal link to the American software FTP-explorer. The reason: Symicron has the German trademark for the word Explorer.'Protests are ensuing. I don't read German so the news article doesn't do me much good.

The Active Customer Technology & Sociology9/19/2000; 11:56:33 AM 'What's the moral of this story? It's not that our auto club is staffed by incompetent employees (the rep was perfectly nice), or even that the Internet is the fastest way to get road maps (although that's obviously true). The moral is that in an imperfect world of customer service, most customers prefer to cut to the chase and help themselves. They know what they want, and they want to get it as efficiently as possible.

Regulating Privacy: At What Cost? Privacy from Companies9/19/2000; 11:41:52 AM 'Privacy advocates who successfully transformed such previously arcane matters as credit bureau databases and DoubleClick cookies into mainstream concerns are close to winning a truly epic battle. 'After years of agitating by liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, both Democrats and Republicans are suddenly expressing their support for sweeping new regulations of U.

Carpe Diem Personal Notes 9/19/2000; 11:30:37 AM I didn't want to jump the gun, but with the second post I'll do it. Hello to Carpe Diem!

:CueCat Fun And Games Misc.9/18/2000; 9:47:04 PM An interesting article at Slashdot about the :CueCat that Joel was recently mercilessly mocking. It seems the company is playing IP games after being pissed about their plan to give stuff away free and sneak a trojan horse in their drivers that report ever bar code scanned back to Digital Convergance, the creaters of the :CueCat, where they can make money selling detailed profiles.

Letter from 2020 Humor/Amusing9/18/2000; 9:30:41 PM 'These subversives really don't seem to understand that a few restrictions are necessary for the sake of innovation. And progress has been made. We don't have spam since most people can't afford an email license due to the expensive patent royalties. Our computer systems all have the same operating system, user interface and applications so everyone knows how to use them, and although they crash and don't work very well, we all know the limitations and can live with them.