September 3, 2010
- Questionable drug patents that put lives at risk are finally starting to get more scrutiny. The Public Patent Foundation (better known as PUBPAT) is now challenging the validity of eight patents held by Abbott Labs around the HIV/AIDS drug ritonavir (branded Norvir). As PUBPAT noes, there's plenty of ...
- Via %26lt;A HREF="http://www.conceivablytech.com/2530/products/microsoft-patents-operating-system-shutdown/"%26gt;Conceivably Tech%26lt;/A%26gt;, we learn that Microsoft was granted a patent for the shutdown procedure in Windows. If I understand it right, Microsoft is now the sole owner of the procedure asking whether you really want to close an application with unsaved data. Note that the patent does not seem to cover the most annoying aspect of a Windows shutdown, the never ending Windows...
- Earlier this year, we noted that scammers were copying the mass automated pre-settlement copyright infringement notices of law firms like ACS:Law and US Copyright Group, in order to get people to install malware on their computers. It appears that sort of effort is only expanding. With French President Sarkozy getting his wish for a three strikes law in France, the bureaucracy set up to deal with the resulting mess,...
- With over 10 million customers, Netflix is a huge player in the online DVD rental business in the United States. Aside from sending out DVDs by mail, customers can also stream movies directly to a wide variety of devices. Despite these services, there are still plenty of people who cancel their accounts. Just for the record, Netflix wants to know through a survey if they are perhaps 'pirates'.
Hollywood often... - We've seen plenty of stories of review or ranking sites that get sued by people upset about their reviews, but one such site that seems to get extra special attention is Avvo -- and that's because it's a ranking and review site for lawyers. Soon after the site was launched a few years back, it was sued -- leading a judge to dismiss the suit, pointing...
- For many years, we've discussed how the Bayh-Dole Act, which created incentives for universities to patent the (often federally-funded) research results of professors, has been a dismal failure. The failure is based on the same faulty reason for why people think that patent system itself increases innovation -- even in the face of an awful lot of evidence to the contrary. The mistake is in thinking that the key incentives...
Aging rocker complains that it’s “destroyed the music business” and that it’s “going to destroy the movie business” someday. Also contends that rock ‘n’ roll will be gone in a “few generations” time much like what happened to big-band...
- We recently wrote about Newsweek's coverage of Austin Heap and Haystack, a program he supposedly wrote to help Iranian internet users avoid being spied on by the Iranian government. Some of our commenters questioned the overall legitimacy of the story. It has a very too-perfect Hollywood sort of feel to it -- and some pointed out...
