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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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Mercedes-Benz stolen car tracking works, just ask the Boston Marathon bombers | 189 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
How A 17-Year-Old Girl Won a Hackathon – And What It Means for Women in Tech
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 30 2013 @ 05:38 PM EDT
The question of how to interest more women in technology fields is one of the most important questions facing us today, for many reasons.

The internet, of course, is rife with opinion about What Has To Happen in order for more girls to get into programming, for more women to speak at tech conferences, and for how to make guys not be jerks to them when they do enter these fields or show up at these conferences.

Nevermind all that for now. Let’s focus on how one teenage girl, Jennie Lamere, defeated a room full of smart, motivated, experienced, full-grown men. This would seem to be instructive to the greater argument about women in technology, and besides, it has the added bonus of being based in fact rather than opinion.

Eliot Van Buskirk evolver.fm

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Size Matters
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 30 2013 @ 08:15 PM EDT
My Smartphone Is Thinner Than Yours.

Pity you won't be allowed to buy it Stateside.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Things are looking up for Google Glass
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, April 30 2013 @ 09:47 PM EDT
But there’s still that mindless stare up and to the right, a telltale giveaway that sneaky things are afoot.
cringely.com

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Samsung Recall
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 02:25 AM EDT
Yes, doing the honorable thing.

No, Appliance Design 101 - Fail

Water + Mains Power is an order of magnitude
more serious than swipe to unlock.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

British Telecom Claims Patents on VOIP Session Initiation Protocol
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 10:47 AM EDT
"BT unleashes SIP licensing troll army"

"VoIP-to-PSTN termination providers and SIP vendors will be watching their inboxes for a lawyer's letter from BT, which has kicked off a taxing licensing program levying a fee on the industry, based on a list of 99 patents."

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Filmmaking at the atomic level? IBM nets Guinness world record
Authored by: JamesK on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 12:24 PM EDT
With "A Boy and His Atom," Big Blue and its scanning tunneling microscope have made what is surely the first movie explicitly starring atoms.

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The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Trevor Pott unloads on Adobe for being to Ninite
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 12:28 PM EDT
Adobe's products are a security nightmare. Reader, Flash and Air are - alongside Oracle's Java browser plugin - the screen door through which the raw unfiltered sewage of the internet oozes into the homes of netizens.

[...]

Adobe's solution to the security problem is decidedly half-arsed: the software giant's updater, which kicks into life when it notices the installed version of Flash is out of date, is a bug-ridden example of the unfathomable number of methods by which an application can crash. It fails to apply the upgrades and security fixes required on far too many occasions.

[...]

It is demeaning that Adobe should resort to attempting to bamboozle users with trial installer nagware in the pursuit of a few more coppers. It is downright vindictive to demand that third parties cease providing unified tools that augment the security of the internet by cleaning up the mess they made in the first place by shipping software as insecure as Flash.

[...]

What Adobe should explicitly not be doing is preventing Kuzins – and others like him – from making the internet we all share more secure. I can't find a way to justify this. Whatever the rationalization used by the Adobe department of idiocy enforcement, they should have checked with PR first.

The Register

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • McAffee? Ask? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 03:11 PM EDT
If Android is 'cooler' to younger users, Apple could be in trouble
Authored by: JamesK on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 12:38 PM EDT
New Android models are just hotter than the stoic iPhone.

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The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

reddit's privacy policy has been rewritten from the ground up - come check it out
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 03:38 PM EDT
For some time now, the reddit privacy policy has been a bit of legal boilerplate. While it did its job, it does not give a clear picture on how we actually approach user privacy. I'm happy to announce that this is changing.

The reddit privacy policy has been rewritten from the ground-up. The new text can be found here. This new policy is a clear and direct description of how we handle your data on reddit, and the steps we take to ensure your privacy.

To develop the new policy, we enlisted the help of Lauren Gelman (/u/LaurenGelman). Lauren is the founder of BlurryEdge Strategies, a legal and strategy consulting firm located in San Francisco that advises technology companies and investors on cutting-edge legal issues. She previously worked at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, the EFF, and ACM.

Lauren will be helping answer questions in the thread today regarding the new policy. Please let us know if there are any questions or concerns you have about the policy. We're happy to take input, as well as answer any questions we can.

http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/1dhw2j/reddits_privacy_policy_has_been_rew ritten_from/

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • Unringing a Bell - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 04:13 PM EDT
Video Poker firmware bug yields big money ..
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 07:57 PM EDT
"Over the course of playing $12 million worth of video poker, Las Vegas resident John Kane stumbled onto a firmware bug in IGT's 'Game King' machines that allowed him to cash out for 10x the amount of his winnings. John and his friends took advantage of the vulnerability to the tune of $429,945.

John's friend was arrested by U.S. marshals and charged with violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but a federal magistrate ruled that the law doesn't apply and recommended dismissal. The case is currently being argued in a U.S. District Court." link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The Troubled Life of Patent No. 6,456,841 Tracing the tortured legal trail of a simple smartpho
Authored by: SilverWave on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 08:09 PM EDT
The Troubled Life of Patent No. 6,456,841 Tracing the tortured legal trail of a simple smartphone patent

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RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Andreessen: Android poised to explode in emerging markets
Authored by: SilverWave on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 08:22 PM EDT
Andreessen: Android poised to explode in emerging markets

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RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Gamma's FinFisher and FinSpy trick people into thinking it’s Mozilla Firefox
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 08:38 PM EDT
Mozilla has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a company that sells spyware allegedly disguised as the Firefox browser to governments. The action follows a report by Citizen Lab, which identifies 36 countries (including the US) hosting command and control servers for FinFisher, a type of surveillance software. Also known as FinSpy, the software is sold by UK-based Gamma International to governments, which use it in criminal investigations and allegedly for spying on dissidents.

Mozilla revealed yesterday in its blog that it has sent the cease and desist letter to Gamma "demanding that these illegal practices stop immediately." Gamma's software is "designed to trick people into thinking it's Mozilla Firefox," Mozilla noted.

Jon Brodkin, ars technica

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

'The Single Most Valuable Document In The History Of The World Wide Web'
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 12:00 AM EDT
Twenty years ago this week, researchers renounced the right to patent the World Wide Web. Officials at CERN, the European research center where the Web was invented, wrote:
CERN relinquishes all intellectual property to this code, both source and binary form and permission is granted for anyone to use, duplicate, modify and redistribute it.
It's a dull sentence from a dull document. But that document marks the moment when the World Wide Web entered the public domain — a moment that was central to creating the Web as we know it today.
Jacob Goldstein, NPR

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The Gosnell trial
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 05:08 AM EDT
I asked for opinions yesterday about the multiple murder trial of Kermit
Gosnell, and why the trial seems to have been very much under-reported by
main-stream media.

My question seems to have vanished. Is there something sinister going on here,
or am I just paranoid? The Groklaw that I've loved for ten years wouldn't
suppress the reporting of a trial, surely?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Senator Schumer Targets Patent Trolls, Wants USPTO To Review Lawsuits Before They Go To Court
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 09:51 AM EDT

href="”http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/01/senator-charles-schumer-plans-bill-for-u
spto-to-review-patent-troll-suits-before-they-head-to-court”">

U.S. Sen.
Charles Schumer (D-NY) is expected to announce legislation that looks to snuff
out patent suits brought by these companies in their early stages, by sending
the suits to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for vetting before they hit
the courts.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Charge Inflation - From Pop Bottle to WMD
Authored by: cassini2006 on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 10:23 AM EDT

A pop bottle is an explosive device. They "explode" all the time. Also, everyone is hyper-sensitive about explosive devices, especially near a school. Of course, an exploding pop-bottle merits an immediate criminal investigation, especially near a school.

See for a story about a high-school student and a pop-bottle that resulted criminal explosive charges.

She's lucky she only got charged with (a) making an explosive device, and (b) discharging it on school property. She is very lucky she did not get charged as a terrorist, as I think she qualifies. After all, a pop bottle is a large explosive device, and the law doesn't actually specify that the explosive device needs to be effective (or even dangerous) just that it must be used against people and/or property.

In any case, people are protesting the stupidity of this situation.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

T-Mobile Calling Plans Run Afoul of Washington State's Attorney General
Authored by: JamesK on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 12:58 PM EDT
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson took T-Mobile to court because he believed the wireless service provider's calling plans that are clearly different from standard practices of the biggest wireless service providers in the United States were somehow "deceptive."

Perhaps what the government should do is require unbundling phones from plans. Do people really believe they're getting a phone for free or nearly so? Do they not understand that when they get that sort of contract, they're also buying their phone on a time payment plan? What's even more galling is the way they think they can reneg^H^H^H^H^H^cancel their contract early an not owe anything on the phone they bought. If carriers were required to to what T-Mobile is doing, that is separating the cost of the phone from the cost of the service, we'd see a quick end to this sort of nonsense, where people think they're getting a "free" phone and can ignore contract obligations. Perhaps, as this article mentioned, the other carriers should be called on why they don't drop the plan rates after the phone has been paid for. At least my carrier will sell you a plan at a lower rate, if you don't buy the phone with the plan.

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The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

"Fix the Debt" CEOs Enjoy Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 04:21 PM EDT
selected bits

Thanks to a “performance pay” tax loophole, large corporations in the United
States today are routinely deducting enormous executive payouts from their
income taxes. In effect, these companies are exploiting the U.S. tax code to
send taxpayers the bill for the huge rewards they’re doling out to their top
executives.

During the three-year period 2009-2011, the 90 publicly held corporate members
of the austerity-focused “Fix the Debt” lobby group shoveled out $6.3 billion in
pay to their CEOs and next three highest-paid executives.

These 90 Fix the Debt member firms raked in at least $953 million — and as much
as $1.6 billion — from the “performance pay” loophole between 2009-2011.

Top executives at these same Fix the Debt companies are aggressively advocating
cuts to government programs that benefit the ordinary American taxpayers
subsidizing their compensation.

Many of these executives have also added to America’s debt and deficit by using
tax havens and other accounting tricks to have their corporations avoid paying
their fair tax share.

Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group enjoyed the biggest taxpayer subsidy
for its CEO pay largesse. The nation’s largest HMO paid CEO Stephen Hemsley $199
million in total compensation between 2009 and 2011. Of this, at least $194
million went for fully deductible “performance pay.”

That works out to a $68 million taxpayer subsidy to UnitedHealth Group – just
for one individual CEO’s pay.

http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/ceo-tax-subsidized-pay

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

'Economics Needs Replication'
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 04:27 PM EDT
The principle is well accepted in the natural sciences. However, it is far less common in empirical economics, even though non-reproducible research can barely be considered a contribution to the consolidated body of scientific knowledge. ...

In the narrow sense, replicability means that the raw data for an analysis can be accessed, that the transformation from the raw data to the final data set is well documented, and that software code is available for producing the final data set and the empirical results. Basically, this comes down to a question of data and code availability, but nonetheless it is a necessary prerequisite for replication. A successful replication would then indicate that all of the material has been provided and that the same results were obtained when redoing the analysis.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2013/05/economics-needs-replica tion.html

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Political corruption and the 'free trade' racket
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 03:33 AM EDT
The US-EU free trade pact and TPP are about securing regulatory gains for major corporate interests.

[...]

The deals in questions, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the US-European Union "Free Trade" Agreement are both being pushed as major openings to trade that will increase growth and create jobs. In fact, eliminating trade restrictions is a relatively small part of both agreements, since most tariffs and quotas have already been sharply reduced or eliminated.

Rather, these deals are about securing regulatory gains for major corporate interests. In some cases, such as increased patent and copyright protection, these deals are 180 degrees at odds with free trade. They are about increasing protectionist barriers.

Dean Baker, Al Jazeera

---

some more background from: Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Mercedes-Benz stolen car tracking works, just ask the Boston Marathon bombers
Authored by: JamesK on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 10:08 AM EDT
For all the feet on the street chasing the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, a key break came when the victim who was carjacked and released by the Tsarnaev brothers on April 19 told the cops his Mercedes could be tracked with one quick call to Mercedes-Benz.

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The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Leonard Susskind Teaches You “The Theoretical Minimum” for Understanding Modern Physics
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 10:38 AM EDT
This week, Susskind’s popular lectures found a new home of sorts with the launch of The Theoretical Minimum, a new web site that presents the six courses in a way that’s neat, clean and easy to navigate. The site also offers a short text summary of each lecture, plus related reference materials. You can jump into the courses and get started on your own intellectual journey via this list:

Dan Colman, Open Culture

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about Leonard Susskind: Wikipedia, Stanford

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

What new features do you wish Google would add to Android?
Authored by: ukjaybrat on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 12:13 PM EDT
What new features do you wish Google would add to Android?

---
IANAL

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

How social network policies are changing speech and privacy norms
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 01:11 PM EDT
Questions have also arisen over whether US companies should host content from terrorist organisations. Among the questions involved in such a decision are the legal implications of an American company hosting speech from organisations on the US government's official list of "designated foreign terrorist organisations". US citizens are banned from most types of transactions (financial or otherwise) with organisations on the list, but those rules do not generally apply to citizens of other countries. 

This is not merely a reference to the old adage that "one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter", but a serious question in an age when the US government designates as terrorist a group that, in another country, is a legitimately popular political party. Though Hezbollah in particular seems to be going strong on social networks, Twitter has been accused of removing the accounts of al-Shabab (a designated terrorist group) and the Syrian Electronic Army, for example.

Jillian C. York, Al Jazeera

Jillian York is director for international freedom of expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

What it’s like to live without the Internet for a year
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 02:52 PM EDT
What it’s like to live without the Internet for a year

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

There really is an IP Daily!
Authored by: albert on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 04:20 PM EDT
http://paper.li/ballard_ip/intellectual-property

No 'Yellow River' jokes, please.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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