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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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Youngsters advice to Neelie Croes
Authored by: sciamiko on Wednesday, May 08 2013 @ 02:16 PM EDT
From Neelie Croes' blog , she has asked young entrepreneurs to produce some ideas for the future, like:
2. And I also asked for their thoughts in other areas too. From copyright to openness and encouraging entrepreneurship. Again they came up with some great stuff– see for yourselves!
And they have, in two reports. Quoting from one of them, the Young Advisors Group Proposals for VP Neelie Kroes
Force the governments to follow the law respecting to the use of free software

Governments are supposed to use free software, and thanks to the efforts done by the EU in the past years, some of them have created laws to ensure that free software is used in everything public. But that is not happening - for example in countries such as Spain, the government is not following its own laws regarding the use of free software. In Slovenia we still have examples of public services that basically require you to use Internet Explorer (a Windows only browser).

[...]

A copyright system that copes with 21st century and single European digital market demands: strive to balance the right of citizens, artists, publishers, and service providers

In order to create a truly european single market, the issue copyright needs to be solved. if one understands ICT as being all about information and who is in control of it, a fair solution for all players need to be defined. One step forward can be to make the work of collecting societies and recording industry more transparent; right now it's a blackbox. Decipher myths by encouraging record industry and collecting society to open their books and to put it into the public domain. Nobody knows if what they claim is what they possess (record company) nor what they pay is what they receive (collecting society), the only thing we witness is the notion to bundle net & copyright laws for the purpose of surveillance/control.

Let's hope it may have some effect.

s.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

A new paper has been filed in regard to claim 19 in the Apple Re-exam
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 08 2013 @ 03:06 PM EDT
A 4 page letter has been filed requesting an interview with the examiners and
outlining the position of the applicants as to why claim 19 is allowable in view
of the cited documents.

Here's a taste based on and OCR of the PDF:

Patentability of claim 19 in view of Lira

Claim 19 is an apparatus claim directed to a device having one or more programs
that
include specifically recited instructions. In particular, the one or more
programs of the device of
claim 19 include "instructions for translating the electronic document in a
second direction until the
area beyond the edge of the electronic document is no longer displayed ... in
response to detecting
that the object is no longer on or near the touch screen display"
(hereinafter, the "instructions for
second direction translation limitation").
Patent Owner requests the courtesy of an interview to discuss the Patent
Office's views on
the proper broadest reasonable construction of the instructions for second
direction translation
limitation and the effect of this limitation on the patentability of claim 19 in
view of Lira.
The broadest reasonable construction of the instructions for second direction
translation
limitation
Patent Owner believes that even under the broadest reasonable construction, the
instructions
for second direction translation limitation requires instructions that not only
specify the particular
command (i.e., translation in the second direct) and the particular start
condition (i.e., no longer
detecting the object), but also specify the recited stop condition. As required
by the language of the
limitation, the instructions for translating in the second direction also
specify the condition for
stopping translation: "until the area beyond the edge of the electronic
document is no longer
displayed." Put another way, the recited instructions are directed to a
translation command with a
particular start condition and a particular stop condition.
A person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize the significance of
specifying a stop
condition for translation in the second direction. Unlike translation in the
first direction, which is
terminated by detecting that the object is no longer on the touch screen, there
is no input-based stop
condition specified in claim 19 for ending translation in the second direction.
Rather, claim 19
specifies that translation in the second direction is terminated based on
determining that the area
beyond the edge is no longer displayed. Once the stop condition is met,
translation ends.
Specifying a stop condition is also necessary for determining when to make the
recited comparison


between the fourth and first portions, so as to determine if the portions are
different, as recited in
claim 19.


The relevance to Lira of the proper broadest reasonable construction


Patent Owner believes that Lira fails to disclose a device of claim 19 under the
broadest
reasonable construction discussed above. Moreover, Lira fails to do so,
regardless of whether an
internal boundary of a document is or is not an edge of an electronic document,
as claimed. The
Office Action cites to Lira at page 15 for a disclosure of the instructions for
second direction
translation limitation, based on Lira's snap-to-nearest column function. (Office
Action at pages 9-
10.) While this function has a stop condition, the stop condition for Lira's
snap-to-nearest column
function is not based on the edge of an electronic document, even if the edge of
the column is
assumed to be an edge of electronic document. Rather, Lira makes clear that the
stop condition is
centering of the column. (Lira at page 15, lines 23-25.) Stopping translation
based on the column
being centered is substantially different than stopping based on the area beyond
the edge no longer
being displayed.
Notably, claim 19 requires instructions for translating in the second direction
with the
specified stop condition: mere incidental achievement of the same visual result
(the area beyond the
edge no longer being displayed) does not equate to disclosing the specific
instructions recited in
claim 19. Accordingly, the Office Action's focus on Lira's disclosure of a
logical column having a
width equal to the display window width would, at best, merely equate to a
disclosure of the visual
result of the area beyond the edge no longer being displayed, without any
disclosure or even
suggestion of an edge-based stop condition in instructions of a device. Thus,
while Lira discloses
variable width for its logical column (i.e., less than or equal to display
width), Lira discloses a
singular, fixed stop condition for its snap-to-column translation: centering of
the logical column.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Off Topic Prenda Law
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 08 2013 @ 03:21 PM EDT
http://www.scribd.com/doc/139843902/Prenda-Sanctions-Order

One of the most refreshing judgments i have seen to date.
It's superb ! It does wrap up these copyright trolls activities and now the
lawyers face being disbarred .
Most entertaining references to Star Trek right from the onset.It's way worth
your time reading .

Ric

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Advice on Windows for Writers
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 08 2013 @ 04:57 PM EDT

Yes, I know. Friends don't let friends use Windows.

Normally I tell people who want me to fix their Windows computers to take them to Best Buy, and that they can pay the price for running Windows. That's gotten me out of repairing a ton of computers over the last five years.

This is a special case. My friend, who writes under the pen name Shebat Legion, is a really nice, if somewhat innocent (where technology is concerned).

Her boyfriend bought her the Windows 8 upgrade as a Christmas present for both her laptops... Yep, disaster. So I'm helping her rollback the one to Windows 7. Got it running, drivers installed, etc.

Problem is, it has been so long since I've paid any attention to Windows that I have no idea what GPL/BSD writers tools are available, unless there are Linux or Mac versions. I know about Evernote and YWriter, but ht's about it.

So I thought I'd ask for suggestions of the people most likely to know the answers.

Wayne
http://madhatter.ca

PS: I am partitioning the drive, and dropping on Linux Mint, so she can play with it. I have hopes. She's pretty smart, just un-educated where computers are concerned.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

House Judiciary Committee Sets Up First Hearing on Copyright Reform
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 08 2013 @ 08:40 PM EDT
story at techdirt.com.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Facebook's Open Compute Project to give the world an "open" top-of-rack switch
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 08 2013 @ 08:52 PM EDT
Two years ago, Facebook set out to change the server and storage industries by creating freely available hardware designs that gave customers more flexibility than those on offer from the HPs and Dells of the world.

Now, Facebook aims to knock Cisco and the other top network vendors down a peg by leading a nearly identical project for switches. Facebook is leading this disruption of the data center hardware industry through the Open Compute Project, which takes the open source approach typically applied to software such as Linux and aims it at hardware.

Thus far, the project had worked on reference designs for servers, motherboards, storage, racks, and interconnects.

Jon Brodkin, ars technica

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The unofficial Otis D. Wright, II Statue Fundraiser
Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Wednesday, May 08 2013 @ 09:37 PM EDT
Link

I'm sure Judge Wright probably does not really care, and he feels he was just doing his job.

But, apparently, his ruling struck a chord.

---

You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Google guilty of violating antitrust law, to be fined up to $410 Million
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 08 2013 @ 10:30 PM EDT
From: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/eu-motorolas-patent-
attack-on-apple-was-abuse-of-a-dominant-position/

QUOTE:

On Monday, the European Commission, the executive body of the European
Union, officially informed Google (owner of Motorola Mobility) that the
company’s attempts to enforce “an injunction against Apple in Germany on
the basis of its mobile phone standard-essential patents (‘SEPs’) amounts to
an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.”

At this point, the companies can respond in writing and can request a further
hearing—however, should the European Commission find sufficient evidence
of a violation of antitrust rules, it could impose a fine of up to 10 percent on

Motorola's worldwide revenue. Motorola's revenue was $4.1 billion in 2012,
meaning the company could theoretically be fined up to $410 million if the
violation is drastic.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

MS offering $1b for Nook Media LLC
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 09 2013 @ 12:31 AM EDT
Well this is a fine how-do-you-do:

Microsoft is offering $1 billion to buy up Nook Media LLC.

Of course, readers here will remember how the story goes.

First, MS goes trolling to B&N for patent licensing fees for B&N's use of Android in the nook.

B&N passes, and when things come to a head, write letters to the FTC and DOJ calling out MS' trolling ways.

MS says "Whoa, whoa, no need to make a federal case of it. We're just friends having a friendly discussion. Here, how about we give you $300 million, in exchange, you can give us, say 17%. All friends, right?"

(any inferences about Microsoft's confidence in their ability to withstand scrutiny of their behavior or patent values is left as an exercise for the reader)

Which brings us to today, where Microsoft likes what they see so much, they're thinking of offering $1 billion for the kaboodle. A trifle undervalued, likely, but interesting, nonetheless.


bkd69

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Prenda Law smackdown.
Authored by: SirFozzie on Thursday, May 09 2013 @ 01:51 AM EDT
When a judge quotes Star Trek, and recommends that A) you be referred to the
state bar(s) you practice at so you can be disbarred, B) the case be sent 11
floors up to the US Attorney's office for RICO prosecution, and C) That you be
referred to the IRS for tax evasion..

It may have just been kinder to shoot them now and get it over with.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

US on a dangerour path
Authored by: complex_number on Thursday, May 09 2013 @ 02:48 AM EDT
<a
href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/05/08/1843234/us-doj-say-they-dont-n
eed-warrants-for-e-mail-chats">yro.slashdot.org</a><p>

Ok, it is /. but if the US Feds think that they are free to go snooping on every
email, phone call etc WITHOUT a WARRANT then I really feel sad for those who
have to live under this threat.


---
Ubuntu & 'apt-get' are not the answer to Life, The Universe & Everything which
is of course, "42" or is it 1.618?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Canonical - Re-inventing the Wheel - again
Authored by: complex_number on Thursday, May 09 2013 @ 02:59 AM EDT
news.slashdot.org

Why oh why do this? APT is a very good and decent packaging standard and if you frontend it with PackageKit etc it works very well.

Yet here they go again, using their limited resources to re-invent the wheel (or that is how it seems to me) when there is really nowt wrong with what they have got already and is widely used in other distros as well.

On the day that Adobe royally peed off a huge part of their customer base by going to a Subscription Model, canonical seem to be in the process of doing exactly the same thing.

All rather sad really.

---
Ubuntu & 'apt-get' are not the answer to Life, The Universe & Everything which is of course, "42" or is it 1.618?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

A Friendly Reminder: Sunday May 12th is Mother's Day & May 16th is Groklaw's 10th Anniversary
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 09 2013 @ 09:17 AM EDT
In case you were wondering ;)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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