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Prenda Law - Here they go again | 360 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Monsanto Wins in Unanimous Decision
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 06:47 PM EDT
Here's the link:

5/13/13 - Bowman v. Monsanto Co.

They touch on the actual patentability of the plant only briefly, to cite, but not embellish or reverse, an earlier case in which they decided that plants can be patented.

Our holding today also follows from J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred Int’l, Inc., 534 U. S. 124 (2001). We considered there whether an inventor could get a patent on a seed or plant, or only a certificate issued under the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA), 7 U. S. C. §2321 et seq. We decided a patent was available, rejecting the claim that the PVPA implicitly repealed the Patent Act’s coverage of seeds and plants.

They should have challenged the validity of GM plant patents...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Justice department secretly spying on AP
Authored by: Gringo_ on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 07:57 PM EDT

Chilling

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Did Internet Sales Tax Backers Bribe Congress?
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 10:40 PM EDT
"This may be a coincidence, but according to MapLight, Senators who voted last week for the bill allowing states to directly collect taxes on sales via the Internet, AKA The Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, received 40 times as much campaign donation money (yes, that's four-oh, not just four) from businesses in favor of the bill as those who voted against it received from businesses that were against Internet sales taxes" link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

International Space Station switching to Linux ...
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 12:27 AM EDT
`The United Space Alliance, which manages the computers aboard the International Space Station in association with NASA, has announced that the Windows XP computers aboard the ISS have been switched to Linux.

“We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable.”

In specific, the “dozens of laptops” will make the change to Debian 6. These laptops will join many other systems aboard the ISS that already run various flavors of Linux, such as RedHat and Scientific Linux. As far as we know, after this transition, there won’t be a single computer aboard the ISS that runs Windows
'. link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Is the US appeals court about to throw out software patents?
Authored by: TiddlyPom on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 04:08 AM EDT
If if would make a difference then I would pray on bended knees to the US appeals courts (only joking guys) to make this come true.

This is what is needed to allow true competition and and stop the 'old guard' (e.g. Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, SAP etc) from stifling innovation. The amount of 'lobbying' that the old guard must being doing at the moment must be amazing. They have a lot to lose - i.e. money for old rope.

---
Support Software Freedom - use GPL licenced software like Linux and LibreOffice instead of proprietary software like Microsoft Windows/Office or Apple OS/X

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Catholics and the Openness Revolution
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 04:41 AM EDT

I recently came across some documents regarding the importance of open formats for the Catholic Church. In short, the argument comes down to:

  • The Catholic Church wants its documents (e.g. the Bible, but others as well) to be accessible to as many people as possible.
  • Especially the poor
  • Therefore, the documents must be in non-proprietary, widely accessible formats
  • Such formats should not require expensive software to read

It's also described as an ethical, not a technical, problem.

More details here

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

A Saudi Arabia Telecom's Surveillance Pitch
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 07:22 AM EDT
http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/saudi-surveillance/

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The Reg takes Sundar Pichai's WAY out of context
Authored by: ukjaybrat on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 07:55 AM EDT
Reg Link Apparently saying that he wants to improve something, means that it is a complete mess. The author then goes on in gritty detail about every little thing he dislikes about android and how it works. Yes some things are flaws in an otherwise young operating system, but somethings like fragmentation are not Google or Android's fault.

---
IANAL

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Prenda Law - Here they go again
Authored by: complex_number on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 11:24 AM EDT
yro.slashdot.ord

Not content with trying to extort money from end users with just the flimsiest bit of evidence (if any), Prenda Law have taken another leaf out of the 'SCO, how to keep suing with no evidence' manual.

Now they are going to ask your neighbors if they have downloaded some copyrighted material using your Internet connection.

I really hope the FEDS put a stop to this quickly and bang them up for a really long time. Then these sorry excuses for lawyers will see what real porn is.

---
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 | # ]

MS reads all your skype according to Heise
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 12:00 PM EDT
Title says it all.

Link via google translate

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&
;hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2Fnewsticker%2Fme
ldung%2FVorsicht-beim-Skypen-Microsoft-liest-mit-1857620.html

For our German speakers the original

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Vorsicht-beim-Skypen-Microsoft-liest-mit-
1857620.html

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

So This Is How It Begins: Guy Refuses to Stop Drone-Spying on Seattle Woman
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 12:05 PM EDT
Walk onto someone's lawn and you're trespassing; fly over it in a helicopter and you're in the clear -- "the air is a public highway," the Supreme Court declared in 1946. But what about the in-between space?

Does the availability of unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones, aka UAVs) throw a wrench in the old legal understandings?

Well, here's where the rubber meets the road for this abstract line of questioning.

Rebecca J. Rosen, The Atlantic

[---]

United States v. Causby - 328 U.S. 256 (1946)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Executive Order initiates Open Data requirement for US government
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 12:56 PM EDT
default to open data

Now to see if this one will survive the presidency that issued it. Many EOs do not.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Ok, this is clearly a microsoft plot...
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 04:45 PM EDT
...the NTSB recommending lowering the legal BAC just as firefox turns 21

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

MS insists W8 customer satisfaction is strong
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 09:46 PM EDT
A Microsoft executive insisted that “customer satisfaction” with the new offering “is strong” while also conceding that “the learning curve is definitely real”. (Translation: customers are tearing out their hair and scattering it on the keyboard.)
...
The company’s revenues have nearly tripled under Mr Ballmer, from $25.3 billion in 2001 to $73.7 billion in 2012. This suggests that he will not be leaving any time soon.
The Economist

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

So could I log on to GNOME or XFCE or anything via the login manager? New Ubuntu say No?
Authored by: SilverWave on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 04:50 AM EDT
Link < br>
Switching Sessions

One of the advantages of free software is that one can select the desktop environment in the login manager. This looks like no longer be possible in a Mir world. Unity will run with a Mir system compositor with LightDM nested underneath. We will need either the X Server or a Wayland system compositor. So from the login manager it will not be possible to start directly into a session using a different system compositor. How will it continue to be possible to use both Unity and KDE Plasma on the same system? Running a Unity and a KDE Plasma (or GNOME or XFCE or anything) session at the same time seems to no longer be possible.


This would be a problem for me. Maybe a move to XFCE would be in order...hmm

---
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 | # ]

  • Ubuntu goes the same way as SuSE - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 09:59 AM EDT
  • Why? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 12:26 PM EDT
    • Why? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 11:36 PM EDT
! Happy Anniversary Groklaw - 10 Years of Awesomw !
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 08:07 AM EDT
Friday, May 16 2003 @ 03:22 PM EDT
http://groklawstatic.ibiblio.org/article.php%3fstory=3

What do you mean I'm a day early - check the clocks in New Zealand ;)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Windows 8 fiasco turns Windows evangelists against Ballmer
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 10:22 AM EDT
Link

Another user is calling for Ballmer’s ouster. If Steve full approved of Windows 8, I’d fire him immediately. It shows a total lack of judgement.”

A bit of a stretch, but funny anyway.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Windows 8, final conclusions...
Authored by: Gringo_ on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 10:57 AM EDT
There has been endless discussion and criticism of Windows 8. Now with over a year of perspective behind us we get a very clear and sober final judgement from Jason Hiner, the Editor in Chief of TechRepublic. An excellent read

.

"Windows 8 on the desktop will not take off until the Metro 'toy' interface becomes an option as provided by the superb 'Classic Shell' software (or gets ditched altogether). Corporations do not want to pay the MASSIVE bill for retraining users to use something which basically is rubbish."

Windows 8 was incredibly late to market. When it finally arrived, it was a big fail. By the time it was released, the competition was already on to 2nd and 3rd generation tablets. Windows 8.1, which will supposedly have "the big fix" won't see final release until the fall. By then, the competition will be several generations ahead of Microsoft. Meanwhile, whatever Microsoft does to fix it, I bet the Metro interface will remain as ugly as ever, a constant reminder of failed solution.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Microsoft ignores youtubes terms of service
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 05:52 PM EDT
I like the idea of a YouTube player without
adds... and ms does not want to show google
ads on thier winphone os.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/15/google-
asks-microsoft-remove-wp-youtube-app/?
utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm
_campaign=Engadget

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Google to Microsoft: pull YouTube app
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 07:02 PM EDT
"YouTube only recently came to Windows Phone 8 as a full-fledged app, but its availability may be short-lived. According to documents obtained by The Verge, Google has requested that Microsoft remove the app from it Windows Phone Store -- and disable installations on devices -- immediately." link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Microsoft an enabler in piracy?
Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 09:22 PM EDT
Link

We recently became aware of a Microsoft-authored YouTube application for Windows Phone 8 available at [redacted]. It appears that the application: (1) allows users to download videos from YouTube; (2) prevents the display of advertisements in YouTube video playbacks; and (3) plays videos that our partners have restricted from playback on certain platforms (e.g., mobile devices with limited feature sets). These features directly harm our content creators and clearly violate our Terms of Service. We request that you immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013.

---

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

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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