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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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Equity Boom Built on Quicksand | 183 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Surface RT’s now-free keyboard nicely sums up Microsoft’s tablet failure
Authored by: DannyB on Monday, June 03 2013 @ 06:09 PM EDT
Surface RT’s now-free keyboard nicely sums up Microsoft’s tablet failure
In their latest bid to get anybody to buy a Windows RT tablet, Microsoft has turned in desperation to the worst option imaginable: it will sell a complete product without gouging its customers for a hundred (or so) extra dollars. For a “limited time” (likely ending whenever their internal threat level has decreased from red to orange) customers in the US and Canada can pick up a Surface RT tablet with a Touch or Type keyboard cover for no additional cost. Since the cover is one of Surface’s defining features, and one of the few that’s received near-universal praise, this move proves that corporate desperation really is the best thing for consumers.

. . . .

The question now is, if even this doesn’t make Surface RT into a real contender in the tablet space, what will Microsoft do?
Wow. Will Apple now follow this fantastic trend and include a bundled keyboard with every iPad?

No?

Doesn't Apple understand the value of what Microsoft is doing?

Or maybe Microsoft doesn't understand what Tablets essentially are and how people use them? Do you think that might be the case?

After all, Microsoft tried to sell tablet computers for a decade until Apple suddenly redefined a tablet as something that doesn't run Windows.

---
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

JOY! Joy! joy! The 500 ton Prenda Shoe Has Dropped
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 03 2013 @ 07:23 PM EDT
Tech Dirt is reporting a legal proceeding (for attorney's fees) with an
interesting affidavit.

It seems that there is evidence that Prenda uploaded the files that it accused
others of downloading.

A while back we were all celebrating Judge Wright's order, and I, curmudgeon
that I am, grumbled that Prenda was actually winning, because the demand letters
were still going out and the money coming in. Who cares about some judge
somewhere.

But now; NOW PRENDA IS DEAD.
DEAD.
DEAD.
DEAD.

Now there is probable cause for the criminal proceedings; the search warrents;
the grand juries.

(Whats the emoticon for dancing on the keyboard.)

No no, don't take my word for it, go to Techdirt.com and read the afffidavit.
Its not perfect, but its good for probable cause, and thats all that is needed.

If, like the cat here, your wondering why the gleeful noises; this is it:

ALLLL those letters, demanding money, are now, each of them, a crime. Think of
it, thousands of counts of extortion or fraud or both. Federal counts. Think
RICO.

And all of the evidence is sitting in Prenda's files, just waiting for the FBI
to collect it.

Because, since Prenda uploaded the bitorrent files, it is not a violation of
copyright, or a crime, to download them.

But it is a crime to demand money on false pretenses.

Schadenfreude is a sin. I should be ashamed of myself.
(Whats the emoticon for schadenfreude?)

Be advised:
I AM NOT A LAWYER, I DONT EVEN PLAY ONE ON TV
All content is the opinion of someone who doesn't know what he's typing about.
JG

PS: jiggedy jigggedy do.
(I can't dance either)

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Introducing Windows Red: A serious plan to fix Windows 8
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 03 2013 @ 07:33 PM EDT
Infoworld.com
Windows 8 is a big flop. Its Frankenstein interface combines two fundamentally incompatible operating systems (Windows 7 and Metro) with two interaction styles (mouse/keyboard and touch). Sadly, Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8.1 "Blue" doesn't address these fundamental flaws.

ROFL

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Equity Boom Built on Quicksand
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 03 2013 @ 08:41 PM EDT
Companies are borrowing cheap to buy back their own stock at nosebleed prices, and doing so en masse with the carefree abandon of those pre-Lehman days.
The Telegraph observes Wall Street's mentality deficit.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

California To Wal-Mart: Enough! No More Taxpayer Subsidized Profits For You
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 04 2013 @ 02:03 AM EDT
Legislation is now making its way through the California legislature—with the support of consumer groups, unions and, interestingly, physicians—that would levy a fine of up to $6,000 on employers like Wal-Mart for every full-time employee that ends up on the state’s Medi-Cal program—the California incarnation of Medicaid.

The amount of the fine is no coincidence.

A report [.PDF] released last week by the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, estimates that the cost of Wal-Mart’s failure to adequately pay its employees could total about $5,815 per employee each and every year of employment.

Rick Ungar, Forbes

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Supreme Court Favors Ex-Wife Over Widow In Battle For Life Insurance Proceeds
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 04 2013 @ 02:29 AM EDT
This case makes me wonder what the outcome would have been had it been presented as a 'states rights' issue.
Was the right question asked?

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." - Amendment X

---

Hillman’s policy was part of a life insurance program for federal employees, governed by the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Act of 1954. That law says that the proceeds on death are paid according to the beneficiary designation. (If for some reason, the employee hasn’t signed one, the law ranks other survivors in order of preference: the widow or widower; then children or other descendents; parents; the executor or administrator of the estate; and lastly other relatives.)

The Supreme Court found unanimously that this law trumps (“preempts” in legal lingo) Virginia law.

Deborah L. Jacobs, Forbes

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

found illegal Monsanto crop
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 04 2013 @ 05:25 AM EDT
http://forcechange.com/65882/condemn-discovery-of-illegal-genetically-engineered
-wheat-strain/

Who can then sue these bastards?

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Windows 8 continues to fail
Authored by: Gringo_ on Tuesday, June 04 2013 @ 08:18 AM EDT

Currently stats indicate Windows 8 lags behind even Vista's dismal market numbers... By ZDnet's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols.

Windows is on the decline no matter how measure it. Apple iOS and Android now have the lion's share of computing devices, including PCs, smartphones and tablets, with 65-percent share over Windows' 35-percent.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

President Obama Comes Out Strongly Against Patent Trolls; Here Are The Details
Authored by: DannyB on Tuesday, June 04 2013 @ 08:50 AM EDT
President Obama Comes Out Strongly Against Patent Trolls; Here Are The Details
And now, it's been reported that President Obama is going to come out strongly against patent trolling, directing the USPTO and others to fix certain issues, while also asking Congress to pass further laws to deal with patent trolling. The President will flat out note that patent trolls represent a "drain on the American economy." The announcement will directly say that "patent trolls" (yes, they use the phrase) are a problem, while also talking about the problem of patent thickets like the infamous "smartphone wars."
Maybe things really do change.

---
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

3 judges nominated for Federal Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 04 2013 @ 11:51 AM EDT
After the split decision in CLS v Alice these new nominees will decide the fate of software patents.

CBS News

----------------------
Steve Stites

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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