Frankly Speaking: The 8 Hot-Button Issues to Watch in '08
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| Patents, patents everywhere. And not just Microsoft’s saber-rattling at
| Linux, or the endless patent lawsuits against IT and wireless vendors. Patent
| holders are now trying to control whether customers can resell equipment, who
| can repair it and what it can be connected to. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme
| Court will rule on those questions, which affect everything in IT from
| whether toner cartridges can be refilled to how much we can mix and match
| technologies. Stay tuned.
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http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=roi&articleId=308184&taxonomyId=74&intsrc=kc_feat
Is 2008 to be RIAA’s death knell?
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| With the latest tactic by the RIAA to target universities, colleges and the
| students at these bastions of higher education they have tried everything
| from manipulating Congress into creating laws forcing educational
| institutions to play along with the RIAA or have funding cut to threatening
| wholesale lawsuits against students.
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http://www.winextra.com/2007/12/29/is-2008-to-be-riaas-death-knell/
Free movies already up on the Web (public domain):
http://www.publicdomainflicks.com/
Related:
Sun exec accuses Microsoft of 'patent terrorism'
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| The efforts of Microsoft to pressure the Linux community over alleged and
| unspecified patents is akin to "patent terrorism", according to a local
| executive for Sun Microsystems.
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http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Sun-exec-accuses-Microsoft-of-patent-terrorism-/0,130061733,339280437,00.htm
Microsoft, the art of Corporate Terrorism.
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| Microsoft, no longer the technological leader in the Computer Desktop
| market, is taking on a terrorist role in its attempt remain in power
| at all costs. (see the link to the CNN story below)
|
| The tactic is intended to frighten current, and would be, free
| software users away from products that Microsoft just can't compete
| with. It's not a new tactic, but for the first time desperation is
| beginning to show.
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http://sweetcomputing.com/index.php?wiki=Microsoft_Terrorism
Convicted Monopolist Terrorizes Software Industry
,----[ Quote ]
| That headline is designed to grab your attention. Sensationalistic as
| it may be, it also happens to be true, if what you mean by 'terrorize'
| is to provoke fear.
|
| If you've been following the presidential race in the United States,
| you know the present crop of candidates have been exploiting the fear
| of the American people as they never have before in the history of
| the country.
`----
http://www.linux.org/news/opinion/ms_threats.html
Big businesses boast of patent benefits, for small businesses
,----[ Quote ]
| A report published by an EU task force on intellectual property claims
| that small businesses benefit from a patent system, despite lacking
| almost any participation by the small business community.
|
| Instead, the report, titled IPR (intellectual property rights) for
| competitiveness and innovation, was written up almost entirely by
| large corporations and the patent industry.
|
| [...]
|
| The report does note objections from the likes of patentfrei.de and
| Sun Microsystems, which were recorded at some length in the report.
| But this does not appear to have impacted the conclusion of the
| report in any way
|
| [...]
|
| Jean-Pierre Laisne, of ObjectWeb, an open source software community,
| said that he found the report useless: participants were told that
| all their contributions would be recorded but at the end only
| those of Business Software Alliance and Microsoft were used.
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/99155/big-businesses-boast-of-patent-benefits-for-small-businesses.html
A Patent Lie
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| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented,
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of
| our profits as they want."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html
Who is the world's biggest patent troll?
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| In two consecutive days, The Wall Street Journal presented two different
| answers. The first is not surprising: Intellectual Ventures, the brainchild
| of ex-Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold. It's now out "to raise as much as
| $1 billion to help develop and patent inventions, many of them from
| universities in Asia."
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9816163-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Playing Microsoft Patent Poker
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| This time though, while Ballmer slinks away to try to con … convince people
| that Microsoft Unified Communications somehow offers people more than what
| Cisco's VOIP (voice over IP) been offering customers for years, a patent
| attack finally launches at Linux. Specifically, IP Innovation, a subsidiary
| of Acacia Technologies Group, has filed a patent infringement claim against
| Linux distributors Novell and Red Hat.
|
| So was it just timing, or was it something more? Let's take a look at the
| players.
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http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2201579,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
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