NotesBut Judge Alsup wasn’t convinced. He told the court he had learned to code in Java for the trial — implying that he knew other languages as well — and he said that he had written some of the infringing code at least a hundred times since Oracle filed its suit in August 2010. “I can do it. You can do it. It’s so simple,” he said, adding that it takes less than five minutes. Then looked directly at Boies. “You’re one of the best lawyers in America — how can you make that argument?” he demanded.Unfurl
NotesThe last couple of days, there's been a fair amount of blogosphere angst over Coding Horror's "Please Don't Learn to Code." Ironically, the best argument for learning to code appeared this morning, when it turned out that Judge William Alsup in the Google case could program, and learned Java in the course of the trial, and wasn't going for Oracle's claim that a short range-checking function was days of work. Alsup recognized immediately (and says he wrote the function hundreds of times during the course of the trial) that it's just a few minutes work for a competent programmer.FeedUnfurl
NotesGibbs is the first woman in Mississippi to be charged with murder relating to the loss of her unborn baby. But her case is by no means isolated. Across the US more and more prosecutions are being brought that seek to turn pregnant women into criminals.Unfurl
Notes A broad interpretation of SOPA's anti-circumvention language would sweep even more broadly than Tor. Software such as VPNs, used by security-conscious businesses, can also "bypass" a SOPA-established blockade. So could DNS software. And even the humble "/etc/hosts" file, part of every major operating system including OS X, Linux, and Windows, can be pressed into service as a SOPA-bypasser as well. FeedUnfurl
Notes How much has it cost the entertainment industry to convince Rep Lamar Smith to introduce and ram through SOPA, which will cost the American economy billions, which will nuke the games, microprocessor, search, and other high tech companies in his Texas district? A mere $50K a year for 10 years. You know, it's one thing to be a sellout; but to sell out so cheaply -- man, have some self-respect. (via /.) Unfurl
NotesRemix culture is the new Prohibition, with massive media companies as the lone voices calling for temperance. You can criminalize commonplace activities from law-abiding people, but eventually, something has to give.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesIt is far past due that the copyright industry is stripped of its nobility benefits, every part of its governmental weekly allowance, and gets kicked out of its comfy chair to get a damn job and learn to compete on a free and honest market.Unfurl
NotesOne of the big surprises this week was that the normally "maximalist" organization, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) -- basically the RIAA of software -- did an abrupt and unexpected turnaround on SOPA. While it had been close to gushing in its initial support, it backed that down quite a bit, noting that the bill would likely have unintended consequences that needed to be dealt with. Behind that shift? Apparently Microsoft. Microsoft, who has been quite aggressive on copyright (and patent) enforcement lately, has always publicly supported these bills, in contrast to nearly all of the rest of the tech industry. However, even it appears to recognize that SOPA goes way too far, and apparently had a little discussion with the BSA about backing down. FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesA group that represents a number of major software developers, including Microsoft, Adobe, and CA, has withdrawn its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill, which would require Internet companies and other players in the tech ecosystem to deny services to suspected software pirates and copyright violators. Unfurl
NotesSan Francisco, California: The US State Department is once again undermining its own Internet Freedom Initiative - this time by giving the green light to a copyright bill that will adversely affect online free speech around the world.FeedUnfurl
NotesIt’s a tough situation: On the one hand, being able to crack full disk encryption is vital for the prosecution of white-collar criminals, child porn ringleaders, pharmaceutical spam barons, and the curtailment of terrorism — but on the other, it’s quite satisfying to know that, perhaps at long last, we have a way of escaping the ireful eye of Big Brother. Where do you stand on FDE?Unfurl
Notes Responding to an intervention by EDRi (video, speech (PDF) at a hearing recently on attacks against computer systems, the European Parliament today adopted, by a large majority, a resolution on the upcoming EU/US summit stressing “the need to protect the integrity of the global internet and freedom of communication by refraining from unilateral measures to revoke IP addresses or domain names.” Unfurl
Notes Washington, D.C. – Today the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Since Rep. Zoe Lofgren was not permitted to deliver her opening statement at the hearing, it appears below in full. Unfurl
NotesI recognize that all of the posts today have been about SOPA and the House Judiciary Committee hearings on SOPA. Some of you liked this. Some of you did not. We've never done anything like that before, focusing just on one issue for the entire day, but it is a big issue, one that I feel strongly about, one that I think impacts all of you... and one that there was a lot going on about.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesThe US Department of Justice wants to make it a federal crime to violate the “terms of service” of any website, reports Declan McCullagh at CNet. According to this interpretation, breaching the terms of service of websites — which can be done by simply using a fake name on Facebook, lying about your weight on a dating site, or using Google if you’re under the age of 18 — could make you a criminal.FeedUnfurl
NotesThis morning, EFF’s staff and concerned netizens across the country tuned into the live webcast of the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261). At least we tried to. Unfortunately, we were confronted with an incredibly poor webcast stream for much of the hearing. We find it ironic and deeply concerning that Congress is unable to successfully stream video of an event this important to all Internet users, even as they are debating a dangerous plan to change the Internet in fundamental ways and deputize Internet intermediaries to act like content police.Unfurl
NotesHead to Tumblr right now and log into your Dashboard. You’ll find that your stream of content has been replaced with censorship blocks — with a link at the top of the page prompting users to Stop The Law That Will Censor The Internet. Click the link, and you’ll be prompted to enter your phone number and street address. Tumblr will then call you to run through some talking points and tell you how to call your House Representative.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesWe already know that today's SOPA hearings for the House Judiciary Committee are totally stacked in favor of the bill. But with the hearings getting underway, we wanted to dive in and look at what's about to be said. Most of the testimony leaked out yesterday, allowing us to spend some time going through it -- it's all embedded below. However, here's a taste of what's going to be said... with some additional commentary (of course). FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes In reality though, most of the large tech companies that exist today were once very small and very fragile. If SOPA was in place, those companies would have never grown up, since the two guys in a garage would have required four lawyers to survive. Dropbox is a perfect example. Created by some college students, the company provides shared online storage space for a fee. Under SOPA, the company would have been cut off from its revenues as soon as a single accusation was made that it was hosting copyrighted material. As a small company this could have been crippling. Today though, I know that Dropbox is one of the most popular tools in the movie industry, since it allows easy sharing of new daily shots, music cues, draft movie posters and more. The innovative tech companies of the future will be extinguished before they have a chance to even get out the door. FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesDodd, a Connecticut Democrat who served three decades in the Senate, is looking for a win in his new role as head of the MPAA, which grew powerful in Washington under the 38-year leadership of Jack Valenti, a onetime aide to Lyndon Johnson. The group’s members include Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Viacom Inc. (VIA/B)’s Paramount Pictures, Sony Corp. (6758), News Corp. (NWSA), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC Universal and Time Warner Inc. (TWX)’s Warner Bros. Unfurl
NotesThis Wednesday, November 16, the disastrous "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) heads to the House Judiciary committee. In case you need a refresher, SOPA could allow the U.S. government and private corporations to create a blacklist of censored websites, and cut many more off from their ad networks and payment providers. This bill is bad news, and its supporters are trying to push it through before ordinary citizens realize just how much damage it can cause.Unfurl
NotesThe bill is, by nearly any sane measure, overreaching and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says that the bill targets Mozilla specifically for refusing to comply with Homeland Security's ICE unit.Unfurl
NotesThe Health Department didn’t show up when I made dinner for my neighbors last night. Fortunately, our health and safety laws don’t usually dictate how we prepare food in our personal and private realms. But humans have a natural tendency, an urge to feed each other, and the shareable food movement is taking that to new levels - levels that bring up some legal curiosities. Unfurl
NotesIn this new bill, Hollywood has expanded its censorship ambitions. No longer content to just blacklist entries in the Domain Name System, this version targets software developers and distributors as well. It allows the Attorney General (doing Hollywood or trademark holders' bidding) to go after more or less anyone who provides or offers a product or service that could be used to get around DNS blacklisting orders. This language is clearly aimed at Mozilla, which took a principled stand in refusing to assist the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to censor the domain name system, but we are also concerned that it could affect the open source community, internet innovation, and software freedom more broadly:Unfurl
NotesWhen I went to Washington DC a few weeks ago with other entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, one of those whom I had the pleasure of meeting and walking the halls of Congress with was David Ulevitch, the CEO of OpenDNS, the world's largest DNS and internet security service. His service protects over 30 million people every day, and is currently used to protect people in approximately one-third of every public K-12 school. Hearing his story and his concerns about PROTECT IP and SOPA was really eye-opening. He's someone who clearly understands DNS and DNS/IP blocking better than probably anyone. And he told me that if SOPA were in place when he was first creating OpenDNS, he wouldn't have bothered. The liability would be just too great. FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesImagine a car thief who, when caught driving a stolen Lexus, tells the police he simply stepped into the wrong car and drove off by mistake. Now imagine he tells the same story when, two years later, he’s caught screaming over the GW bridge in a stolen Mercedes.Unfurl
Notes<blockquote>The 25-year-old resident of San Jose, California, says he found the first one about three weeks ago on his Volvo SUV while visiting his mother in Modesto, about 80 miles northeast of San Jose. After contacting Wired and allowing a photographer to snap pictures of the device, it was swapped out and replaced with a second tracking device. A witness also reported seeing a strange man looking beneath the vehicle of the young man’s girlfriend while her car was parked at work, suggesting that a tracking device may have been retrieved from her car.</blockquote>
I wonder what kind of hubbub it would cause if someone put a tracker in the tracker and figured out where it went when it got retrieved?Unfurl
Notes<blockquote>TL;DR - I handed out flyers. The bankers panicked and called their private security people, then more private security and finally the cops. That's when they found out that they didn't have a leg to stand on</blockquote>
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NotesCharles Stross was right. "with Release 33-9117, the SEC is considering substitution of Python or another programming language for legal English as a basis for some of its regulations."Unfurl
Notes"if you are having product made in China with your name on it, you had better register your trademark in China, even if (especially if?) your China presence is through a third party. "Unfurl
NotesThere should be an equal and opposite reaction to penalize "The System" when it gets it this wrong - try to compensate this man. "Even in this environment of prosecutorial excess, Oei's case stands out as likely the first to entangle an adult who came in possession of an image that even police admit wasn't pornographic, and who did so simply in the course of doing his job."Unfurl
Notes"A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution. ... Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking."Unfurl
Notes"To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service..." Repeatedly reintroduced apparently to prove a point.Unfurl
Notes"Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license."Unfurl
Notes"In a recent office action, the USPTO has rejected the claims of the Amazon.com one-click patent following the re-examination request that I filed on 16 February 2006. "Unfurl
Notes"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, enacted in 1998, set out a notification procedure that can be used to request an ISP to remove allegedly infringing material from a web page. However, there is a defense against this attack"Unfurl
Constitutional Myth #6: The Second Amendment Allows Citizens to Threaten Government - The Atlantic
Groklaw - Day 23, From the Courtroom: Oracle v. Google Trial - Jury: No Patent Infringement ~pj Updated 2Xs
A federal judge learned to code - O'Reilly Radar
How SOPA's 'circumvention' ban could put a target on Tor | Privacy Inc. - CNET News
No Copyright Intended - Waxy.org
The Copyright Industry – A Century Of Deceit | TorrentFreak
Microsoft's Cold Feet Over SOPA Behind BSA's 'Rethinking' Its Views | Techdirt
US State Department not for internet freedom - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Zoe Lofgren - Lofgren Opening Statement on SOPA
Lying on the Internet could soon be a federal crime
Internet Community Shut Out of Stop Online Piracy Act Hearing - Again | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Tumblr Takes Fight Against SOPA Up A Notch, ‘Censors’ User Dashboards | TechCrunch
Hollywood's New War on Software Freedom and Internet Innovation | Electronic Frontier Foundation
End the Patent Wars
DNA Lounge: he State of California considers @dnalounge "a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals"
Homeland Security: Rethinking What Works : NPR
Do-It-Yourself Counter Notification Letter