Desire2Blog: Sakai Seems to Think It’s Over:

Maybe Sakai thinks they are finished with this thing, but I’m pretty sure that D2L, SFLC, Blackboard, and all the other players are expecting it to continue on for quite some time. It could very well be that their input from this point forward will be minimal or less. However, their press announcement makes it sound like the whole thing is over. Clearly, that is not the case.

While I’ve not been directly involved in the D2L/Blackboard patent or legal proceedings, I did want to chime in. Many schools that I’ve talked too (and I think the gist of what Michael’s comments reflected) while they recognize that the legal process will drag on for quite a long time, see the likely invalidation as a huge step. Much of the uncertainty expressed by some of our members, or people we’ve talked with recently has been eased, now that the legal shadow looks likely to be removed.

Having said that, Barry is right to point out that this case isn’t over, and I’m sure our edupatents crusaders would be quick to point out that even after this case is over, this particular wave is unlikely to recede any time soon.

Update: Michael Feldstein covered this situation, and how the process is related in terms of Sakai, SFLC, and others in his usual impressive detail.

We made (and the seller accepted) an offer on a house today. 4 Bedrooms, a basement for the kiddies — promoting sanity for the parents, and a 15 person hot tub are the highlights. Of course, now the real work of actually getting the details, legal, financing, and other bits worked out starts but it’s an exciting (and scary) time in the Shao household!

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Staffordshire | Teenager sues over porn picture

This BBC article has a note about a photo that a British teenage posted on the internet was snapped up and used on the cover of an adult DVD. Adding insult to injury though, is the company’s response to the girl’s outrage over usage of her image (from the article):

She said she had e-mailed TVX and was told that her photo was “to blame” for the DVD’s poor sales.

(Via BBC News.)

baltimoresun.com – A tale of customer service, justice and currency as funny as a $2 bill

PUT YOURSELF in Mike Bolesta’s place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher’s car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta’s idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too. For this, Bolesta, Baltimore County resident, innocent citizen, owner of Capital City Student Tours, finds himself under arrest.

Interesting thing is I wonder how many people do remember that 2 dollar bills are legal.

.: Snoop Dogg – Tha Shizzolator :.

Give it a URL to see what the page would look like if Snoop Dogg was saying it.

Load this page to see what “the Underware goes Outside the Pants” would sound like from Snoop.

Why is marijuana not legal? Why is marijuana not legal? It’s a natural plant that grows in the dirt. Do you know what’s not natural? 80 year old dudes with hard-ons. That’s not natural. But we got pills for that. We’re dedicating all our medical resources to keeping the old guys erect, but we’re putting people in jail for something that grows in the dirt?

You know we have more prescription drugs now. Every commercial that comes on TV is a prescription drug ad. I can’t watch TV for four minutes without thinking I have five serious diseases. Like: “Do you ever wake up tired in the morning?” Oh my god I have this, write this down. Whatever it is, I have it. Half the time I don’t even know what the commercial is… people running in fields or flying kites or swimming in the ocean. I’m like that is the greatest disease ever. How do you get that? That disease comes with a hot chick and a puppy.

The schools now… It is all about self-esteem in the schools now. Build the kids’ self-esteem, make them feel good about themselves. If everybody grows up with high self-esteem, who is going to dance in our strip clubs? What’s going to happen to our porno industry? These women don’t just grown on trees. It takes lots of drunk dads missing dance recitals before you decide to blow a goat on the internet for fifty bucks. And if that disappears, where does that leave me on a Friday night with my new high speed connection?

Masterminds are another word that comes up all the time. You keep hearing about these terrorists masterminds that get killed in the middle east. Terrorists masterminds. Mastermind is sort of a lofty way to describe what these guys do, don’t you think? They’re not masterminds. “OK, you take bomb, right? And you put in your backpack. And you get on bus and you blow yourself up. Alright?” “Why do I have to blow myself up? Why can’t I just…” “Who’s the fucking mastermind here? Me or you?”

Americans, let’s face it: We’ve been a spoiled country for a long time. Do you know what the number one health risk in America is? Obesity. They say we’re in the middle of an obesity epidemic. An epidemic like it is polio. Like we’ll be telling our grand kids about it one day. The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004. “How’d you get through it grandpa?” “Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere.”

Nobody knows why were getting fatter? Look at our lifestyle. I’ll sit at a drive thru. I’ll sit there behind fifteen other cars instead of getting up to make the eight foot walk to the totally empty counter. Everything is mega meal, super sized. Want biggie fries, super sized, want to go large. You want to have thirty burgers for a nickel you fat mother fucker. There’s room in the back. Take it! Want a 55 gallon drum of Coke with that? It’s only three more cents.

Sometimes you have to suffer a little bit in your youth to motivate yourself to succeed in later life. Do you think if Bill Gates got laid in high school, do you think there’d be a Microsoft? Of course not. You got to spend a long time in your own locker with your underwear shoved up your ass before you start to think, “You’ll see. I’m going to take of the world of computers! I’ll show them.”

We’re in one of the richest countries in the world, but the minimum wage is lower than it was thirty five years ago. There are homeless people everywhere. This homeless guy asked me for money the other day. I was about to give it to him and then I thought he was going to use it on drugs or alcohol. And then I thought, that’s what I’m going to use it on. Why am I judging this poor bastard. People love to judge homeless guys. Like if you give them money they’re just going to waste it. Well, he lives in a box, what do you want him to do? Save it up and buy a wall unit? Take a little run to the store for a throw rug and a CD rack? He’s homeless. I walked behind this guy the other day. A homeless guy asked him for money. He looks right at the homeless guy and says why don’t you go get a job you bum. People always say that to homeless guys like it is so easy. This homeless guy was wearing his underwear outside his pants. Outside his pants. I’m guessing his resume isn’t all up to date. I’m predicting some problems during the interview process. I’m pretty sure even McDonalds has a “underwear goes inside the pants” policy. Not that they enforce it really strictly, but technically I’m sure it is on the books.

A 16-year-old was arrested early Wednesday in a theater showing ‘Spider-man 2′ after a projectionist using night vision goggles saw him using a camcorder to make an illegal copy of the superhero sequel.

Pretty amazing to think that NVGs are so inexpensive that even movie theatres can give them out now. I wonder how long until the military faces guerilla enemies with a stock of NVGs, GPS, and all our other cool toys.

assuming that the unconfirmed reports are accurate, we have here a media company infecting users’ machines silently with a file that affects a computer’s functionality, without first obtaining informed consent: a likely violation of pretty much every jurisdiction’s anti-hacking laws. It’s possible to foresee criminal charges being brought at some point: after all, having a good reason for spreading malware has never been much of a defence in court. And a file that alters a computer’s functioning without the owner’s informed consent is the very definition of malware. Because this malware can be transferred from machine to machine on a removable disk, and requires user interaction to spread, it is, quite simply, a computer virus. (A worm, on the other hand, is distinguished by its ability to spread without user interaction.)

It does seem deceptive for companies to limit the functionality of something they’re selling you without making it clear to the consumer before purchase. I wonder if the actions taken by this CD are close enough to the legal definition of a virus to enable some kind of lawsuit.

The New York Times – Administration Sides With Bells on Lease Discounts for Rivals

bq. The administration’s decision, which was announced in a legal case making its way to the Supreme Court, followed fierce lobbying and hardball tactics. Rivals of the Bells have threatened the administration that they intend to run television advertisements in swing political states accusing the White House of being responsible for higher telephone rates. For their part, the Bell companies have pledged not to raise rates before the November elections.

It doesn’t seem like changing the wholesale access rules would really effect the competitive marketplace. While there are some players that have entered the local market ( “(extlink)AT&T”:www.att.com and “(extlink)IDT”:http://www.idt.com for example ), the real competitive pressures on the local bells seem to be cable, wireless, and VOIP providers like “(extlink)Vonage”:http://www.vonage.com . Since changes to line leasing rules probably wouldn’t significantly affect either of these competitve threats, I doubt you’d really see enough decreased competitiveness to change rates.

p(update). “(extlink)Skype announced plans to connect to the PSTN”:http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1610074,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594 which only serves to highlight the number of new-technology phone competitors we’re seeing. Combined with technologies like IM and videoconferencing, I suspect we’ll only see more players coming out.

Geico sues Google, Overture over trademarks | CNET News.com

bq. Geico, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company owned by Warren Buffett, filed suit against Google and Yahoo-owned Overture on May 4, in federal court in Alexandria, Va. The insurer charged the two companies with infringing on its trademarks when they sold them as keywords to Geico’s rivals, so that the protected terms could appear in sponsored search results. According to the suit, that practice causes consumer confusion, in violation of the Lanham Act, the primary federal law covering trademark registration and protection.

It seems to me that this is going to far. If targeted search is illegal, than do copyright holders also have the right to prohibit people from recommending a product/service by saying “it’s just like X ?”

Consumers’ digital rights debated

This tape was purchased in Chinatown in Washington, D.C.,” he said, reading from its cover. He told the subcommittee that tools by 321 Studios LLC produced the tape, and he pointed to a warning label indicating that reproduction for commercial use is prohibited — drilling home his point that labels and good faith hardly prevent illegal sales of DVDs.

While Jack Valenti has a point that it is increasingly easy to obtain high-quality forgeries, I think he’s missing the gist of the communities arguements.

• Preventing piracy is not important enough to justify making it illegal to exercise fair use rights
• Industry claims of actual losses are exaggerated
• Industry pricing contributes to a great degree of piracy

My question is: If I’m truly just licensing the content on my DVD, why can’t I get a new one if I scratch it, for some reasonable $3-5 cost to cover the price of the physical media? Or, why can’t I rip my DVD to a portable iPod like device. Or keep a computer jukebox on my laptop?