Cingular Seeks to Patent Smileys
“According to recently released documents, Cingular applied provisionally for patents of shortcut steps used to transmit emoticons in 2004. Six months later, in March 2005, the company filed a claim to patent “a method and system for generating a displayable icon or emoticon form.”
“Cingular is the second major company to apply for patents for technology relating to emoticons, which are so common as punctuation marks in electronic communication that trying to patent them almost seems like trying to copyright a speech tic.”
Maria Aspan. Cingular Seeks Patent on Icons in Text Messages. The New York Times. Feb. 6, 2006.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Public Knowledge Director Urges Web Regulation
“As Congress begins writing new telecom legislation, a big question is whether Internet users will have the same broad freedom to access applications and content as before, or whether their online experience will be controlled by companies supplying your Net access.
“Those seeking to preserve this freedom are asking Congress to codify “Net neutrality.” Those seeking to control the Internet dismiss it as unprecedented regulation of the Internet.
“But the dirty little secret is that without regulation, the vital Internet we know today would never have developed. Most of the rhetoric over the past few years has painted a much different picture–that the lack of regulation was crucial to the Internet’s development.”
Gigi Sohn. Perspective: Don’t Blow It, Congress. News.com. Feb. 6, 2006.
See also:
Public Knowledge. Good Fences Make Bad Broadband: Preserving an Open Internet through Net Neutrality. Feb. 6, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Yahoo, AOL Crack Net Neutrality
America Online and Yahoo, two of the world’s largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely.
The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services. Thy also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted.
But critics of the plan say that the two companies risk alienating both their users and the companies that send e-mail. The system will apply not only to mass mailings but also to individual commercial messages like order confirmations from online stores and customized low-fare notices from airlines.
Saul Hansell. Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail. The New York Times. Feb. 5, 2006.
Update:
John C. Dvorak. Paid E-Mail and the Road to Perdition. PCMag.com. Feb. 6, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
ALA Releases 2006 Copyright Agenda
The American Library Association, by far this country’s largest library representative organization, has released its 2006 Copyright Agenda. The Agenda notes several initiatives with which ALA is involved, including the Section 108 Study Group, the Family and Entertainment Copyright Act of 2005, and the broadcast flag initiatives.
Interestingly, there is no mention of a database protection initiative on the chart. Granted, database protection has been a hard sell in the United States. But with the 15th anniversary of the Feist decision approaching late next month, I am surprised ALA omits this as something that is on its radar.
Currently, I am writing an article on the Feist decision and the current state of database protection initiatives. The article will include some theories why such legislation has yet to become law, and hypothesize about how such legislation could get the support of one of this country’s best known technology companies.
American Library Association. 2006 Copyright Agenda. (.pdf, 43 KB) January 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Google Book Search Under U.S. & U.K. Law
“This article examines the legality of Google’s Library Project under U.S. and U.K. copyright law. The Library Project provides a useful example of the divergence in approach to copyright exceptions in these two jurisdictions. In particular, whilst Google’s plans have generated a great deal of controversy, it at least has an arguable case under U.S. law that its use is fair use. No analogous argument can be made under U.K law. The main purpose of this article is to highlight this distinction and to suggest that U.K copyright law is failing to adequately account for transformations in the mode and manner in which individuals interact with information.”
Paul Ganley. Google Book Search: Fair Use, Fair Dealing and the Case for Intermediary Copying. Social Science Research Network. Jan. 13, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Google Book Search Under U.S. & U.K. Law
“This article examines the legality of Google’s Library Project under U.S. and U.K. copyright law. The Library Project provides a useful example of the divergence in approach to copyright exceptions in these two jurisdictions. In particular, whilst Google’s plans have generated a great deal of controversy, it at least has an arguable case under U.S. law that its use is fair use. No analogous argument can be made under U.K law. The main purpose of this article is to highlight this distinction and to suggest that U.K copyright law is failing to adequately account for transformations in the mode and manner in which individuals interact with information.”
Paul Ganley. Google Book Search: Fair Use, Fair Dealing and the Case for Intermediary Copying. Social Science Research Network. Jan. 13, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Linux Inventor Open to DRM
“Provisions against digital rights management in a draft update to the General Public License could undermine computer security, Linus Torvalds said this week in e-mails reflecting the Linux leader’s pragmatic philosophy.
“The Free Software Foundation is in the process of revising the GPL, a seminal document that not only governs thousands of open-source projects but also functions as the constitution of the free software movement. One of the major new provisions in the proposed GPL version 3 is designed to prevent use of GPL software in conjunction with digital rights management. DRM technology does everything from encrypting movies and music to permitting only a digitally signed software to run on a specific computing device.
“Torvalds gave some examples of areas where he believes it’s appropriate for secret digital keys to be used to sign software, or for a computer to run only software versions that have this digital signature to assure they’re authorized.”
Stephen Shankland. Torvalds Says DRM Isn’t Necessarily Bad. News.com. Feb. 3, 2006.
See also:
Joe Barr. Torvalds Versus GPLv3 DRM Restrictions. News Forge. Feb. 2, 2006.
Stephen Shankland. Torvalds: No GPL 3 for Linux. News.com. Jan. 26, 2006.
Martin LaMonica. New Open-Source License Targets DRM, Hollywood. News.com. Jan. 18, 2006.
Updates:
Daniel Lyons. Linux Licensing. Forbes.com. March 9, 2006. (“That first draft of GPL v. 3 is unacceptable to me,” said Linus Torvalds, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t come to some agreement. Now, the FSF and I tend to have very different priorities, so such an agreement is not guaranteed. But it’s definitely not out of the question either.”)
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
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