Slashdot Mirror

brennan73 writes "eCompany.com has posted an article called "Boo! And the 100 Other Dumbest Moments in e-Business History". There's some pretty good stuff in there, but I particularly enjoyed revisiting the predictions of how sites like BBQ.com were going to change the world. My personal favorite quote, from Henry Blodget of CIBC Oppenheimer: 'Unlike with other famous bubbles ... the Internet bubble is riding on rock-solid fundamentals, perhaps stronger than any the market has seen before.' Um..."

slantyyz writes "Here's an interesting article in eCompany that talks about a company named TechSearch that buys patents for very common innovations and then chases infringers. One of the patents these guys own involves a remote server compressing and decompressing files. This one is so broad that anyone using a web server/browser is an infringer. Some companies, including United Airlines and Sara Lee have paid the license fees to avoid the legal hassles and costs. They have even chased a known patent critic for infringing (because he has a web site, which infringes on the patent). This software patent silliness has just got to stop. Only in America..."

We've been choking on submissions about Napster and MP3 so here's a selection of them: Alexander Burke shared this ZDNet Article about how TVT Records (the fine folks who bring you Snoop Dogg) is getting into the let's-sue-Napster game. Borodir wrote in about how Suzanne Vega influenced the mp3 compression format, and Slashdot reader Napster Online told us about the Salon interview with Napster iCEO Hank Barry. Here's an editorial by John Perry Barlow about the whole Napster mess and a finally a ZD UK story about MP3 pirates going to jail in the future.