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This isn't about IP

Correct: it isn't about Internet Protocol, and patents and copyrights differ too much to be usefully lumped into a discussion of "intellectual property" in the abstract.

patents expire infinitely sooner

Patents are also stronger than copyrights in two ways that some believe compensates for their shorter term.

First, a patent encumbers everybody, not just persons who have had access to the subject of the exclusive right. A successful claim of copyright infringement requires the alleged infringer to have had access to the plaintiff's work. A successful claim of patent infringement, by contrast, does not require the alleged infringer to have had access to the plaintiff's invention.

Second, a patent covers a process no matter how it is expressed. A copyright, by contrast, covers only a particular expression of a process.

if the government actually gave a damn about authors, artists, or musicians instead maintaining the publishing industry, they could always write a law mandating (say) that author royalties be at least 25% of the retail price of the work

How would that work for a motion picture, which may have hundreds of contributors? Or would the author's 25% cut all go to a movie's producer?

I guess there's a few more steps...

http://copyright.nova.edu/cox-...

They don't notify you of most of the, but as a customer, it APPEARS to be a three strike policy.

Section 1983 liability, it is essential to emphasize, punishes only purposeful "deprivations" of constitutional rights. If a case involves only the negligent infliction of a legal wrong by a public official, administrator, employee, or agency, the action is governed by the Federal Tort Claims Act or a comparable state statute, which may create an exception (that is, a "waiver") to the traditional doctrine of sovereign immunity.

There are other remedies under Section 1983 (e.g. injunctions - an order of court directing the government to stop violating your rights), but damages only come from a knowing violation of your rights. And again, as here, where it takes an appeal to decide the law (note that the appeal actually overturned the ruling of the judge below - hence - showing the state of the law was genuinely in doubt) then the individual gov't agents are probably home free.

Remember, I'm not your lawyer. Your issue (if any) may have specific facts or circumstances that should be reviewed by an attorney retained for that purpose. I'm including this text to make it clear that I'm not giving you legal advice, just stating my view of the law. My state bar association recommends doing so to avoid giving the impressionism that I, as an attorney, have given you specific advice.

http://www.nova.edu/ocean/tire_reef_washpost.html

http://www.nova.edu/ocean/tire_reef_washpost.html

I suppose it would be, but I suspect that most people are at least somewhat organized when it comes to computer files...

Like this??

Please define "news for nerds".

This article is one the rare occations that /. is on topic with "News for Nerds".

Pick whichever one of these links you think most applies as "News for Nerds":

8th Computer Olympiad

-or-

NASA - News

-or-

Got That Quad Baby

--
[cue music]
One of these links is not like the others,
One of these links just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which link is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which link was not like the others?
Did you guess which link just doesn't belong?
If you guessed this one is not like the others,
Then you're absolutely...right!

I have taken the original MMPI before and I came out as normal on all the scales. I wonder if that should worry me. ;)

I have taken the original MMPI before and I came out as normal on all the scales. I wonder if that should worry me. ;)

see if this puts you to sleep. If you somehow managed to stay away reading through that crap, then try this

Next, I would like to thank the professor for his/her input into the discussion. However, I would like to respectfully suggest that either CIS programmes are not as uniform in scope as CS programmes are or that his/her understanding of a CIS degree is somewhat in error.

At Nova Southeastern University's Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, where I am about to complete my MSc in CIS, the differences are explained as follows (and I paraphrase):

A MIS degree is a management degree with some programming and technical information added to allow the graduate to have an understanding of the technology and personnel to be managed.

A CIS degree is a technical degree that emphasises applications of technology to business problems. In other words, a CS degree with an emphasis on business problems as opposed to things like compiler design or OS design.

The CS degree is a technical degree that is more concerned with "pure" computer science and has less emphasis on business applications.

Most of the courses for the CIS and CS degrees are the same, taught by the same professors and often with mixed classes of students. In my AI class we had both CS and CIS students in the same class. The CS students were given different problem sets. I did both problem sets anyway and "complained" to the professor that the CS students were getting all of the fun exercises.

The moral of the story: While MIS and CS seem fairly well defined, CIS appears to be a grey area and can vary widely between essentially an MIS degree with more programming to a CS degree with an emphasis on business-type problems (as is the case at NSU). Check your university literature to be sure.

Also, in my case my employer would not pay for a CS degree but would pay for a CIS degree because of the direct application to my job.

Send my $10K from bountyquest to some legal defense fund for high-school kids who get branded as "dangerous" just because they happen to know more about computers than their teachers.

But they do! Yes, I am serious! There's a condition often called 'lazy eye'. Where by one eye cannot focus and/or be controlled as finely as the other. One treatment for this is to cover the 'good eye' with a patch, forcing the 'bad eye' to 'practice'. Now here's the 'videogame treatment' angle; 20 minutes of viewing PONG is worth approximately 8 hours of 'normal' viewing on average. (yes, some videogames have more value in the matter than others) This is scientifically supported but I can also provide personal anecdotal evidence. My niece had a 'lazy eye' and the doctor said the condition was so progressed that it would probably take three years of wearing the eye patch to correct it. But in only 4 months with at least one hour a day of various videogames the doctor pronounced the condition cured. And yes, this 'videogame treatment' was done with the doctors full support.

Videogames to treat ADD/ADHD
Diffamblyopia (lazy eye)
Videogames and Parkinson's Disease
Videogames to treat inflammatory bowel disease and juvenile diabetes
National Institutes of Health and Videogames
Amblyopia (advice from another doctor)
more amblyopia advice
yet another doctor's opinion)
Reduce risk of getting Lyme Disease
Healthy anger management for kids
Avoiding/dealing with Nebulizer side-effects
still more amblyopia advice
Super Nintendo treatment for asthma (Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus)
Super Nintendo treatment for Diabetes (Packy & Marlon)
Super Nintendo anti-smoking (Rex Ronan)