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W3C Requests Eolas Patent Re-Examination
x0n writes "Verbatim from W3: Acting on the advice of the W3C HTML Patent Advisory Group, W3C has presented the United States Patent and Trademark Office with prior art establishing that US Patent No. 5,838,906 (the '906 patent) is invalid. W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee has written an unprecedented request to U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property James E. Rogan to take action to remove the patent to allow operation of the Web. Read the briefing." techsoldaten adds a link to this New York Times story on the move, and
bgalbs points out the W3C's detailed filing describing prior art provided to the USPTO Director's office, "along with a letter from Tim Berners-Lee asking that the so-called Eolas patent be revoked," writing "Here's hoping it does some good; between this and the Lotus Notes prior art, perhaps there's hope this will all go away."
Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment. Back here I can't even hold a job parking cars.
This delightful, insightful, whimsical, enchanting, plucky, unpolished-but-charming post!
Go and see it with your loved ones this holiday season.
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(C) 2003 GNAA Inc.
seriously, I see 6 YRO stories on the front page, out of 15. Is this a news for NERDS site, or a political statement?
I'm all for the occasional YRO, thrown in with games, science, hardware, etc. but > 30% of the front page for one topic? *sigh*
Should've posted as AC.
Nader-2004
Block 3: In Soviet Russia Natalie Portman has hot grits for Profit!
My patience is infinite, my time is not.
while I think the human alliance is more advanced, the orc hord is much more effictive at overcomming base defensives, perhaps there should be a human hord? The Night Evels suck, unless you manange to stay quite wile you build your forces.
\\"You go hole now"
I knew I was not the only one who watched Nova's piece on string theroy last night!
321 STUDIOS WILL APPEAL DIGITIAL COPYRIGHT RULING 321 STUDIOS' SOFTWARE WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SALE DURING APPEAL ST. LOUIS - October 29, 2003 - 321 Studios, the worldwide leader in DVD back up, recovery, and creation software, today vowed to continue the fight for Americans' right to make backups of legally-purchased DVDs and to appeal the ruling by United States Librarian of Congress. As part of his triennial review of digital fair use under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Librarian effectively decided Americans should not be allowed to restore or backup DVDs they lawfully purchased, even when they are damaged and become unplayable. Technically, the Librarian decided that Americans cannot circumvent access control mechanisms on DVDs in order to restore lost access or make a backup copy for safekeeping -- even when they have lawfully purchased the DVD and it stops working. Ignoring evidence that many DVDs are out of print and hard to replace, the Librarian relied on the flawed reasoning of the U.S. Register of Copyrights, who told him that consumers don't need to take steps to preserve access to DVDs they have purchased because there is a "ready availability of replacement copies in the market at reasonable cost." In short, the Librarian is saying to people: If a DVD is flawed, forget about trying to restore it -- go spend more money on a replacement copy. In addition, the Librarian rejected the suggestion that consumers may take reasonable steps to skip advertisements on commercial DVDs. Robert Moore, 321 Studio's Founder and President said today: "The Copyright Office has made two fundamental mistakes: it has failed to recognize that DVDs are software and it has failed to recognize that Americans have a right to backup DVDs they spent hard-earned money to purchase. 321 will appeal this ruling on behalf of the millions of Americans who want and need our products. 321 believes that the DMCA tramples on the fair use and first amendment rights of all Americans and that the Librarian's interpretation of the DMCA is arbitrary and unreasonable." Moore continued: "Our customers are not pirates or criminals -- they're soccer moms who want to make sure The Little Mermaid is always at hand, dads who want to protect their movies from the 'DVD rot and delamination' they've been hearing about and are starting to witness first-hand, and movie lovers who can't find a replacement copy of an out-of-print work or who can't afford to buy a second or third copy of The Matrix after the original gets so scratched the DVD player can't read it." It is 321 Studios' position not only that the DMCA anti-circumvention rules are vague and confusing, but also that the standards the Librarian has devised ignore Congress' intent. The DMCA was originally enacted to prevent online piracy; it was never Congress' intention to stamp-out fair use rights in the digital age. 321 will appeal today's ruling in federal court. In an effort to secure a balanced, consumer-friendly interpretation of the DMCA, 321 Studios has filed a declaratory judgment action against eight major motion picture studios. Currently, the company is waiting for a California-based federal court to rule on a partial summary judgment motion in a counter-claim suit filed by seven of the same studios. "321 Studios is a voice of reason in advocating for the fair use rights of consumers with respect to DVDs and other digital media that consumers have lawfully purchased," Moore said. "We anxiously await the decision from the Northern California district court, and we will continue to be a champion for the rights of our customers to control their personal DVD portfolios." 321 Studios' complete line of DVD backup, recovery, and creation software will continue to be sold through the company's website ( www.321studios.com ) and at major retailers while the company appeals. About 321 Studios 321 Studios provides software tools to help consumers protect their investment in digital media, and is the leading provider of DVD backup, repair and recovery software. Founded i
Nothing new here. I know personally of another incident involving Microsoft firing or having fired full-time employees and temps over a blog. Harte-Hanks, the company that houses XBox tech support here in Austin is located on Metric about 2 blocks from where I lived for nearly 3 years. I had friends that worked there and stopped by on lunch. These guys do XBox tech support, making $9/hour and they all hate their jobs. I hate doing what they do. Harte-Hanks is a thankless company that won Microsoft's bid by driving a slave farm.
They deal with a lot of BS and many stupid callers. One started a Blog called XBoxIdiots or something. They thought it was private, but someone in Microsoft found it. They posted here about all their stupid customers. Everyone that had an entry there was fired. People that posted as few as one time in it we treated the same, including my good friend Ali. Losing that job was the best thing that ever happened to him.
That was giving away private company info though. Like the fact that the first generation nVidia MCP didn't do Dolby Digital right, but they made the customers pay to get it fixed. Of course Microsoft likes Macs. They make software on Macs. How else are they going to develop software for Macs without Macs to develop on. What's the logic in this?