Slashback: Archives, Leak, Fanfilm

Slashback tonight brings some corrections, clarifications and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including word from the worlds of corporate patent lawsuits, secretive publishers vs. inquisitive readers in Canada, and the pitiful teachers versus the splendid kids in Pennsylvania. Read on for the details. Sir, this sentence mangling machine is Pl88^74djliivc33mq again! I posted a story earlier this week which scrambled in its summary the facts of the matter. My post, as reader Raymond Fingas points out, said that the "Internet archive ... has been sued by the firm Harding Earley Follmer & Frailey." Fingas was one of several readers (thanks to all!) to correct me on this, writing "According to the linked article that isn't the case; instead they are being sued by Healthcare Advocates, represented by the firm McCarter & English. Further, the article says that Harding Earley Follmer & Frailey is actually being sued along with the Internet Archive.."

Alacritech settles litigation with MSFT and BRCM An anonymous reader writes "Alacritech, Microsoft Corporation and Broadcom Corporation today announced that they have entered into agreements that settle all outstanding disputes between Alacritech and Microsoft, as well as provide Microsoft and Broadcom access to Alacritech's patent portfolio relating to scalable networking. (Previously mentioned on Slashdot here and here.)"

Sir, you have no right to read about your rights. Hobart writes "Richard Stallman has just posted on his personal website a request for his readers to 'Don't Buy Harry Potter Books,' and offered to leak the plot - in protest of the Canadian Supreme Court ruling forbidding the purchasers from reading the books they paid for. A memorable quote in the Times article says '...There is no human right to read.'"

Don'tcha think felony is a bit strong for a few button presses? ZombyHero writes "In a follow-up to a previous story, the 13 high school students from Kutztown, PA charged with felony computer trespassing for violating district usage policy are fighting back. They've hired lawyers have begun talking with the Assistant DA. As a former student of the school, I know that the district is used to getting its way. Hopefully this will knock them down a few notches."

Starship Exeter flies again! An anonymous reader writes "There's a new episode of Starship Exeter, a fan-made feature set in the original series Star Trek universe. The new episode, The Tressaurian Intersection, follows on from The Savage Empire, which was featured on Slashdot before. This time it's better than ever... better than the original series, in fact! You can watch the entire episode online."

Treasure hunts, commence. We've posted quite a few interesting applications for Google's mapping service; now phauly writes "I created an Animated Google Map (with some gnus and mozillas attacking Microsoft office) using Google Maps API. I think it would be easy to create real playable Games on Google Maps. For sharing ideas (and implementations!) I created the Games on Google Maps wiki page. For now some ideas are: risk, freeciv, freecraft, car races on real maps! Feel free to edit the page suggesting/revising/implementing ideas."

Comments

brings some corrections, clarifications...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that what dupes are for?

Re:Oh Gno!

[gbulmash]

Too bad all you Slashbots won't be reading Harry Potter due to your god's utterences. I'm sure he probably has some nice poetry or something on his site to ease the pain.

No, but he does have quite the "mad prophet in the desert" hair and beard.

- G

Oh boy

[QuantumG]

Does anyone else think that this might be the end of RMS? I mean, it's one thing to take on the software industry, but it's quite another to take on the publishers of Harry Potter.

Re:Oh boy

[michaeldot]

it's one thing to take on the software industry, but it's quite another to take on the publishers of Harry Potter.

I don't know about the publishers, but if he takes on the kids then he's a dead man!

Clearly RMS does not have children.

Berks county, home of illiterates

[gkuz]

The Berks County newspaper that writes about this comes out looking mighty fine, with a spelling mistake in the f'ing HEADLINE of the article, and at least three more in the article itself.

Maybe the damn editor should go back to high school.

If you ever posted to Usenet...

[Mike Connell]

Beware the Ghost Of Usenet Postings Past

The Tressaurian Intersection episode is great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Wesley crosses a Tressaurian street in flagrant violation of the Tressaurian "Don't Walk!" sign and is sentenced to death, with sexy results.

Protest Against WHO? Clearly Canada Sucks

[Noksagt]

I've heard of worst protests than the one Richard proposes...

a request for his readers to 'Don't Buy Harry Potter Books,' in protest of the Canadian Supreme Court ruling forbidding the purchasers from reading the books they paid for.

But, quote the article:

But readers will be unable to share their knowledge after Raincoast Books, the book's Canadian publisher, was granted a "John Doe" injunction prohibiting the buyers from even reading their copies before the publication date.You need to hurt Raincoast Books and the Canadian Supreme Court, not J.K. Rowling, or the U.S. publisher of her books, Arthur A. Levine Books, or anyone else.

To protest the publisher, don't buy ANY Raincoast Books. If you are a .ca resident who wants to protest, but also wants to read Harry Potter, grab it from you library or pick up an import copy. If you want to protest the Supreme Court, don't obey this mandate, write protest letters, and work on getting better justices picked.

If you aren't in Canada, laugh at them. What else do you expect from a counyty where a pizza can get to your house faster than an ambulance, there is handicap parking places in front of a skating rink, and people leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put useless junk in the garage?

Harry Potter Plot

[nathanh]

Richard Stallman has just posted on his personal website a request for his readers to 'Don't Buy Harry Potter Books,' and offered to leak the plot

I haven't read any of the books or seen any of the movies but I can guess the plot is something like "stupid dork gets picked on by bullies but through virtue of some hidden talent he manages to defeat a great evil and save the world".

Re:Taking over the world...One ZIP Code at a time!

[CptNerd]

I just want a small island in the South Pacific: Australia!

Re:When someone puts up a website...

[GeckoX]

You have a very interesting view on the world.
Too bad it's not based in reality.

I get the impression that you have done some really stupid things in your time that you really _really_ hope never get out in the open. Too bad. You do something stupid, than do another stupid thing by telling the whole world, and then expect to be able to revoke that information on a whim?

You sir are on crack.

My biggest problem though is that you're not the only one, and you're pissing in my pool.

Kindly quit pissing in my pool. Personally, I'm quite attached to that picture of you and your dog. (Nudge nudge). Don't worry though, I'll respect your _copyright_ to that image. I won't sell it to anyone.