[someone with points please mod the parent post up real high]
However, the law allows this kind of thing - so we get this kind of deliberately delayed reaction appearing all over the IP world.
I can only wonder if Hasbro DID intentionally wait, and if this could be shown in court, would it change things at all? Perhaps that they knew and didn't immediately send a C&D, they could lose the trademark.
OTOH, they had no way of knowing that the site would become popular, and so case they should have immediately send a C&D anyway. Not to do so is 'gambling' both that the infringing site would grow, and that they could get away with delaying a C&D letter until the site had grown.
The law should not allow it - but then IP law is so unbelievably screwed up, this is one of the lesser evils.
As the recipient of two patents (while working for a large company), I can only agree.
And just in case the minimal text-only page at that site STILL gets slashdotted, I reproduce it here: ----- greetings, Slashdot readers. Due to a huge number of visitors coming in from the site Slashdot.org, e-Scrabble games are temporarily unavailable.
The article in question is here [the/. article you're reading].
The cease-and-desist page is here. ----- There's a few older "this site is offline for maintenance" messages in the source for that page that I've thoughtfully left out.
"e-Scrabble be back in 60 seconds. A server upgrade is in progress."
I've hit reload a couple times in the last few minutes, so it's taking a bit longer than 60 sconds. I presume this is a protective measure, to prevent getting a serious slashdotting and some big bandwidth bills.
Maybe you're right, maybe this site DOES increase sales of the Official Board Game.
But that's not known for sure, and the argument sounds like the same one for justifying free downloading of copyrighted music: it supposedly increases sales, and the record companies should be happy about it.
It looks like a weak argument for blatant (if perhaps not intentional or without any desire to cause harm) violation of trademark and copyright (of the board layout if not the rules). In such cases the ruling is for the letter of the law, not for the spirit (to push the metaphor, in this case the spirit is weak). If you consider these bad laws (and in this case I might even agree they're bad), then write your congresscritters to get them changed.
If they did that, nobody would hit their site and generate ad revenue, when they pop onto Google and type in "Scrabble".
I can see it now:
"e-(something other than Scrabble).com: The Online Scrabble(R)[TM]-Compatbile Word Game."
I thought of a possibly good word(s) for (something other than Scrabble) in the domain name, but I decided not to put it here so it wouldn't be scarfed up [possibly by Hasbro]. Perhaps I'll send it to the e-scrabble.com guy, in case he wants or needs it.
My temporary tag for this thread: IANAL, and all applicable disclaimers apply.
on the basis of my Constitutional rights against self-incrimination.
Is this a civil or criminal matter? I suspect it's civil, which would mean that wouldn't apply.
I suppose it's easier and cheaper for Hasbro's lawyer to stick that in there and see if they get anything, rather than hire a private investigator to find out that info.
I saw nothing in the article that specifically states that, but apparently so, by that FCC complaint.
From TFA: Update: Keep in mind, this sort of power may be violating FCC regulation.
My understanding is that transmitting ANY radiated power in that (2-meter) band (or most other bands) that can be detected by others is illegal without an amateur radio license, and the way this thing operates, I'm not sure it would be legal WITH a license.
TFA didn't say, but I'd hope this thing is not being sold in the US.
This is a high-school level science expeiment (directions on how to do it are in the Amateur Scientist column of Feb. 1995 Scientific American, if you're interested you can get ALL the AS columns on CD at http://brightscience.com/), and has been known of for decades, but the exact cause is a mystery.
But there is recent speculation and evidence that this basement-science experiment generates nuclear fusion:
I can't tell you how much better that makes me feel.
As opposed to the first atomic bomb test, which WAS thought to pose a threat (that it would trigger an atomic chain reaction in the air, and the whole world would burn up).
I've seen enough SF movies to know, they really don't know whether it's a threat or not.
When he described it in a hospital in "Stranger in a Strange Land"? Heinlein wrote years later (ISTR in "Expanded Universe") that the company that first started making waterbeds sent him one, and he never put it together.
I used physically instead of "push buttons on key pad and navigate menus", because I thought everyone would get the idea.
You could have said you digitally told the phone, unfortunately it can be confusing because both your hand and Bluetooth have digits.
I vote for digital as the most overused word of the last 20+ years (ever since the Compact Disc came out, resulting in Digital-Ready speakers and turntables).
I know the word, you manually told the phone, meaning you used your hand (including all those usurped-name appendages...)
think what the poster was implying was, that the officer would have a bluetooth tag on their person, keyed to their own firearm. For their weapon to discharge, it would need to pick up the signal first.
This would also prevent another cop from picking up and using a gun from a downed cop (after getting any distance from the downed cop).
(I wondered how this news story would show up on slashdot)
According to the Darwin Awards rules page, the candidate must be dead first - though I guess we can wait a few days and see what happens...
Go ahead and fill out the rest of the form, Name, Date Of Birth and all, just leave blank date and time of death, and for the description of death just leave a few sentences of white space then write "while holding a home-built Blutetooth Sniper Rifle."
I don't recall that case, but there was the infamous Ford Pinto's problem of rupturing the gas tank and blowing up when rear-ended, likewise not recalled because of a simple dollar-amount cost/benefit calculation. There was also the {GM?] pickup truck with gas tanks on the side, a known problem, the parents of one man who drove the pickup and was killed in a side-impact accident were awarded $110 million in punitive damages, IIRC specifically to discourage this type of simple cost/benefit calculation where money saved is considered more important than expected lives lost.
While I hadn't heard of the define option that others described, I've had excellent results looking for definitions of technical terms by adding the word glossary to the word in the search string - many glossaries are reurned with the word defined.
Perhaps, their meanings in a SF context, are what's recorded in a SF dictionary.
To be fair, there are many words that have very different meanings in different context, for a blatant example there's the scientific meaning of theory, then there's the creationists' "evolution is only a theory" meaning which confuses the scientific meaning with the layman's meaning, much more like a hypothesis in science.
But when an [good] science fiction story takes a word from science, I see no reason to change the meaning.
Looking here, these two definitions appear to conflict badly: 2... b : writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation c : writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest It appears that to be a successful journalist, one must carefully straddle the line between these two meanings.
Bloggers may well fit definition c., though admittedly most blogs are not well 'designed.'
I have this blogservation: Ben's Rule of Bloggers:Everyone will make someone else famous for 15 minutes.
And finally, my off-the-cuff definition: Journalism: The promotion of and belief in the inherent goodness of Journal Bearings
I've sometimes Googled for a phrase in an attempt to find its origin. About two years ago the "world's best golfer is Black, world's most popular rapper is White, the Germans don't want to go to war..." thing was hugely popular. It showed up in thousands of blogs, though going by date I was able to find out who said the original (Charles Barkley), exactly what the original was, and when some of the newer things were added to it. It's bad enough people just dump stuff with the intro "I just read this today, wow!" into their blogs, but what's worse is these quotes rarely include attributions.
Seriously, it would be neat to have a video game in which one goes at a significant fraction of the speed of light. I recall seeing a movie clip many years ago (perhaps on NOVA) of a simulation of relativistic travel down a road in which the telephone poles appear bent over and such. Realtime simulation would of course take more calculations per 'atom' in the scene than Newtonian physics, but it would be cool, and We Have The Technology...
Slashdot Mirror
"Every time he tries to send, he gets slammed again."
Being sexist, huh?
I recall a pic of a female spammer years ago, she was of course ugly. All the photoshopping by dozens of antispammers didn't help either.
[someone with points please mod the parent post up real high]
However, the law allows this kind of thing - so we get this kind of deliberately delayed reaction appearing all over the IP world.
I can only wonder if Hasbro DID intentionally wait, and if this could be shown in court, would it change things at all? Perhaps that they knew and didn't immediately send a C&D, they could lose the trademark.
OTOH, they had no way of knowing that the site would become popular, and so case they should have immediately send a C&D anyway. Not to do so is 'gambling' both that the infringing site would grow, and that they could get away with delaying a C&D letter until the site had grown.
The law should not allow it - but then IP law is so unbelievably screwed up, this is one of the lesser evils.
As the recipient of two patents (while working for a large company), I can only agree.
And just in case the minimal text-only page at that site STILL gets slashdotted, I reproduce it here:
/. article you're reading].
-----
greetings, Slashdot readers.
Due to a huge number of visitors coming in from the site Slashdot.org, e-Scrabble games are temporarily unavailable.
The article in question is here [the
The cease-and-desist page is here.
-----
There's a few older "this site is offline for maintenance" messages in the source for that page that I've thoughtfully left out.
"e-Scrabble be back in 60 seconds.
A server upgrade is in progress."
I've hit reload a couple times in the last few minutes, so it's taking a bit longer than 60 sconds. I presume this is a protective measure, to prevent getting a serious slashdotting and some big bandwidth bills.
Good news (for all who want to read it), this link with the cease-and-desist letter still works:
http://www.e-scrabble.com/desist.html
Maybe you're right, maybe this site DOES increase sales of the Official Board Game.
But that's not known for sure, and the argument sounds like the same one for justifying free downloading of copyrighted music: it supposedly increases sales, and the record companies should be happy about it.
It looks like a weak argument for blatant (if perhaps not intentional or without any desire to cause harm) violation of trademark and copyright (of the board layout if not the rules). In such cases the ruling is for the letter of the law, not for the spirit (to push the metaphor, in this case the spirit is weak). If you consider these bad laws (and in this case I might even agree they're bad), then write your congresscritters to get them changed.
What about Internet Scrabble Club [www.isc.ro]? Are they safe because they're outside the US, licensed, or are they next?
.ro.
They're safe just because the domain ends in
IANAL, and other usual stuff.
If they did that, nobody would hit their site and generate ad revenue, when they pop onto Google and type in "Scrabble".
I can see it now:
"e-(something other than Scrabble).com: The Online Scrabble(R)[TM]-Compatbile Word Game."
I thought of a possibly good word(s) for (something other than Scrabble) in the domain name, but I decided not to put it here so it wouldn't be scarfed up [possibly by Hasbro]. Perhaps I'll send it to the e-scrabble.com guy, in case he wants or needs it.
My temporary tag for this thread: IANAL, and all applicable disclaimers apply.
Advice: I'd immediately refuse that "offer"
I certainly agree with this so far...
on the basis of my Constitutional rights against self-incrimination.
Is this a civil or criminal matter? I suspect it's civil, which would mean that wouldn't apply.
I suppose it's easier and cheaper for Hasbro's lawyer to stick that in there and see if they get anything, rather than hire a private investigator to find out that info.
IANAL, and all applicable disclaimers apply.
I saw nothing in the article that specifically states that, but apparently so, by that FCC complaint.
From TFA:
Update: Keep in mind, this sort of power may be violating FCC regulation.
My understanding is that transmitting ANY radiated power in that (2-meter) band (or most other bands) that can be detected by others is illegal without an amateur radio license, and the way this thing operates, I'm not sure it would be legal WITH a license.
TFA didn't say, but I'd hope this thing is not being sold in the US.
how many games each employee won and lost?
This is a high-school level science expeiment (directions on how to do it are in the Amateur Scientist column of Feb. 1995 Scientific American, if you're interested you can get ALL the AS columns on CD at http://brightscience.com/), and has been known of for decades, but the exact cause is a mystery.
e scence_lights_up_fusion_research.html
3 /1833245!
But there is recent speculation and evidence that this basement-science experiment generates nuclear fusion:
http://www.scispot.org/archives/physics/sonolumin
Oh, and from that page, one of the "Selected sonoluminescence resources on the web" is no less an authoritative science source than...http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/0
I can't tell you how much better that makes me feel.
As opposed to the first atomic bomb test, which WAS thought to pose a threat (that it would trigger an atomic chain reaction in the air, and the whole world would burn up).
I've seen enough SF movies to know, they really don't know whether it's a threat or not.
Those damned physicists are going to collapse Earth into an ultra-dense particle about the size of a pea!
It will be the size of a marble.
When he described it in a hospital in "Stranger in a Strange Land"? Heinlein wrote years later (ISTR in "Expanded Universe") that the company that first started making waterbeds sent him one, and he never put it together.
Oh, never mind.
I used physically instead of "push buttons on key pad and navigate menus", because I thought everyone would get the idea.
You could have said you digitally told the phone, unfortunately it can be confusing because both your hand and Bluetooth have digits.
I vote for digital as the most overused word of the last 20+ years (ever since the Compact Disc came out, resulting in Digital-Ready speakers and turntables).
I know the word, you manually told the phone, meaning you used your hand (including all those usurped-name appendages...)
think what the poster was implying was, that the officer would have a bluetooth tag on their person, keyed to their own firearm. For their weapon to discharge, it would need to pick up the signal first.
This would also prevent another cop from picking up and using a gun from a downed cop (after getting any distance from the downed cop).
(I wondered how this news story would show up on slashdot)
According to the Darwin Awards rules page, the candidate must be dead first - though I guess we can wait a few days and see what happens...
Go ahead and fill out the rest of the form, Name, Date Of Birth and all, just leave blank date and time of death, and for the description of death just leave a few sentences of white space then write "while holding a home-built Blutetooth Sniper Rifle."
It's supposed to be a Bluetooth snooper rifle! Heh!
With the attention this will get you from various personnel, it should be named the Bluetooth pants pooper rifle.
Anyone remember this, and what happened next?
I don't recall that case, but there was the infamous Ford Pinto's problem of rupturing the gas tank and blowing up when rear-ended, likewise not recalled because of a simple dollar-amount cost/benefit calculation. There was also the {GM?] pickup truck with gas tanks on the side, a known problem, the parents of one man who drove the pickup and was killed in a side-impact accident were awarded $110 million in punitive damages, IIRC specifically to discourage this type of simple cost/benefit calculation where money saved is considered more important than expected lives lost.
While I hadn't heard of the define option that others described, I've had excellent results looking for definitions of technical terms by adding the word glossary to the word in the search string - many glossaries are reurned with the word defined.
Perhaps, their meanings in a SF context, are what's recorded in a SF dictionary.
To be fair, there are many words that have very different meanings in different context, for a blatant example there's the scientific meaning of theory, then there's the creationists' "evolution is only a theory" meaning which confuses the scientific meaning with the layman's meaning, much more like a hypothesis in science.
But when an [good] science fiction story takes a word from science, I see no reason to change the meaning.
Looking here, these two definitions appear to conflict badly: ... b : writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation c : writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest
2
It appears that to be a successful journalist, one must carefully straddle the line between these two meanings.
Bloggers may well fit definition c., though admittedly most blogs are not well 'designed.'
I have this blogservation:
Ben's Rule of Bloggers: Everyone will make someone else famous for 15 minutes.
And finally, my off-the-cuff definition:
Journalism: The promotion of and belief in the inherent goodness of Journal Bearings
I've sometimes Googled for a phrase in an attempt to find its origin. About two years ago the "world's best golfer is Black, world's most popular rapper is White, the Germans don't want to go to war..." thing was hugely popular. It showed up in thousands of blogs, though going by date I was able to find out who said the original (Charles Barkley), exactly what the original was, and when some of the newer things were added to it. It's bad enough people just dump stuff with the intro "I just read this today, wow!" into their blogs, but what's worse is these quotes rarely include attributions.
Because Newtonian Physics is old-fashioned.
Seriously, it would be neat to have a video game in which one goes at a significant fraction of the speed of light. I recall seeing a movie clip many years ago (perhaps on NOVA) of a simulation of relativistic travel down a road in which the telephone poles appear bent over and such. Realtime simulation would of course take more calculations per 'atom' in the scene than Newtonian physics, but it would be cool, and We Have The Technology...