Meizu M8 ceases production amid pressure from Apple and intellectual property office

Just thought I'd share this relevant tidbit-makes me wonder why it took Apple so long to put the pressure on Meizu.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/09/meizu-m8-ceases-production-amid-pressure-from-apple-and-intellec/

Copyright Laws: Sesame Street version of the Old Spice commercial

A friend of mine passed this clip on to me tonight, and I thought I'd share it with everyone, as it's relevant to our discussions on copyright laws (and it's pretty funny).  The video, titled "Smell like a Monster" by Sesame Street is a spoof off of the popular Old Spice commercial. 

As mentioned in class, a copyright protects the author's exclusive rights to publish, distribute, and adaptation.  So do spoofs like this Sesame Street adaptation require permission from the original author?

Articles about Intellectual Property

This course isn't intended to make you a legal expert, but you should know how computing technology, like software, has affected the public debate about what is patentable.

And so today in class we'll cover some brief stories about some things you might not have known are patentable.

• Like a sealed crustless sandwich

• Or a "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion" (who's the inventor?)

Which brings us to the probably the most famous and controversial example of a patent related to software:

• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' one-click purchase patent

Which has been in the news lately:

• "Amazon.com's 1-Click patent confirmed following re-exam"
• "Amazon One-Click Patent Slides Through Reexamination"

Which brings us to the topic of whether you can patent an abstract process, like a business process or software algorithm at all. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated decision on this topic:

• in re Bilski
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation's opinion
• The Free Software Foundation's opinion

Keep in mind that both the EFF and the FSF are lobbies organized to oppose software patents. Can you find any opinions on the other side? What about Canada?

Required Reading for Tuesday: EU-Canada Intellectual Property Negotiations

For next Tuesday, please read the following Slashdot thread and the two articles (from Michael Geist's blog) linked from the summary.

In the Slashdot thread, there are a lot of off-topic remarks. You can use the "Threshold" control to view remarks that readers have moderated up; a setting of 3 is recommended. Still, you'll find a lot of off-topic ranting, which is common in any real-life discussion. There are some good remarks starting about 2/3rds of the way down ("Policy laundering" and its replies).

As you read Michael Geist's blog posts linked from the summary ("EU Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, leaked online" and "updated copy of the draft chapter") keep in mind that they are geared toward people who know intellectual property law and treaties. Nevertheless, try to understand how your rights might be affected. The goals of this reading are to familiarize you with: how IP issues are negotiated between countries, the current status in Canada, Michael Geist's blog, and the realities (good and bad) of online discussions.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/30/0241257/EU-Demands-Canada-Gut-Its-Copyright-and-Patent-Laws

Your comments on this post are most welcome. :)

Facebook Lets Users Download Their Data

This is some exciting news. As some of you might already know, Google will be launching their own Facebook competitor relatively soon. It will be interesting with this announcement if Google will use this feature to seamlessly allow Facebook users to easily migrate over to their service.

I'm surprised Facebook allowed such a move.

Source: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Facebook-Lets-Users-Download-Their-Data-Why-Its-a-Big-Deal-5302

Mark Zuckerberg's infamous FaceMash.com for sale

FaceMash.com, the Facebook prototype Mark Zuckerberg built in his Harvard dorm room one October night in 2003, is now up for auction on Flippa -- or at least the URL is.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/10/06/facemash.mashable/

CNN confronts Michigan Assistant Attorney General on cyberbullying

This ran a few days ago on CNN, and given the topic of cyberbullying I figured this was pertinent. Anderson Cooper on CNN recently spoke to the Assistant Attorney General of Michigan, who has been running a blog defaming the Student Body President of the University of Michigan. Near the end of the view, Cooper begins comparing the actions of the AAG with a pamphlet on cyberbullying published in Michigan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwObjKZg9Jw

Mike Cox, the Michigan Attorney General, was also interviewed by Cooper, who initially defended Shirvell in the following statement: "Here in America, we have this thing called the First Amendment, which allows people to express what they think and engage in political and social speech." Since the story ran, Shirvell has taken a leave of absence from his position and Chris Armstrong has filed a restraining order against Shirvell, who is now banned from the University of Michigan campus.