http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:48:52 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/21783/DOJ_Said_To_Launch_Antitrust_Probe_Into_US_Telcom_Market/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21783/DOJ_Said_To_Launch_Antitrust_Probe_Into_US_Telcom_Market/ It was more or less not a question of if, but when, and now we're here: the US Department of Justice is said to launch an investigation into the US telecommunications industry to see if the two biggest players, AT&T and Verizon, are abusing their market position. Even though Apple is not a target for the probe, the usually trustworthy Wall Street Journal states that the iPhone/AT&T deal will also come under scrutiny [subscr. req.]. Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:03:08 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 23 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21723/Pirate_Bay_Judge_Found_Unbiased/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21723/Pirate_Bay_Judge_Found_Unbiased/ Back in April after the four involved in the Pirate Bay scuffle were declared guilty of helping to break copyright law, the judge who gave the verdict, Thomas Norstrom, was found to probably be biased due to his involvement in several pro-copyright groups. After a long, cold, hard bout of deliberation, the Swedish Court of Appeals has actually found Norstrom unbiased, something rather surprising. This means that the charges against the guilty still stand. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:40:41 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Law and Order 75 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21716/Bankruptcy_Judge_Lifts_Stay_in_Apple_s_Suit_Against_Psystar/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21716/Bankruptcy_Judge_Lifts_Stay_in_Apple_s_Suit_Against_Psystar/ "After considering Apple's motion to lift the automatic stay that put its lawsuit against Mac cloner Psystar on hold, bankruptcy judge Robert Mark has ordered the stay lifted. This will allow the legal process to move forward towards the trial between Apple and Psystar, which is set to begin this November." Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:10:27 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 6 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21662/Apple_Motions_for_Lift_of_Stay_in_Psystar_Case/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21662/Apple_Motions_for_Lift_of_Stay_in_Psystar_Case/ We've got some news in the Apple vs. Psystar tragedy that's been unfolding before our eyes for months now. We all know the gist: Psystar sells machines with Mac OS X pre-installed, while the EULA states that's not allowed. Apple then took this stuff to court, and in the meantime, Psystar went into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. The news today is that Apple has filed a complaint stating that this Chapter 11 thing is just a shield that allows Psystar to continue its business practices, which Apple deems as illegal. Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:13:12 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 53 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21597/Intel_Psion_End_Dispute_Concerning_Netbook_Trademark/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21597/Intel_Psion_End_Dispute_Concerning_Netbook_Trademark/ Intel, which helped create the market for netbooks when it introduced its Atom processor in 2008, has now ended its trademark dispute with Psion, a company that specialises in developing rugged devices and RFID technology. The fight centered on whether a company could own the right to the term 'netbook'. Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:31:59 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 0 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21587/Scientology_Banned_from_Wikipedia/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21587/Scientology_Banned_from_Wikipedia/ Even though we make fun of Wikipedia, and even though any serious scientific piece shouldn't cite Wikipedia, fact remains that the community-created and maintained encyclopaedia has turned into an impressive database of knowledge. Even though I don't think you should trust it blindly, it's usually an excellent starting point for information, especially when used in a casual setting. Still, its open nature is also a threat to Wikipedia, this week exemplified by the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee banning Scientology from editing Wikipedia pages. Sat, 30 May 2009 19:17:02 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 78 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21550/Red_Hat_Sues_Switzerland_Over_Microsoft_Monopoly/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21550/Red_Hat_Sues_Switzerland_Over_Microsoft_Monopoly/ Linux vendor Red Hat, and 17 other vendors, have protested a Swiss government contract given to Microsoft without any public bidding. The move exposes a wider Microsoft monopoly that European governments accept, despite their lip service for open source, according to commentators. Tue, 26 May 2009 18:09:13 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) Law and Order 12 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News Rahul http://www.osnews.com/story/21551/The_Pirate_Bay_and_a_Never-Ending_Search_for_an_Unbiased_Judge/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21551/The_Pirate_Bay_and_a_Never-Ending_Search_for_an_Unbiased_Judge/ Mid-April, the four founders of The Pirate Bay were found guilty of being accessories to breaching copyright law; they aided in breaching copyright of 33 files. As a result, they were sentenced to one year in jail and a 2.75 million EUR fine. However, it was quickly revealed that the judge in the case was heavily biased, and ever since then there's been a search for a judge who is actually not involved with any pro-copyright groups or with the lawyers working for the entertainment industry in this case. Turns out that's actually kind of hard. Sun, 24 May 2009 12:06:53 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 22 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21532/US_Congress_Mulls_Law_to_Circumvent_DMCA_for_Cars/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21532/US_Congress_Mulls_Law_to_Circumvent_DMCA_for_Cars/ Soft and hardware makers, closed ones that is, are extremely secretive over their code and hardware. If there's a flaw, bug, or error, you are at their mercy to fix their code or issue a recall or something; you can't fix it yourself. In fact, fixing your own hardware will most certainly void warranty. Since we haven't had a decent car analogy on OSNews in a while, US Congress handed us one on a silver platter. Thu, 21 May 2009 15:19:25 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 19 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21515/Microsoft_Linux_Foundation_Unlikely_Friends_Over_Legalities/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21515/Microsoft_Linux_Foundation_Unlikely_Friends_Over_Legalities/ The two organizations haven't been what you'd call snuggle-buddies, but they're certainly adamant about certain aspects of software enough to agree and collectively petition a legal group for redress of a document. In a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft and the Linux Foundation have joined forces in writing and signing a letter to the American Law Institute asking for the group to hold off on submitting a document entitled "Principles of the Law of Software Contracts" for adjustments. Tue, 19 May 2009 04:19:05 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Law and Order 4 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21500/Offence_Is_the_Best_Defence_Dutch_RIAA_Sued/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21500/Offence_Is_the_Best_Defence_Dutch_RIAA_Sued/ With things like the Pirate Bay trial and the French three strikes law still very fresh in memory, it's easy to forget that sometimes, offence can be the best defence. In light of this ancient wisdom, Dutch website FTD.nu has filed a lawsuit against the Dutch variant of the RIAA, BREIN. FTD.nu is backed and supported by two key Dutch copyright lawyers. Note that most links in this story will be written in Foreign for most of you. Fri, 15 May 2009 09:30:24 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 33 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21485/Judge_Sides_with_Apple_Orders_Psystar_to_Produce_Documents/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21485/Judge_Sides_with_Apple_Orders_Psystar_to_Produce_Documents/ Two weekends ago, Apple accused Psystar of withholding information in the ongoing lawsuit between the two companies, and the Cupertino company asked the judge to order Psystar to reveal said information. Psystar replied, explaining that some documents simply did not exist, and some were lost during a move of offices. Apparently, judge Alsup wasn't impressed with the defence, and sided with Apple. Wed, 13 May 2009 09:53:23 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 49 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21444/SCO_Like_an_Insect_that_Will_Not_Die/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21444/SCO_Like_an_Insect_that_Will_Not_Die/ Remember SCO? They just don't know when to quit, do they? "The Department of Justice's Trustee program, which has finally had enough of SCO's stalling tactics and failed reorganization attempts, has filed a motion to transition the company to Chapter 7. SCO CEO Darl McBride says that the company will oppose the motion and will present a new reorg plan to the court." Thu, 07 May 2009 00:32:32 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Jordan Spencer Cunningham) Law and Order 21 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21435/Apple_Google_Board_Ties_Under_Scrutiny/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21435/Apple_Google_Board_Ties_Under_Scrutiny/ The Federal Trade Commission in the United States has started an inquiry into the close ties between the boards of Apple and Google. They are wondering if the close ties constitute a violation of antitrust laws now that the two companies are increasingly participating in the same markets. Tue, 05 May 2009 17:08:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 8 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News Moulinneuf http://www.osnews.com/story/21432/Psystar_Apple_Letter_Only_to_Serve_As_Fodder_for_Blogosphere_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21432/Psystar_Apple_Letter_Only_to_Serve_As_Fodder_for_Blogosphere_/ This past weekend, Apple accused Psystar of withholding information in the ongoing lawsuit between the two companies. The letter made it onto the internet, and was widely reported on. Psystar has now replied to Apple's letter, and there's some serious venom in there. Mon, 04 May 2009 21:18:26 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Law and Order 39 http://www.osnews.com/topics/44 News