Legal Archive

Java Creator: “Google totally slimed Sun”

Submitted by bowkota 2012-04-30 Legal 89 Comments

Java creator James Gosling: "Just because Sun didn't have patent suits in our genetic code doesn't mean we didn't feel wronged. While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun. We were all really disturbed, even Jonathan: he just decided to put on a happy face and tried to turn lemons into lemonade, which annoyed a lot of folks at Sun." Ouch. Also, doesn't jive with Schwartz' comments - might be illustrative of how bad things really were at the once great Sun.

The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-30 Legal 68 Comments

"File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled. The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly-pirated free music and video. Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site." Because, as we all know, protecting failing and outdated business models is more important than upholding stodgy old and annoying concepts like 'freedom of speech'. Repeat after me: we live in the free world, not China. Maybe if we say it often enough, we'll start believing it.

Schwartz: Android didn’t need license for Java APIs

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-27 Legal 37 Comments

"Former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz took the stand here today as a witness for the defense, and disputed Oracle's claim that Java APIs were proprietary code from Sun. Google's lawyer, Robert van Nest, asked Schwartz whether, during his tenure at Sun, Java APIs were considered proprietary or protected by Sun. 'No,' Schwartz said in explaining the nature of open software, 'These are open APIs, and we wanted to bring in more people... We wanted to build the biggest tent and invite as many people as possible.'" Whoopsie for Oracle.

EU data protection watchdog: ACTA “highly intrusive”

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-24 Legal 3 Comments

"The Opinion shows that the lack of precision of the Agreement about the measures to be deployed to tackle infringements of intellectual property rights on the Internet may have unacceptable side effects on fundamental rights of individuals, if they are not implemented properly. It underlines that many of the measures to strengthen IP enforcement online could involve the large scale monitoring of users' behaviour and of their electronic communications. These measures are highly intrusive to the private sphere of individuals, and should only be implemented if they are necessary and proportionate to the aim of enforcing IP rights." Paint, red, scout. You know the drill by now. How does this surprise anyone at this point?

Microsoft, Facebook announce patent agreement

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-23 Legal 2 Comments

"Microsoft and Facebook announced today a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will assign to Facebook the right to purchase a portion of the patent portfolio it recently agreed to acquire from AOL. Facebook has agreed to purchase this portion for $550 million in cash." Is it just me or is Microsoft focussing more and more on peddling patents?

Twitter promises not to use its patents offensively

Submitted by Drake 2012-04-17 Legal 37 Comments

Say what you want about Twitter - pointless, annoying, noise, useless - at least the company has its heart in the right place. Twitter just announced the Innovator's Patent Agreement, a promise not use their or their employees' patents offensively. In a world where yesterday's innovators are today's patent trolls - Apple, Microsoft, Oracle - this is a big deal.

Google, Verizon ask courts: what’s impossible to patent?

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-16 Legal 6 Comments

"Abstract ideas, laws of nature, and mathematical formulas can't be patented under US law, and both Google and Verizon want the US Supreme Court to better define the bounds of that legal tenet as it applies to Internet technologies. Google and Verizon recently filed a joint amicus curiae brief in the case of WildTangent v. Ultramercial, asking America's highest court to formally clarify that an unpatentable abstract idea, such as a method of advertising, can't magically become patentable subject matter by simply implementing it over the Internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has also filed an amicus brief in the case similarly asking the court to assign understandable boundaries to patentable subject matter." This should be fun.

Expert witness: most popular Hotfile downloads are open source apps

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-13 Legal 5 Comments

Well paint me red etc. etc. girl scout. "Hotfile is determined to outlast Hollywood's ongoing crusade against file locker services. The company is defending itself against an aggressive litigation campaign that movie studios first brought against it over a year ago. Hotfile's case may be bolstered by a recent report which shows that the two most widely-downloaded files distributed through the popular file locker service are open source software applications."

Oracle: copyright covers programming language; Google disagrees

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-13 Legal 38 Comments

"Oracle's case against Google has evolved primarily into a copyright infringement suit over the past several months, and with the full trial scheduled to begin this coming Monday, the court is making an effort to get down to the nuts and bolts of copyright law. The judge issued an order last week requiring that both Google and Oracle provide their respective positions on a fundamental issue in the case: 'Each side shall take a firm yes or no position on whether computer programming languages are copyrightable'." Seems like an easy enough answer to me, especially since Oracle's example doesn't hold up at all - Oracle points to Klingon's custom glyphs to illustrate that a language can fall under copyright, but unlike Klingon, a programming language uses standard glyphs we all use every day. Arguing you can copyright that is borderline psychotic, and opens up a whole can of worms.

Code not physical property, court rules

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-12 Legal 15 Comments

"Former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov, who downloaded source code for the investment firm's high-speed trading system from the company's computers, was wrongly charged with theft of property because the code did not qualify as a physical object under a federal theft statute, according to a court opinion published Wednesday." This could be a huge deal, if it ever were to be upheld in higher courts. More specifically, "because Aleynikov did not 'assume physical control' over anything when he took the source code, and because he did not thereby 'deprive of its use', Aleynikov did not violate the ". Well paint me purple with white and red dots and call me a girl scout.

‘DOJ may sue Apple over ebooks early as Wednesday’

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-11 Legal 13 Comments

"The Justice Department could sue Apple as early as Wednesday over alleged electronic book price-fixing, while settling with several publishers as early as this week, two people familiar with the matter said." I feel safe already. Update: ...and we have lift-off.

Wozniak fears patent war fallout

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-10 Legal 39 Comments

"The man who co-founded Apple - the world's most valuable company - in the garage of Steve Jobs' parents, fears the torrent of intellectual property lawsuits being filed by companies such as Apple, Samsung, Google, HTC and Nokia could prevent future entrepreneurs from treading a path to technology fortune." Well, mr Wozniak, you are, technically, still an Apple employee. Shouldn't be too hard for you to get an audience with mr Cook.

Microsoft buys 800 patents from AOL covering search, ads, more

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-09 Legal 19 Comments

Since it's Easter (it spans two days in The Netherlands), what better to talk about than patents? Microsoft has just bought most of AOL's patents, and took up a license for the remainder bit they didn't buy. Microsoft also bought all the patents belonging to AOL subsidiary Netscape. Uh-oh.

Major textbook publishers sue open-education textbook start-up

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-07 Legal 53 Comments

Rage-inducing and despicable. As The Chronicle of Higher Education reports, three major textbook publishers, Pearson, Cengage Learning, and Macmillan Higher Education, are suing a small startup company that produces open and free alternative textbooks. This startup, Boundless Learning, builds textbooks using creative commons licensed and otherwise freely available material - and this poses a threat to the three large textbook publishers. So, what do you do when you feel threatened? Well, file a copyright infringement lawsuit, of course.

Google responds to concerns over its consolidated privacy policy

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-05 Legal 4 Comments

Google has just responded to the first set of questions from the EU regarding its new consolidated privacy policy. The EU inquiry is being headed by the French - more specifically, by France's National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties. So, the country that monitors all its citizens' internet traffic for possible copyright infringement is spearheading the investigation into Google's new privacy policy? I'm not sure I should be laughing, crying, or shoving shards of smallpox-infested glass underneath my fingernails.

Possession of hacking tools to become criminal offence

Thom Holwerda 2012-04-04 Legal 43 Comments

"Cyber attacks on IT systems would become a criminal offence punishable by at least two years in prison throughout the EU under a draft law backed by the Civil Liberties Committee on Tuesday. Possessing or distributing hacking software and tools would also be an offence, and companies would be liable for cyber attacks committed for their benefit." Wait, what?

Guest post by fran 2012-03-27 Legal 42 Comments

"Linus Torvalds just can't help but be a thorn in Microsoft's side. First, he created an open source project that completely upset Microsoft's business model. And now, he has helped shoot down an important Microsoft patent in Redmond's crusade to wring licensing dollars out of Google Android and other versions of Linux."

Goliath v. David, AAC style

Thom Holwerda 2012-03-25 Legal 34 Comments

"Last week a large, profitable company sued a small start-up business for patent infringement. As a non-legal person, I can only guess that this sort of thing must happen fairly often. I would also guess that the large companies, which have the means to hire crackerjack legal teams and drag cases out, must often win. And while I guess I feel bad for the small businesses, I've never really cared before now. Because this time, the stakes are high. This time, it's my daughter's voice on the line. Literally." Infuriating. Maybe these are the kinds of stories we need to get normal people to care enough to force lawmakers to change. Sadly, the big bags of money from Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle are probably far more important to them than this sad story.

Google defends Hotfile (and Megaupload) in court

Thom Holwerda 2012-03-22 Legal 15 Comments

"Google has filed a brief at a federal court in Florida defending the file-hosting site Hotfile in its case against the MPAA. The search giant accuses the movie companies of misleading the court and argues that Hotfile is protected under the DMCA's safe harbor. Indirectly, Google is also refuting claims being made by the US government in the criminal case against Megaupload." Obviously, Google isn't really defending Hotfile or MegaUpload here - they're defending themselves by proxy.

Oracle’s final damage claim less than $100 million

Thom Holwerda 2012-03-20 Legal 39 Comments

Some people (you know who) predicted the Oracle-Google lawsuit would spell doom for Google and Android. Well, turns out this was all a huge fuss over nothing. Oracle's damages claim started at an idiotic $6 billion - but the final claim is less than $100 million. Oracle's patent trolling is turning into a huge failure of epic proportions.