The latest on the STLR radar:
The New York Times explains that television providers, including TimeWarner and Verizon, are petitioning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change TV retransmission rules so that stations (like ABC or CBS) have less leverage over TV providers.
The FCC is also asking people to test their broadband speeds at its website, [...]
On February 8, 2007, Stephanie Lenz uploaded a 29-second home movie of her son walking around her kitchen and dancing to YouTube. Her son is bopping along to the beat of Prince’s “Let’s Get Crazy.” Unlike some YouTube videos, this music was not added after through an editing process – it is merely the song [...]
To doctors, the HeLa cell line is an invaluable tool in the treatment of disease; to the Lacks family, it is an invaluable piece of their mother. The HeLa cell line, the first “immortal” cell line, is the solution to overcoming many impediments in biomedical research, and a key tool in developing certain cures and [...]
Ever since Google’s recent announcement that it would no longer comply with China’s requirements for censored search results, U.S. companies doing business in China have come under increased scrutiny from human rights groups and American lawmakers, the New York Times reports. This scrutiny is directed at the companies’ compliance with internet censorship demands from the [...]
The latest on the STLR radar:
Out-Law reports on a US District Court for the Northern District of California case that clarifies how damages for groundless claims of copyright infringement should be determined.
Apple is suing HTC over infringement of its user interface patents, but it’s really Google it’s after, says IP Watchdog.
RealNetworks drops its appeal against [...]
On February 16, 2010, the Assemblée Nationale, the lower house of the French legislature, approved the draft Loi d’Orientation et de Programmation pour la Sécurité Intérieure (Law on the Orientation and Programming for Internal Security, or “LOPPSI”[1]). After the DADVSI law of 2007, which criminalized Digital Rights Management (DRM) circumvention, and the controversial HADOPI law [...]
For video games, the horizon may hold more than the promise of superior graphics, improved audio bitrates, and expanded narrative. Following the rise of increasingly complex and inclusive second-life simulations, i.e., MMORPGs (“massively multiplayer online role playing games”), gamers and developers alike are now faced with a variety of legal troubles both novel and daunting. [...]
A federal appeals court held that federal agents need not get warrants to search files shared over peer-to-peer networks, reports Wired.
The Pentagon will now allow troops access to online social media like Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace, Business Weekly reports.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given Google a license to trade energy on the wholesale market, [...]
Congratulations to Professor Andrew B. Dzeguze (and to us)!
Last year, we published his article, The Devil in the Details: A Critique of KSR’s Unwarranted Reinterpretation of “Person Having Ordinary Skill”. It has since been selected for inclusion in the Patent Law Review, an annual anthology published by West, as one of the best patent articles [...]
The latest on the STLR radar:
As it launches its cloud computing platform, Azure, Microsoft calls for federal regulation to clarify many of the open legal questions surrounding cloud computing, says the MTTLR Blog.
Ten years after it applies, TiVo is granted patent for season pass subscriptions, writes Gizmodo (see our recent post on TiVo’s patent battle [...]