With Americans electing a new president last week, change is the topic du jour. This is only compounded by the recent financial crisis, which led the chairman of the Federal Reserve to proclaim, "there are no atheists in foxholes and no ideologues in financial crises". Shortly thereafter, a bi-partisan coalition passed a bailout bill that […]
Lawrence Lessig, copyright activist and founder of Creative Commons, is promoting his new book “Remix”. In a recent Wall Street Journal column, he raises a number of criticisms of copyright law and suggests several reforms. One criticism focuses on YouTube and amateur videos that incorporate elements from copyrighted works. Lessig attempts to make his point […]
A recent tainted milk disaster in China has killed at least three infants and made thousands of others sick. Several countries have banned or recalled Chinese dairy products in response. Economic and health experts are still trying to measure the impact of the melamine contamination. But with allegations of cover-ups and corruption, this catastrophe raises […]
At this week's Republican National Convention, U.S. presidential candidate John McCain accepted his party's nomination in front of a picture of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But there was one small problem. He instead used a picture of the Walter Reed Middle School. While the McCain campaign was silent on the error, they received […]
Just days ago, a U.S. court made a decision that has reinforced the strength of "fair use". From the EFF: "A judge's ruling today is a major victory for free speech and fair use on the Internet, and will help protect everyone who creates content for the Web. In Lenz v. Universal (aka the 'dancing […]
Christopher Hansen, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, has become involved in a patent case for an "abstract idea". The patent in dispute belongs to Bernard L. Bilski: "In 2006, Bilski sought a patent for his idea that the weather risk involved in buying and selling commodities could be minimized if sellers had […]
Under Canadian patent law, the scope of patentable subject matter is still expanding. But under U.S. patent law, “anything under the sun made by man” is patentable. This has come to include patents for computer software. Software patents raise a debate over which algorithms are novel, and which are non-obvious. Some algorithms may arguably have […]
A patent is a bundle of exclusive rights. This allows an inventor to make, use, and sell a novel invention, without the threat of competition. It may seem odd, then, to acquire a patent without any intention of using or making that patented invention. But a new breed of company, the conspicuously named “patent troll”, […]