March ← 2010 ← Innovation Law Blog

There may be fewer IPv4 addresses left than thought

Mar

2010

The Canadian IPv6 Task Group has released its final report. CircleID notes that one of its findings is that many of the unallocated blocks of IP addresses are actually being used unofficially. These ‘dirty’ blocks may be less reliable as a result of address conflicts and unwanted traffic. IPv6 would provide more than enough addresses ...

Amazon granted patent on video-taping packing process

Billy Barnes

Mar

2010

A new patent awarded to Amazon covers videotaping the packing process and retaining the video to prove that the product was undamaged and complete before shipping. The process will allow Amazon (which has a generous re-shipping policy) to verify customer complaints of missing items. The method may also provide third party suppliers with the opportunity ...

Should spying on laptops be considered wiretapping?

Billy Barnes

Mar

2010

The US Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs held a hearing on the application of wiretapping law to the Pennsylvania school that was caught spying on students using the webcams on their laptops. Arguments were presented on both sides. The EFF said it was inconsistent that the current law would cover enabling the microphone on ...

Beyonce pirating her own music?

Matthew Derricott

Mar

2010

It is being reported on thewrap.com that Sony Music has blocked videos of Beyonce appearing on YouTube for copyright infringement. What’s interesting is that the videos being blocked are on Beyonce’s own YouTube channel. The article states that “Sony’s move is the first time a record company has shut down one of its own superstars”.

Fujitsu assigns iPad trademark to Apple

Billy Barnes

Mar

2010

When the iPad was announced, tablet-PC manufacturer Fujitsu pointed out that they owned the trademark to the name. As a result of undisclosed negotiations, the iPad trademark now belongs to Apple.

Piracy up in France after three strikes law passed

Billy Barnes

Mar

2010

According to researchers, since the three strikes law was introduced in France, P2P piracy is down 15%. However, dramatic shifts to methods not addressed by the law have led to an overall piracy increase of 3%. The three strikes law was passed last year in France. It saw some setbacks during the summer but a ...

Motion control patent pre-dating all motion controlled mobile devices

Billy Barnes

Mar

2010

For those following the current round of patent litigation among mobile device manufacturers, here is an interesting patent: “Method and apparatus for controlling a computer system“. It appears to cover any use of motion to “update the state/display” of the device. So, who owns it? Cnet reports that it is owned by a mysterious Vegas-based ...

The role of cognitive dissonance in the copyright debate

Eric Chamney

Mar

2010

Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable feeling people get when they hold two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The purpose of this blog post is to examine to what extent the avoidance of cognitive dissonance plays a part in the ongoing copyright reform debate. It would be no exaggeration to state that the copyright reform debate is one ...

Opera submits web browser to App Store

Billy Barnes

Mar

2010

Despite Apple’s (potentially anti-competitive) policy of rejecting applications that duplicate existing Apple-provided functions, Opera has created and submitted a iPhone version of its mobile web browser to the App Store. Apple has previously rejected alternative podcasting and music applications as well as the Google Voice application. Will it be accepted? 9 hours, 37 minutes, 22 ...

Google stops censoring searches in China

Matthew Derricott

Mar

2010

CNN.com reports that Google has stopped censoring search results in China. David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, had this to say regarding the decision; “We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services”. Concurrent with the announcement ...