Intellectual Property Patents Threaten Traditional Knowledge - IIED

Tue June 30,2009
WINDHOEK – According to the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) comparative study, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) aims to develop rules for protecting rights over traditional knowledge about medical plants, which IIED says conventional intellectual property (IP) laws do not cover.
The problem, says IIED, is that WIPO intends to use [...]

The Pirate Bay snapped up by software firm

Tue June 30, 2009
Global Gaming Factory X, a Swedish software company, has bought The Pirate Bay, the Bittorrent sharing site, and Peerialism, the company that developed the technology behind the site. From August, Global Gaming Factory will take over the running of the site.

“We [...]

Too many social networks? GizaPage puts them all into one social home page

Tue June 30, 2009
In case you hadn’t heard, all the cool kids are going “vanity” these days - vanity Facebook URLs, vanity phone numbers on Google Voice and now vanity social networking pages where all of your profiles, from Facebook and Twitter to Flickr and YouTube, can be viewed and managed [...]

Superhacker Max Butler Pleads Guilty

TUE JUNE 30, 2009
PITTSBURGH — A skilled San Francisco-based computer hacker who once sought to unite the cyber underworld under his benign rule pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges here Monday, admitting he stole nearly 2 million credit card numbers from banks, businesses and other hackers, which were used to rack up $86 million [...]

KYNO owner sues KMJ over Web site

John Ostlund says trademark hijacked.
The owner of a new talk radio station in Fresno is alleging that Peak Broadcasting, which runs market leader KMJ, basically hijacked his trademark.
John Ostlund, who operates KYNO (AM 1300), filed a lawsuit in Fresno County Superior Court last week claiming that Peak Broadcasting misappropriated the KYNO trademark [...]

True RIAA ’settlement’ stats revealed

Tue Jun 30, 2009
RIAA - It’s standard RIAA rhetoric to imply many thousands of people across America have been successfully ‘prosecuted’ for the non-crime of file sharing.
In fact, only Jammie Thomas-Rasset has ever appeared before a jury, and her case was a farce from beginning to end.
She was accused of stealing [...]

Recording studios cautious after violent incidents

Tue Jun 30, 2009

ATLANTA – DJ Montay rarely leaves the recording studio without having someone give the all-clear from outside, counting his blessings each time he’s able to leave without any trouble.”I don’t feel completely safe,” said DJ Montay, who has produced [...]

Facebook Page Frenzy Due Today: URLs Available to All

Update: Facebook has now increased the minimum number of fans required from 25 to 100. No reason was given for the change, which occurred in the Facebook Help text today.
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A reminder: today is the due date for Facebook to switch on Facebook URLs for pages with less than 1000 fans: in other words, almost all [...]

Feds Mulling Incentives for Secure Software

Tax breaks for better software? That’s one idea on the table as officials work to flesh out government role in public-private partnerships.
WASHINGTON — With the federal government’s cybersecurity policy in flux, lawmakers and officials are exploring different paths to improve collaboration with the private sector, including the possibility of providing incentives [...]

Repubs say the Waxman-Markey bill is DOA in Senate

There was not a kind word to heard be from the Republican Party today about the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill. Obama calls the bill “bold and necessary.” The Republicans called it names. Waxman-Markey would change many aspects of federal law on energy, air pollution and global warming.
Amazingly one reader smart enough to find the ZDnet website [...]