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Your Rights Online: Patents, privacy, and people who would like to read your e-mail.
Posted by jamie_k on Monday October 18, @07:30AM EDTfrom the click-here-to-infringe dept. Prior Art Pete writes "The online bookseller Orinoco.com has been granted U.S. Patent 5,999,999 covering 'a method and system for placing an order by means of a pointing device actuated a single time.' The claims appear to cover any web store where you buy something with one click. Competitors are said to be considering a two-click workaround, or in one case, a long press." The patent office appears to be granting patents on anything that runs on a computer and has been done before, as long as it is described with enough words. I'm patenting 'a method of reading Dashdot at work.' ( Read More... | 15 of 22 comments | 221 bytes in body )
Posted by jamie_k on Saturday October 16, @04:10PM EDTfrom the forty-bits-of-security dept. Linixdvd writes "A program called DeScramble that decrypts DVD video has appeared on the net, apparently because one software player left its key lying around unencrypted. The goal, according to its authors, was to let Linix users watch DVDs they had bought. The movie studios do not appear to see it that way." Forty-bit keys in 1999. Somewhere a cryptographer is crying into a pocket protector. ( Read More... | 24 of 28 comments | 225 bytes in body )
Posted by jamie_k on Friday October 15, @09:30PM EDTfrom the by-reading-this-headline-you-agree dept. LawGeek writes "A proposed model law called UCLUTA would make shrink-wrap and click-through licenses enforceable in every state that adopts it, let vendors disable software remotely, and allow licenses to forbid publishing benchmarks or reviews. It is being considered in state legislatures right now, mostly without anyone noticing." Write your state representatives. Use paper. They read paper. ( Read More... | 18 of 25 comments )
Posted by jamie_k on Wednesday October 13, @09:12PM EDTfrom the hi-to-everyone-reading-this dept. ParanoidPolly writes "A European parliamentary report has described Project Earwig, an alleged international network of listening stations that sifts phone calls, faxes and e-mail for keywords. A group of netizens has declared October 21 'Jam Earwig Day' and is asking everyone to put suspicious-sounding words in their e-mail signatures." Hello to all our readers in the listening stations. Please moderate this story up. ( Read More... | 27 of 33 comments )
Posted by jamie_k on Monday October 11, @10:40PM EDTfrom the this-domain-for-sale dept. DomainDave writes "A bill that lets trademark holders sue people who register domain names 'in bad faith' has passed. Critics say the definition of bad faith is so broad that a kid named Mike who registered mike.com could be dragged into court by a soft drink company with a Mike product." I had a domain once. I let it expire. Now it's a casino. ( Read More... | 17 of 21 comments )
Posted by jamie_k on Monday October 11, @01:10PM EDTfrom the the-browser-is-part-of-the-OS dept. CourtWatcher writes "The judge in the government's antitrust case against Monolith Software is expected to issue findings of fact within weeks. At issue is whether bundling the Navigational Explorer browser into Portals 98 was an attempt to crush Netsail. Monolith's lawyers maintain that the browser cannot be removed without breaking the operating system, and also that it can be removed easily if you really want to." Both of those statements were made under oath, by the way. On different days. ( Read More... | 22 of 29 comments )
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Your Rights Online: Orinoco.com Granted Patent on Clicking
