Digital World Norway Outlaws iTunes

Administrator — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:08:27 +0000

Interesting…I’m not a big fan of governments legislating services – particular a service like this in part because there are available options to work around Apple’s Fairplay DRM and allow play of downloaded items on other players. So I’m not sure what to think about this. On the one hand — it would be great if the whole DRM concept could be scrapped — or at least — unified to a single open format. On the other, I find this kind of meddling to be very disturbing on a number of levels, so I guess we’ll see where it goes from here. Link below.

–TR

Link to Digital World Norway Outlaws iTunes

Groklaw – Patent Office Orders Re-Examination of Blackboard Patent

Administrator — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:57:02 +0000

Uh, oh. Looks like the folks at Blackboard should have just let well enough alone. Given a short period of time, a pluthera of prior art was able to quickly be located — enough to cause a re-examination of the patent. See the link:

Link to Groklaw – Patent Office Orders Re-Examination of Blackboard Patent

I always wonder why a company would try to enforce a patent that is questionable at best. The whole process to defend the patent is expensive — and the ill will generated certainly can’t be worth it. Ah, well.

–TR

Terry's Worklog » Patent Stupidity

Digital World Norway Outlaws iTunes

Groklaw – Patent Office Orders Re-Examination of Blackboard Patent