Facts don’t violate trademarks

Facts don’t violate trademarks:

In its revised ruling, the court embraced EFF’s arguments, holding that using a competitor’s name in the course of conveying truthful information does not violate trademark law. The ruling pointed out that: « While the evidence submitted to the Court demonstrates that Defendants’ web site does contain frequent references to J.K. Harris, these references are not gratuitous; rather, Defendants’ web site refers to J.K. Harris by name in order to make statements about it. »

The Taxes.com decision has been reversed.

[via Boing Boing]

Joli CV

Je suis retombé, grâce à NSLog();, sur ce CV assez exceptionnel [lien retiré: pixelpharmacy.com a visiblement change de vocation depuis la date de ce billet]. Il m’en faut un!

Parlant de NSLog, il m’apprend que XLR8yourmac a un feed RSS, ce que j’Ignorais. C’était le dernier site hors aggrégateur que je visitais quasi quotidiennement. Je suis donc tout à fait en accord avec ce billet.

CDMA to be forced on Iraq

I’m trying not to blog about the war, which makes it hard to find worthy tech stories. This bill however, that aims to force CDMA over Iraq (instead of GSM, which everybody else uses around there (and which is also prefered in the UK)) just takes the palm.

A coalition is underfoot in the U.S. Congress to replace European with American cell phone technology in Iraq as soon as the conflict is over and the country rebuilds.

In a very kind act of colonialist benevolence, the US want to better the economic situation of local companies (Qualcomm) at what is, arguably, the detriment of Iraq. Not because CDMA is technically inferior, but because the motifs are essentially economic and it is probably just a taste of things to come: Iraq as a brand new exclusive market for American companies.

[via Slashdot]

U.S. EBay Seller Refuses Canucks.

Wired story:

David Ingram received notification that his winning bid of $24.50 had been canceled, along with this message: « At the present time, we do not ship to, or accept bids from, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany or any other country that does not support the United States in our efforts to rid the world of Saddam Hussein. If you are not with us, you are against us. »

Out of curiosity, are such restraints on trade theoretically allowed under the WTO agreements (or NAFTA)? Or do those treaties only concern government imposed barriers and tariffs?

[via Algorythm]

La Cour suprême et Caillou

L’arbitrage et la Loi sur le statut professionnel des artistes des arts visuels, des métiers d’art et de la littérature et sur leurs contrats avec les diffuseurs?

L’arbitrage et la Loi sur le droit d’auteur?

L’arbitrage et l’ordre public?

Quoi? La propriété intellectuelle et la Cour suprême?

Extra extra, get the decision in French or in English here.

Editor’s note: I would like to give a shout out to all my homies out there who reades the excellent Pressepapiers.net…. Umm… should have posted earlier… but human nature… la paresse… :p

Sony c. Sony

Furdlog on a post by Mark Mulligan at Jupiter Research on the diverging interests of Sony Music and Sony Electronics.

The conclusion:

Or, it may mean that Sony will be the first to solve the puzzle and break the assumption in the opening paragraph of this quote – that supporting full technical capability in consumer electronics devices need not mean destruction of the music business – just the current music business model.

And while you’re visiting Furdlog, check out this link for the tale of a mp3 witch hunt the old fashioned way.

GMPCS

Les téléphones satellites font jaser d’eux ces jours-ci. La dernière fois que j’avais entendu parler d’Iridium c’était à propos de spéculation sur le spectacle d’étoiles filantes que leurs oiseaux promettaient de nous offrir en se faisant désorbiter.

Apparament je suis en retard dans les nouvelles: Globalstar et Iridium sont toujours en affaires. Les prix ne sont plus absolument exorbitants (juste un peu) et les téléphones sont presque jolis, selon le petit article de MobileTracker.

Les accros(e) peuvent visiter le bien nommé Satellites-Phones.org

[via Gizmodo]

[MàJ: oui, évidemment je me suis mélangé dans les acronymes. Je voulais dire GMPCS (Global Mobile Personal Communications Systems) et pas GPRS (General Packet Radio Service, un standard de téléphonie cellulaire). J’ai corrigé le titre, ce qui brise les permaliens. Tant pis.]

Quote

« The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one »
Albert Einstein

Est-ce que ça ne s’applique pas à toutes les nouvelles technologies?

[Via Quote of the Day]