The first part is being translated. There is not much to see here unless you are particularly involved or interested in the subject of software patents in Europe (of great relevance to FFII).
TiVo Inc. on Thursday proclaimed itself winner of the latest round in its battle against EchoStar Communications Corp. after federal regulators validated the digital video recorder maker's patent that is central to the case.
Microsoft is succumbing to patent trolls today, as they’re being ordered to pay over $140 million for, get this, asking for two passwords. The original award was ordered in April last year by a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, widely known as the friendliest court for patent trolls. There Microsoft and Autodesk were saddled with $158 million (plus attorney fees) for asking users to “input two passwords during the process of activating newly installed software with the aim of deterring piracy.”
On Tuesday, November 27th, there were 126 companies sued nationwide for patent infringement. 113 of them were sued in the Eastern District of Texas. That's more companies sued in one day in East Texas than have been sued in all of 2007 so far in Detroit. Or Dallas. Or Eastern Virginia. Or Minnesota. Or Boston. Or Philadelphia.
The commercial exploitation of users won't stop until users exercise full control over their software or - more broadly - their computing (including data)
"In this open letter, the CSC requests that the President submits an agenda item in the next available General Consultative Committee (GCC) meeting on setting up regular meetings between the CSC and the higher management of DG1."
