Showing headlines posted by BernardSwiss

"This is not some pie-in-the-sky that's never been done before," said William Gale, codirector of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "It's doable, feasible, implementable, and at a relatively low cost." So why hasn't it become a reality?

It’s what science fiction dreams are made of: brightly colored, sphere-shaped robots that float above the ground, controlled by a tiny computer brain. But it isn't fiction: it’s the SPHERES satellite, and its brain is an Android smartphone.

Ubuntu maker Canonical has signed a deal with the Chinese government to create a new version of Ubuntu. For China, this is widely seen as an attempt "to wean its IT sector off Western software in favour of more home-grown alternatives," the BBC reported.

The Python Software Foundation recently went public with a battle against a company in Europe that was trying to claim a trademark over the name used for more than two decades by one of the world's most popular programming languages.

Intellectual property and DRM firm Intertrust Technologies has set its sights on Apple. The company has a new patent suit that targets the entirety of Apple's product line: iOS devices, Macs, Apple TVs, iTunes, iCloud, and even the App Store. Intertrust announced on Wednesday that it had filed suit against Apple in the Northern District of California for allegedly violating 15 of Intertrust's patents on security and "distributed trusted computing" (in other words, its DRM tech).

US Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante is about to give testimony (PDF) to part of the House Judiciary Committee, in which she proposes that the US government do something it hasn't done, ever—shorten copyright terms.

The importation of copyrighted goods made abroad has been an increasingly contentious issue in recent years. Easy access to Internet resale markets like eBay and Amazon have made it possible for a new breed of entrepreneurs to buy low and sell high in a wide array of areas. The Supreme Court handed these resellers a major victory today, issuing a decision [PDF] that makes it clear that the "first sale" doctrine protects resellers, even when they move goods across national boundaries.

DRM is rearing its malformed head again and biting the hands that feed it. Rather than simply making an otherwise useful product useless unless requirements x, y and z are met, this time DRM is issuing a clawback on <strike>purchased</strike> rented digital goods.

Unsurprisingly, major copyright holders hate the exemption, and they've waged a decade-long fight to weaken it. In 2007, UMG Recordings sued the video site Veoh, making arguments that, if accepted, would effectively neuter the safe harbor's protection for user-generated content sites. The courts have been weighing UMG and Veoh's arguments for the last six years.

According to a story at Android Police, a number of developers of Android apps which have the capability to block ads in Web browsers have received notifications from Google that their apps have been kicked out of the Google Play store and are no longer available for download.

AppleInsider reports that Apple has applied for a patent to potentially bring added functionality to future Smart Covers, such as the ability to charge an iOS device.

The difference in reasons why people who create, manage, and develop open-source and free software, and why end users consume it is a major philosophical disconnect.

Diana Kimball believes in "coding as a liberal art" - a new approach to university programming classes, one that teaches coding as a creative pursuit, rather than simply as a vocation. Seb Lee-Delisle hosts the Creative Coding podcast, and teaches creative coding workshops aimed at people who don't think of themselves as programmers.

When Mike Mika’s daughter was sad to learn she couldn’t play as a girl character in classic Donkey Kong, her father decided a little hacking was in order. Mika modified the ROM of the game so that the damsel/white-knight roles in the game were switched. Now Pauline ((Nintendo's precusor to the better known Princess Peach) runs, jumps, and dodges rolling barrels to save the dulcet Mario at the top of the screen, according to a Saturday post on reddit.

Soon after Google's decision to open source VP8, MPEG LA announced that it intended to form a patent pool of companies with patents relevant to VP8. In 2011, it announced that 12 companies had identified patents that covered aspects of the VP8 algorithm. Google, however, maintained that it owned all the relevant patents. Since that 2011 announcement, there has been little word from either company about the patent pool situation.

Just one month ago, the Chromebook Pixel was little more than a poorly sourced rumor. (And personally, while I didn't quite dismiss it out of hand I came pretty close.) Google was releasing a high-end Chromebook with a touchscreen? And that touchscreen would boast a better pixel density than either of the Retina MacBook Pros? The rumor definitely didn’t fit in with the latest (and by all accounts, most successful) wave of Chromebooks, which have turned heads not least because they're cheaper than any Chromebooks have been so far. And yet, here we are: the Chromebook Pixel is real, it’s on my desk, and it starts at $1,299.

Apple vs. Samsung initially ended with a billion-dollar verdict in favor of Apple, but there have been plenty of wrinkles since. This week brought about another, as Nokia filed an amicus brief on behalf of Apple, Inc. in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Supporters of copyright reform are hoping that 2013 is the year they get some real momentum going. In the wake of Monday's news that the White House and FCC now support consumers' rights to unlock their cell phones, a new coalition called has launched an effort to repeal the section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that forbids breaking "digital locks."

Android and iOS have existed in tension for a few years now, and each is continually borrowing ideas, designs, and features from the other. Nothing wrong with a little friendly theft when trying to stay competitive. The operating systems are far from exact mirrors of each other, and they have even grown more distinct with new generations. But there are a few features we’d still love to see cross sides, in the interest of keeping the operating systems functional and easy for customers to use. During the weekend, we looked at features Apple would be smart to borrow from Google. Today we turn the tables.

As we wait patiently for the Supreme Court to decide the Kirtsaeng case, concerning whether or not you can resell goods that were made outside the US but that can be covered by copyright inside the US, the folks at Demand Progress have put together a nice two and a half minute video highlighting the possible consequences of a ruling that goes against first sale rights and limits your ability to freely sell items you legally purchased.