The only thing more boring than a press release is reading a monster-size posting on who's suing who over what line of code and why. There has to be a better way to stay informed. Today the creative gang at RealTechNews has gathered up the legal news of the week and displayed it here in one easy to find place. That way, if you're feeling like wading into the issues you can jump off to more info. Otherwise, you can happily resume our more technical and product oriented coverage. Let us know what you think and what other handy "Round-Ups" you'd like to see.
Law isn't "Tech" and lawsuits are only a small aspect of law. If you wanted to do anything constructive, point to Larry Lessig and the myriad of law blogs and just give it up.
Regulation change alone is more devistating and important to the average person than the "hot case of the day"
Apple v. Franklin was the important case - where the courts found that microcode and machine languages (not human readable instructions) were worthy of copyright protection. That was 26 years ago...
Diamond v. Diehr established that computer programs that controlled "real world" things were patentable. That was 25 years ago.
All else flows from these two decisions.
Just drop this topic...what little you grasp and what little you find doesn't really do much for your readers.
BTW, Larry Lessig just slammed Bill's support for the "Private enterprise" WIFI law in Pennsylvania.
He chose to point out how the government is denying the private sector the right to provide photons - street lights -
I don't see a problem with this. In fact, I think it's kind of nice because there's so much legal news out there that you could spend your entire life looking at it and still fall behind. This is relevant tech-related news that I think many readers find interesting (I do at least). Plus, it's one post a week--not the main focus of the blog. I also don't see why "how much you know" is an issue here since Alice did not comment on any of these articles. All she did was post them here for other people to investigate and form their own opinions.
"if you're feeling like wading into the issues you can jump off to more info. Otherwise, you can happily resume our more technical and product oriented coverage"
Hi Will, "Todd" and David, I wasn't trying to be insulting in any way. We're just experimenting with ways of handling important legal news without taking this blog off topic. Since these cases involve technology companies, they fall somewhat into the realm of tech news, but I would hate to read posting after posting on Microsoft settling with company X, and company Y countersuing company Z. Argghhh.
That's where the idea of the weekly round-up came up. Once a week we post a list of links to the various cases, and then if you really get into one, you can just keep on surfing and hit the many great legal blogs and sites out there that live for this stuff. As "Todd" put it "Law isn't 'tech.'
The only thing more boring than a press release is reading a monster-size posting on who's suing who over what line of code and why.