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Archive for the 'Law' Category

Feb 25^th 2008	GPLv3 v2 I was just checking stats on adoption of the GPLv3. The total number of projects under v3 is approaching 2,000, and, as we know, some really visible projects switched from v2 to v3 some time ago, including Samba and SugarCRM (Community Edition). Few topics of common interest to tech lawyers and technologists have generated as much passionate […]
Feb 6^th 2008	Desparately seeking sunshine West coast lawyers who do VC financings generally don’t appreciate the fact that the annual meeting of the National Venture Capital Association Model Financing Documents drafting committee always occurs this time of year someplace warm and sunny, but I sure do. I’m off to the 2008 meeting, which is tomorrow in San Diego. I unfortunately won’t be there long enough to […]
Jan 29^th 2008	A new day dawning for digital media? Lots of interesting press in recent weeks and months in the digital media distribution arena: Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Oasis and others break away from major labels last fall to bring their music direct to fans, and Madonna helps concert promoter Live Nation transform itself into a record company as she ditches Warner Music Amazon adds Sony BMG’s catalog to its online […]
Jan 16^th 2007	Tech Law 4.0? (Part 2) In a post a few weeks ago, I offered a few thoughts about legal and policy issues that are emerging as the Net continues to evolve. I began by discussing some legal issues presented by the new services paradigm, and I promised to follow up by commenting on some of the implications of mash-ups and other […]
Dec 20^th 2006	Link to Webcast declared Copyright Infringement A federal trial court judge in Texas recently ruled that one website owner’s link to a webcast posted on another website infringes the second website owner’s copyright in the webcast. You can read the case, Live Nation Motor Sports v. Davis, here. This case offers lessons both small and large: One small lesson is that the statutory formalities for obtaining […]
Dec 11^th 2006	It may be big and useful, but, I’m sorry, it’s just not very creative A producer of rubber – er, you know what — can’t rely on copyright law to prevent a competitor from using its designs, says Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the U.S. District Court for northern California in her November 17th opinion in ConWest Resources Inc. v. Playtime Novelties Inc. ConWest, which sells sex toys, holds 12 copyright registrations on the designs for rubber ”sculptures” of […]
Dec 4^th 2006	Caveat investor A lawsuit accusing Napster investors Hummer Winblad and Bertelsmann of contributory copyright infringement should proceed to trial, says Judge Patel, who presided over the original suit against Napster. Napster-the-corporation is long bankrupt and defunct, of course, so the record companies, music publishers and composers that sued the company have been seeking compensation from its investors. They claim the investors […]
Dec 3^rd 2006	Tech Law 4.0? (Part 1) In typical tech industry fashion, Web 2.0 is last eon’s news, and Web 3.0, the arrival of which was declared by some over a year ago, will soon be yesterday’s news. Search for Web 4.0, and you’ll already find people staking their claims (and others driving stakes through them). All this, despite the fact that […]
Dec 1^st 2006	Stallman on the Microsoft-Novell deal Richard Stallman says the Microsoft-Novell deal does not violate the GPL v2.
Nov 29^th 2006	Obviously perturbed Oral argument in KSR v. Teleflex occurred yesterday. The Supremes are obviously perturbed about the current state of patent law. Patents are to be granted only on inventions that aren’t obvious, and a key question in this case is what test should be used to determine whether an invention meets this standard. In a world where patents sometimes are issued for […]