trichard writes tips a column on the editorial page at that most traditional of mainstream media, the Wall Street Journal, arguing the point (obvious to this community for a decade) that the US patent system costs more than the value it delivers. The columnist is L. Gordon Crovitz and here is an excerpt: “New drugs require great specificity to earn a patent, whereas patents are often granted to broad, thus vague, innovations in software, communications, and other technologies. Ironically, the aggregate value of these technology patents is then wiped out through litigation costs. Our patent system [is] a disincentive at a time when we expect software and other technology companies to be the growth engine of the economy. Envision how much more productive our information-driven economy would be if the patent system lived up to the intention of the Founders, by encouraging progress instead of suppressing it.”

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An anonymous reader points out an announcement up at Attrition.org, that going forward their Data Loss Database will be taken over and maintained by the Open Security Foundation. From the news release: “…OSF is pleased to announce that the DataLossDB (also known as the Data Loss Database — Open Source [DLDOS] currently run by Attrition.org) will be formally maintained as an ongoing project under the OSF umbrella organization as of July 15, 2008… The project’s core mission is to track the loss or theft of personally identifying information not just from the United Says, but across the world. As of June 4, 2008, DataLossDB contains information on over 1,000 breaches of personal identifying information covering over 330 million records. The… DataLossDB will be free for download and use in non-profit work and research. The new website launch builds off of the current data set and provides an extensive list of new features.”

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trichard writes tips a column on the editorial page at that most traditional of mainstream media, the Wall Street Journal, arguing the point (obvious to this community for a decade) that the US patent system costs more than the value it delivers. The columnist is L. Gordon Crovitz and here’s an excerpt: “New drugs require great specificity to earn a patent, whereas patents are often granted to broad, thus vague, innovations in software, communications, and other technologies. Ironically, the aggregate value of these technology patents is then wiped out through litigation costs. Our patent system [is] a disincentive at a time when we anticipate software and other technology companies to be the growth engine of the economy. Imagine how much more productive our information-driven economy would be if the patent system lived up to the intention of the Founders, by encouraging progress instead of suppressing it.”

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I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “With SCO in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and there being little to read other than status reports and the boring financial details of how the company is wasting its last few dollars, one could be excused for thinking the SCO lawsuits had lost their zip. But things just got a bit more interesting. Jonathan Lee Riches has asked the court to take over. Yes, the man also known as inmate #40948-018 is now bringing his legal experience to the table, having previously filed pro se lawsuits against such entities as Michael Vick, Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle, the Lincoln Memorial, the Thirteen Tribes of Israel, ‘Various Buddhist Monks,’ Mein Kampf, Denny’s, George W. Bush, the Soviet Gulag Archipelago, Bellevue Hospital, Iran’s Evin Prison, Auschwitz, and Plato. In his hand-written pro se motion (PDF), he asks to intervene as Plaintiff pursuant to FRCP 24(a)(2). As best anyone can read the motion, it appears that he offered Novell some ‘royalty payments’ and they refused them, so he wants to protect his UnixWare rights. He also claims to have proof of SCO’s claims, but he wants take over part of the case via FRCP 24 because SCO isn’t competent, and allegedly he could do a better job. To be fair, between him and Darl, it’s something of a toss-up.”

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Reader The other A.N. Other, among others, alerts us to the news that Apple has filed suit against Psystar, the unauthorized clonemaker. (We’ve been discussing Psystar from the start.) The suit alleges violation of Apple’s shrink wrap license and trademarks, and also copyright infringement. News of the lawsuit, filed on July 3, first surfaced on a legal blog. There’s speculation that the case has been sealed.

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Barence, following up on yesterday’s news that Viacom is looking for videos uploaded by Google staff, links to an article at Personal computer Pro, excerpting: “Google and Viacom have reached a deal to protect the privacy of millions of YouTube watchers. Earlier this month, a New York federal judge ordered Google to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom and other plaintiffs to help them prepare a confidential study of what they argue are vast piracy violations on the video-sharing site. Google claims it had now agreed to provide plaintiffs’ attorneys with a version of a big viewership database that blanks out YouTube usernames and IP addresses that could be used to identify individual video watchers.”

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Captain Kirk writes “World of Warcraft owners Blizzard have won their case against the programmer who wrote Glider, Michael Donnelly. (We discussed the case here when it was filed.) Blizzard won on two arguments: first, that if a game is loaded into RAM, that can be considered an unauthorized copy of the game and as such a breach of copyright; second, that selling Glider was interfering with Blizzard’s contractual relationship with its customers. The net effect? If you purchase a game, you transfer rights to the game developer that they have the ability to sue you for.”

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sm62704 notes a Reuters story reporting that eBay has beat Tiffany in court in a “knockout” decision. If this had gone the other way, not only would eBay be in trouble (especially after the loss of a similar case in France), but so would Net commerce as a whole. Tiffany seems certain to appeal. “All of Tiffany’s trademark infringement claims against eBay were rejected — a knockout blow to the four-year-old lawsuit that had been closely watched by World wide web companies as well as luxury goods makers seeking to halt the sale of counterfeit products online. Tiffany & Co had alleged that eBay turned a blind eye to the sale of fake Tiffany silver jewelry on its site. EBay had countered that it was not in a position to determine which goods were knock-offs… and had said the jeweler didn’t adequately participate in eBay’s programs that help brand owners prevent fraud. The judge… stated he was ‘not unsympathetic’ to Tiffany and others who have invested in building their brands only to see them exploited on the Web. But he said the law was clearly on eBay’s side.”

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mako writes “The FSF just announced the results of a meeting it held on software freedom and network services. They are hailing the launch of a new group called Autonomo.us to follow up on these issues and the publication of the Franklin Street Statement on Freedom and Network Services which lays out a set of suggestions and guidelines for protecting freedom for software as a service.” Update 22:07 GMT by SM: Corrected language incorrectly crediting FSF with creating Autonomo.us.

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Wired’s Threat Level blog reports that the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Recently passed by both the House and Senate, FISA was signed into law on Thursday by President Bush. The ACLU has fought aspects of FISA in the past. The new complaint (PDF) alleges the following: “The law challenged here supplies none of the safeguards that the Constitution demands. It permits the government to monitor the communications of U.S. Citizens and residents without identifying the people to be surveilled; without specifying the facilities, places, premises, or property to be monitored; without observing meaningful limitations on the retention, analysis, and dissemination of acquired information; without obtaining individualized warrants based on criminal or foreign intelligence probable cause; and, indeed, without even making prior administrative determinations that the targets of surveillance are foreign agents or connected in any way, however tenuously, to terrorism.”

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