Intellectual Property Law Internet Law IT Law Computer Law

I saw www.legalnywindows.pl website (legal Windows, Polish Microsoft’s branch media action). I wonder if I have illegal copy of Debian or Ubuntu Linux. ;) Think different, oh wait isn’t this phrase trademarked? To be precise just check US trademark no. 78139925. Anyway. I would just recommend to anyone not to use this “piracy” qualifications because it is not appropriate. In passing, when you do quick TESS search it gives interesting results when it comes to the pirate word. I recommend you to check it.

Funny set of icons at David Goodger’s website.

AOL cancelled the premiere of Weird Al’s video “White and Nerdy”. The reason was that someone leaked out this movie on the net. There is Weird Al’s comment/statement about this issue. You can also watch it.

I somehow think that it is a clear example of a viral marketing. What is your opinion?

Yet another example that you can earn “real” money on digital stuff. Now it is all about cars and tracks for the game “Gran Turismo HD”. Check the article at www.1up.com website. There is another article about micropaymenents and comics at www.henryjenkins.org website.

One more time the German court acknowledged binding power of the GPL licence. More details about the case against D-Link at www.gpl-violations.org website.

Leszek Bogdanowicz together with Marek Borzestowski and Jacek Kawalec started one of the biggest Polish portal sites Wirtualna Polska - www.wp.pl. Later on he ended cooperation with this company and started its own but the business was not so successful. Now he is seeking his rights to Wirtualna Polska firm’s name. Lawyers from the second side are claiming that this name is not an induvidual and creative work thus it can not be a copyrightable subject. This litigation has more complex nature because of the opposition pending before the Polish Patent Office. Bogdanowicz is involved into opposition procedure against graphic trademarks rights issued to Wirtualna Polska Company. The Opposition Board ordered him to fill a motion before the civil court to determine if the Wirtualna Polska name can be treated as a copyrightable work. It there will be a judgement favourable for Leszek Bogdanowicz he can effectively bring an action and the Board is bind to cancel all registered trademarks rights. This procedure is based on regulations included in the article 8 of the Trademark Act (reapealed) which provided that one can not register a trademark if it infringes personal or property rights of a third person. More details in the article at www.rzeczpospolita.pl website.

It looks like even an unlicensed copy of Microsoft Windows is perfectly genuine. Read more about this word usage and its context in Bill Poser’s article.

Using wireless technology which is implemented in Zune player to exchange files may cause that Creative Commons licence will be violated. More details about this “viral” operations of “DRMs” are described at www.medialoper.com website.

Microsoft cares about publicity just check for example www.microsoft.com/presspass website. Nintendo opened its press site for WII also - www.press.nintendo.com/wiipreview. Supposedly it is accessible only for users with login (guest) and password (nintendo), but as you can see those data are widely available in the net. Clever marketing move? Speaking about such players I wonder if France will consider Microsoft to open its ZUNE standards as they did with iTunes. Well if owners do not this, the legislator can not cope with it (it is more easier to prohibit then to allow) then programmes must do it. You can read about that at www.engadget.com website in the article with all telling title “iTunes 7 patches QTFairUse 2.2, QTFairUse 2.3 patches iTunes 7″. Nothing more to write. Being around such topics. See Dave Chappelle’s visualisation of the Internet i.e. spam issues and illegal downloading, etc. ;)

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in the case National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corp., 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63591, PDF file, that a retailer may be sued if it is breaking The Americans with Disabilities Act (Public Law 101-336, U.S. Statutes at Large, 104 Stat. 327 on July 27, 1990). The suit may be filled if a website is inaccessible to the blind people. The crucial case mentioned above concerned Target Corp. website of course. More details and some short comments in the information at www.businesswire.com website. At last some good news from the US jurisdiction in this field. More about web accessibility initiative and all this stuff at www.w3.org website. It is not so expensive to put into practice such solutions. It is also worth noting that those standards are open. All public institutions should follow them without buying any prorietary and imcompatibile technologies. But those are important issues for a pithy and specific scientific essay/article and not for a blog post.

I wasn’t quite sure if I should post it but then I realized that I swear like a trooper and I do not want to pretend to be goody-goody. Well first check www.legalreader.com website with an article about the notice of appeal of an “asshole Ronald B. Leighton’s decision”. Nice. There is also short info about a “Motion to Kiss My Ass”. And last but not least. Fairman, Christopher M., “Fuck” (March 2006). Ohio State Public Law Working Paper No. 59. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=896790. I hope you’ll enjoy those readings as I did.

Ok. There are a lot of websites with HOWTOs about unlocking your cell via code, or how to remove SIM-lock via cable and with instructions about building such cables also. However at www.instructables.com website you may find step-by-step guide with some good quality pictures how to remove an operator or producer’s logo/trademark using sugar.

Regarding to proceedings initiated by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection which are concerning funny (in my opinion) “rights” and “duties” to movies distributed on DVDs there are some comments at Piotr Waglowski website about this issues. I rembered myself about also absurd “warning” which I saw in the Multikino (a Polish cinema’s network) on the box office’s display. I liked it so much so I took Wojtek’s phone and took a picture. My favourite part is “Each attempt to record a movie will lead to the confiscation of the recording device”. I asked also if there is any Polish lawyer who would like try to enforce this Multikino’s rules? Or is this only another American’s import of funny pseudolegal rules into the Polish legal system? Anyway. Check www.brendamake.com and www.monochrom.at websites with another “warnings”.

Good post and a good illustration inside, just check www.goodmagazine.com with a short story about political sell-out, oh I am really sorry! This is about financing political campaings. I found it at www.boingboing.net website.

If your passions are branding and brands issues then you’ll find something interesting on websites mentioned below. Initially check www.goodlogo.com website with very interesting combinations and articles. A website dedicated for designers to exchange logotypes in vector files formats - www.logotypy.intertop.pl. Check also www.logotypes.designer.am. It is quite lovely but I am not sure about its creativity attitude, briefly - free logotypes from designers for designers. And last but not least Vitaly Friedman’s website - www.alvit.de. It is a very big and nice compilation of links about design aspects. Have a nice surfing.