should not be subject to patents in the first place - imagine every school child paying, say, Microsoft for using the Pythagorean theorem (which was, of course, well known long before Pythagoras) ! But selling out the results of research funded by the public purse to deep-pocketed corporations is par for the course - government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich scores yet another triumph !...
Henri
You don't seem to have been doing your homework - or perhaps, since the news is all of two months old, you've simply forgotten that your government wants to allow the FBI to compel internet providers to turn over records of an individual's internet activity without a court order (goo.gl/Lijh ). Can it be that like many in your country, you are more concerned with the mote in your neighbour's eye than the beam in your own ? As for tech being ripped off, how much, for example, do you pay the Chinese everytime you wipe yourself after defecation ? Both paper and more specifically, toilet paper are Chinese inventions....
Henri
in pushing products which cause end users and those whose task is to help them no end of trouble, the problem here seems to be one of definitions - Microsoft simply uses a definition of 'competence' - that which contributes to Microsoft's profits or otherwise is convenient for the company - which differs from that used by the rest of the world. A linguist might say that this usage of 'competence' is cognate with Microsoft's usage of the phrase 'standards compliant'....
Henri
are like police all over the world - to them, legality is an extremely malleable concept. Or, to paraphrase a certain Richard Milhouse Nixon, «if the police do it, it's legal»....
Henri
The best comment I've seen on corporate journalists'
relations with and attitudes toward Wikileaks, was actually penned to reflect another case, viz, Michael Hastings's Rolling Stone article on Mr Stanley McCrystal. Here a link (http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dr3b3r ) to Dwayne Booth's cartoon, which says all that needs to be said on the subject....
Henri
Keep on fighting, Mike ; this battle is not only for you and Tech Dirt, but for us all ! In case you are not entirely up-to-date about the UK's absurd libel laws, you might want to check out the website (http://www.simonsingh.net/) of Dr Simon Singh, who's had his dusts with them....
Henri
instead they could put a nice little copyright on, e g, paper, including the kind that we use to wipe or nether regions after defecation. Imagine those MPAA and RIAA biggies having to shell out each time ; perhaps they'd worry less about so-called «pirate» versions of films being sold in Beijing and Shanghai....
Henri
could be persuaded to «do the right thing», put a stop to its continual wars of aggression abroad, dismantle the Empire, and restore the Republic ? Or am I just constitutionally naive ?...
Henri
One of the privileges that a million million (10^12) dollars annually
appropriated to the military from the pockets of US taxpayers buys members of that country's Congress is the fond illusion that their legislative powers do not stop at the country's borders, but extend throughout the globe - and presumably the rest of the Universe as well (and to any parallel universes that may exist). They seem to have forgotten that the main reason adduced by the rebel movement in the Thirteen British Colonies on North America's East Coast for forswearing allegiance to the British Crown was that legislation regulating those colonies had been adopted without the participation of representatives of their residents. How many representatives of the residents of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China are presently found in the US Congress (given that the state of Israel does seem to be exceedingly well represented there, legislation regarding that particular country cannot, of course, be regarded as an anomaly or a casus belli) ?...
Henri
Do the Japanese - as a group - need to cut their hair
more frequently, with or without it being washed first ? Is offering an option for them to get their hair cut without its being washed really to be regarded as «innovation» and would the increase in number of haircuts per capita per annum that presumably would ensue (no evidence for this proposition is presented ; it is merely assumed as corresponding to the received economic dictum, itself unproved, to the effect that lower-priced services will always be more frequently employed, whether or no they are needed) constitute «real economic growth» (Mike's italics) ? But Professor Rajan's not particularly original argument will no doubt be echoed by those who feel that requirements regarding hygiene, worker safety, fuel efficiency, minimum wages, etc are simply devices for preventing the economy from performing its task of producing goods at the cheapest price possible (which is done by externalising social costs to the maximum extent possible). Regulations can be - and are - certainly used to preserve existing inefficiencies to the benefit of current producers, but this is not to say that a society in which economic activity is subject to no regulation at all would be an improvement. I'm not sure Mike would really care to live in such a society ; Adam Smith certainly didn't recommend it and I know I shouldn't care for it either....
Henri
that it's very likely that «there's something much bigger happening behind the scenes to lead to this. I doubt that this decision came out of some hackers trying to access Gmail accounts. The real question is what China does now -- and whether either side is bluffing?» After all, the Google leadership is reported to have consulted with Ms Clinton before going public with its decision - is Google now an arm of the US State Department - or rather the Pentagon, since it's obvious that the latter trumps the former in the councils of the Obama adminsitration, just as it did in those of its predecessors.
Note also that in all the articles on «hacking» and «high-technology espionage» that have been published in the corporate media on this development, not a word has devoted to the forays of the United States in this particular area, like the infamous Echelon, which is estimated to intercept up to three thousand million messages daily. Or, for that matter, the infamous «Patriot Act», which allows library loans to be checked without any notice, and imposes Draconian penalties if librarians reveal this to library users. But as noted long ago (Matthew 7:3), the mote in one's neighbour's eye is always of greater interest than the beam in one's own. I, for one, find it difficult to take seriously the indignation at human rights violations in other lands expressed by media organs which support their own country's criminal wars of aggression abroad....
Henri
«shouldn't Homeland Security be spending more time
tracking terrorists and coming up with plans that actually make us safer?»
As a matter of fact, Mike, given that the evidence points to this being yet another false-flag CIA operation with the young man helped aboard the plane over the objections of aeroport personnel, despite not having a boarding card, perhaps other objectives than making you safer are uppermost in the minds of certain of your government's officials. «What objectives ?», you might ask - how about justifiying a war on Yemen for a starter....
Henri
whose best works constitute a triumph of the imagination, reveals so little understanding of the changes that new technology will inevitably bring to the way in which readers access books - and which, moreover, will likely benefit both authors and readers. But authors, as a previous commentator have pointed out, do tend to be a flaky lot, and in any event, Google as the «devil» would have been imaginative if Ms Le Guin hadn't been proceeded by the likes of Microsoft, publishers, etc....
Henri
Those fake «journals» are the bane of the profession,
but they will continue to be published as long as unethical publishers (are there any others ?) like Elsevier can continue to rake in money from pharmaceutical firms, whose representatives foist them on colleagues too busy with patients or (most often) administrative work to take to heart the old adage that «paper never refused ink». As Adam Smith realised, «markets» are not self-regulating, but require outside intervention in order to fulfil their functions....
Henri (PhD, MD)
«The reports says that the executive, who isn't identified, is believed to have told investigators that Dell viewed the performance of Intel rival Advanced Micro DevicesInc. as "very poor."» That's really conclusive evidence, is it not - an unidentified and unidentifiable Dell exec is «believed» to have told investigators that AMD performance (no chips specified) was «very poor». Perhaps you know, Mike, to which chips reference was being made (excuse me, «believed» to have been made) ? The ombudman's report has not yet been released - but it has been «reviewed» by that unbiased source, the Wall Street Journal. I'm no fan of the European Commission, but at least they seem, unlike their US counterparts over at the FTC or the Antitrust Division of the Justice (sic !) Department, to be performing their task of keeping the worst monopolistic practices at bay. If, Mike, you think these activities are exclusively or mainly directed at firms headquartered in the United States, you haven't been doing your homework - huge fines have been and are regularly levied on European firms or groups of European firms that have colluded to stifle competition. So wipe your tears for Intel, Microsoft, and others away, Mike - they don't deserve them !...
Henri
On the post: NASA Once Again Auctioning Off Patents Your Tax Dollars Paid For
Mathematical algorithms
On the post: India Upset With RIM Because Solution To Spy On Emails Doesn't Work Well
@ an anonymous coward from the USA
On the post: Microsoft Exec Says 'Open' Means 'Incompetent'
Given Microsoft's own record of 'competence'
On the post: Are Swedish Police Violating Copyright Law In Creating Shoe Database?
Our police here in Sweden
On the post: Shameful News Industry Willing To Sacrifice Wikileaks To Get Shield Law
The best comment I've seen on corporate journalists'
On the post: Legal Threat Demands We Shut Down Techdirt
UK libel laws
On the post: Thai Government Wants To Copyright Muay Thai
China doesn't need to copyright Gongfu -
On the post: Pentagon Demands Wikileaks 'Returns' Leaked Documents; Does It Not Know How Digital Documents Work?
Perhaps the Pentagon
On the post: Bill Introduced To Pressure Countries That Seek To Break The Internet
One of the privileges that a million million (10^12) dollars annually
On the post: Economic Threat: Legacy Industries With Bogus 'Safety' Claims To Stop More Efficient Competition
Do the Japanese - as a group - need to cut their hair
On the post: Google On China: Yeah, So Apparently The Gov't Doesn't Like Us Redirecting All Traffic To Hong Kong
Shaun Rein has posted
On the post: Now That Booz Allen Scared The Gov't Into Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Contracts, It's Time To Cash Out
Be afraid, be very afraid !
On the post: Company Decides To Run For Congress
The video
On the post: Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search
Have to agree with Mike,
On the post: Post TSA's New Security Rules And Get A Visit And Subpoena From Homeland Security
«shouldn't Homeland Security be spending more time
On the post: Artist Barred From Selling His Own Artwork For Daring To Promote University Of Alabama Football Feats
May I ask what the Hell
On the post: Ursula K. Le Guin Resigns From Authors Guild, Because It Didn't Keep Up Its Silly Fight With Google
Amazing that an author like Ms Le Guin,
On the post: Former Musician Now Lawyer Comes To Terms With What's Happening To His Music Online
As Hamlet put it,
On the post: Elsevier Caught Again: Published Ghost Written, Industry Supporting Articles As Scientific Resesarch
Those fake «journals» are the bane of the profession,
On the post: EU Antitrust Regulator Scolded For Simply Ignoring Evidence In Intel's Favor
Overzealous ?