Tag: legal

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New claims of prosecutor misconduct in Aaron Swartz case

I haven’t posted much about this here because I’m still very sad about it, but [this is encouraging][link] in the sense that every step we take to make sure there isn’t a next time is a good step.

>In a letter (made public Wednesday) to an internal Justice Department ethics unit from January 2013, Swartz’s lawyers argue that [Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen] Heymann engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by “withholding key evidence from Swartz’s defense team and overreaching in his attempt to coerce Aaron into waiving his right to trial.”

It’s just awful that there have to be steps at all.

[link]: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/new_claims_of_prosecutor_misconduct_in_aaron_swartz_case/ “New claims of prosecutor misconduct in Aaron Swartz case – Salon.com”

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Docracy

[A repository of community-curated legal documents.][link] Someone is going to try to troll this hard, mark my words.

[link]: http://www.docracy.com/ “Docracy – Free Legal Documents”

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Twitter Introduces the Innovator’s Patent Agreement

[Good news on this Tuesday morning:][link]

>The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we sold them to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended.

[Software patents are a menace][marco], but it’s understandable for companies to hoard them when the cost for *not* doing so could take down their entire business. This sounds like a pretty reasonable solution. For now.

[link]: http://blog.twitter.com/2012/04/introducing-innovators-patent-agreement.html “Twitter Blog: Introducing the Innovator's Patent Agreement”

[marco]: http://www.marco.org/2011/08/11/patents-cant-be-fixed “Marco: Software Patents Can’t Be Fixed”

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How To Challenge a Wrongful YouTube Takedown

[A helpful video by Know Your Meme.][link] Feel like I’m just reblogging Waxy today.

[link]: http://blog.knowyourmeme.com/post/558728396/how-to-challenge-a-wrongful-youtube-takedown “Know Your Meme – How To Challenge a Wrongful YouTube Takedown…”

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Mac Clone Maker Psystar sues Apple for Snow Leopard

[You have to admire either their balls or their total disconnection from reality][link].

[link]: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/28/psystar_sues_apple_for_snow_leopard_exploding_iphones_update.html “AppleInsider | Psystar sues Apple for Snow Leopard; “exploding” iPhones update”

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TechCrunch Reports last.fm DID Give User Data to the RIAA

[More exactly, CBS (Last.fm’s parent company) got this user data by not telling Last.fm they were going to turn it over][link]. Last.fm responded to TechCrunch’s initial allegation with a blog post titled “[TechCrunch are full of shit][shit].”

I wonder how Last.fm feel about the acquisition right now.

[link]: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/22/deny-this-lastfm/ “Deny This, Last.fm”
[shit]: http://blog.last.fm/2009/02/23/techcrunch-are-full-of-shit “Last.fm blog: TechCrunch are full of shit”

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Evan Roth: Intellectual Property Asshole Competition

[Evan has painted the Obama “HOPE” poster, and the original AP photo][link]. The first one to send him a cease-and-desist “wins.” [Previously][prev].

[link]: http://www.ni9e.com/ip-asshole.php “Evan Roth: Intellectual Property Asshole Competition”
[prev]: http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/03/11/the-obama-hope-poster-case-ap-strikes-back/ “The Obama “Hope” Poster Case — AP Strikes Back”

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Square Enix shuts down Chrono fan game Crimson Echoes

[Hey, Square, having a fan base that LOVES your stuff so much they’re willing to put in their own work and time (hundreds of hours) on what amounts to FREE PROMOTION for it][link]? That’s not a problem. That’s an incredible gift that you just shit on. Again.

They had another opportunity like this a few years ago, on a little project called [Chrono Resurrection][res].

How many creators out there would give a not insignificant portion of their reproductive organs to have fans that care that much?

[link]: http://www.destructoid.com/square-enix-shuts-down-chrono-fan-game-crimson-echoes-131702.phtml “Destructoid – Square Enix shuts down Chrono fan game Crimson Echoes”
[res]: http://www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono/ “Chrono Resurrection”

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Court Jails Pirate Bay Founders

[I’m sure the appeals process will be long][link]:

>Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of breaking copyright law and were sentenced to a year in jail.
>
>They were also ordered to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages.

[link]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8003799.stm “BBC NEWS | Technology | Court jails Pirate Bay founders”

I feel that their *attitude* didn’t help them with the judge. Google still indexes millions more torrent files than TPB ever could. Why no attack against them? See also: [Wired’s coverage][wired].

[wired]: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/04/pirateverdict.html “The Pirate Bay Guilty; Jail for File-Sharing Foursome”