speedplane - Slashdot User

Submission + - NPR's Weak Interview on the Eve of the End of Net Neutrality (npr.org)

Submitted by speedplane on Thursday November 23, 2017 @05:12AM

speedplane writes: Yes, we've all heard that net neutrality is on its way out, and it seems NPR was able to snag one of the few (the only?) interview's of Ajit Pai on its effect. Sadly, NPR's Rachel Martin stuck to very broad and basic questions, and failed to press Pai on the change of policy. That said, it's worth a listen.

Submission + - Paypal Founder Peter Thiel to Speak at Trump's Republican Convention (nytimes.com)

Submitted by speedplane on Thursday July 14, 2016 @02:09PM

speedplane writes: The New York Times is reporting that renowned Venture Capitalist, Paypal Founder, and Gawker Litigation Funder, Peter Thiel will be speaking at the Republican National Convention. The original story does not state what Thiel will discuss at the convention, only that he'll be speaking the last day, but there's plenty of speculation.

Submission + - What was the greatest era of innovation? (nytimes.com)

Submitted by speedplane on Friday May 13, 2016 @04:27PM

speedplane writes: The New York Times is running a story on innovation over the past 150 years.

We’re in the golden age of innovation, an era in which digital technology is transforming the underpinnings of human existence. Or so a techno-optimist might argue. We’re in a depressing era in which innovation has slowed and living standards are barely rising. That’s what some skeptical economists believe. The truth is, this isn’t a debate that can be settled objectively.

What do slashdotters thing is the greatest era of innovation?

Submission + - Whatsapp Will Become Free, Companies Can Pay to Reach Users (nytimes.com)

Submitted by speedplane on Monday January 18, 2016 @04:55PM

speedplane writes: The popular messaging service, Whatsapp, will soon become free (they previously charged $0.99 per year after the first). The troubling news is that to compensate for the lost revenue, companies will now be able to pay to contact users directly:

[Whatsapp founder] Mr. Koum said that his team was still experimenting with how such services could work, and that many companies were already using the messaging service, particularly in developing countries, to connect with mobile-savvy customers.
If this smells like advertising, Whatsapp vehemently disagrees:
people might wonder how we plan to keep WhatsApp running without subscription fees and if today's announcement means we're introducing third-party ads. The answer is no.

Submission + - Court Finds "Pinning" on the Internet to be Fair Use (docketalarm.com)

Submitted by speedplane on Thursday October 22, 2015 @04:05PM

speedplane writes: Pinterest has always aggressively defended their trademarks but in 2013, they launched a trademark lawsuit against Pintrips, a travel planning startup that allows users to "pin" and share information about flights. Yesterday, however, a federal court issued a major ruling against Pinterest finding that "pinning" is a feature, not a trademark, and therefore is fair use. This seems to bode well for the many other "pinning" sites on the internet.

Submission + - SpaceX's Challenge Against Blue Origins' Patent Fails to Take Off (docketalarm.com)

Submitted by speedplane on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @02:12PM

speedplane writes: As was previously discussed on Slashdot, back in September SpaceX challenged a patent owned by Blue Origin. The technology concerned landing rockets at sea. Yesterday, the judges in the case issued their opinion stating that they are unable to initiate review of the patent on the grounds brought by SpaceX.

Although at first glance this would appear to be a Blue Origin win, looking closer, the judges explained that Blue Origin's patent lacks sufficient disclosure, effectively stating that the patent is invalid, but not on the specific grounds brought by SpaceX:

Because claim 14 lacks adequate structural support for some of the means-plus-function limitations, it is not amenable to construction. And without ascertaining the breadth of claim 14, we cannot undertake the necessary factual inquiry for evaluating obviousness with respect to differences between the claimed subject matter and the prior art.

If SpaceX wants to move forward against Blue Origin, this opinion bodes well for them, but they will need to take their case in front of a different court.

Submission + - Tim Wu, Founder of Net Neutrality, is Running for Lieutenant Governor of NY (nytimes.com)

Submitted by speedplane on Saturday September 06, 2014 @03:13PM

speedplane writes: Tim Wu, the popular Columbia Law Professor, author of The Master Switch, and the guy who coined the term Net Neutrality, is running for Lieutenant Governor of the great state of New York. He "has waged a shoestring anti-establishment campaign," that is well underway, and has even begun receiving attacks from the incumbent:

It has not always been smooth for Mr. Wu .... Surrogates for Mr. Cuomo have pounced on his admitted lack of "message discipline" for comments he made comparing net neutrality to the suffragist movement (which he says were taken out of context) and sympathizing with Airbnb (which he says is "fair game" because he has a "wait-and-see approach" to regulating start-ups).

Submission + - SpaceX Jumps into Patent Dispute with Blue Origin Over Rocket Sea Landing Tech. 2

Submitted by speedplane on Tuesday September 02, 2014 @03:18AM

speedplane writes: Last week, Elon Musk's SpaceX fired two challenges (PDFs) at Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin over U.S. Patent 8,678,321, entitled Sea landing of space launch vehicles and associated systems and methods.

The patent appears to cover a method of landing a rocket on a floating platform at sea. In their papers, SpaceX says that "by 2009, the earliest possibly priority date listed on the face of the patent, the basic concepts of 'rocket science' were well known and widely understood. The “rocket science” claimed in the ‘321 patent was, at best, 'old hat[.]'" Blue Origin has approximately three months to file a preliminary response to the challenge.

You can review the litigation documents here and here.

Disclosure: I run the website hosting several of the above documents.

Submission + - Intellectual Ventures Makes its Case For Patent Trolling (wired.com)

Submitted by

speedplane

on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @01:32PM

speedplane writes: "How many stories have we read hating on the biggest patent troll of them all? Finally we see Intellectual Ventures making their case in a Wired op-ed, filled with everything you would would expect from a company suing the tech world on thousands of dubious patents: "the system needs intermediaries within the market – companies like Intellectual Ventures – to help sift through and navigate the published landscape. By developing focused expertise, these patent licensing entities and intermediaries can function as patent aggregators, assembling portfolios of relevant inventions and providing access through licensing." And my favorite gem: "Ultimately, the users of those products – you – are the ones who benefit.""

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