September 4th 2008
Target has settled a class action lawsuit from the The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) by agreeing to pay $6 million in damages, and to pay the organization to supervise efforts to make its website more accessible to the visually impaired. Previous court rulings had established that that ADA did not extend to stores’ […]
September 3rd 2008
A recent Supreme Court ruling has emboldened manufacturers of goods ranging from baby food to clothing to set minimum pricing requirements of their distributors. The case has inspired protest from most states’ attorneys general, as well as economists who identify such agreements as a cause of inflation. The Wall Street Journal‘s political blog reports: Attorneys […]
September 2nd 2008
Yesterday, Google introduced its browser, Chrome. Yes, Firefox may have seemed to already be Google’s. But Google has designed its own new browser, which will be distributed as Open Source software. “What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set […]
September 2nd 2008
Last week, a seemingly fake Facebook group called Aaron Sorkin & the Facebook Movie popped up. Though there was initial skepticism, New York Magazine confirmed that really was him, and yes, he’s writing a movie about Facebook. Reuters and The Christian Science Monitor have covered it. He’s asked visitors to share their experiences and story […]
September 1st 2008
LA’s Boy Scout Council has teamed with the MPAA to offer Scouts a patch for learning just how much it costs to make a film and how many people get hurt if you download it without paying. Really, take a look. Notice that the concepts of fair use and public domain are completely absent from […]
August 29th 2008
Two Years in Jail for File Sharing The National Center for State Courts has distributed 50,000 comic books and teachers’ guides to explain how courts work to America’s youth. As the Threat Level blog notes, the plot “reads like the Recording Industry Association of America’s public relations playbook: Download some songs, go to jail and […]
August 28th 2008
The USPTO has granted Microsoft a patent for a “method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments.” That would be the page up function. Specifically, it’s for a function that moves your view exactly one page, rather than one screen. Of late, Microsoft has been more prolific in producing press releases and security […]
August 26th 2008
Public Servant….Or Satan? The idea that Obama is the devil has been kicking around among talk-radio callers for a few months. Saturday Night Live performer Victoria Jackson voiced her concern that Obama is the Anti-Christ on her blog: “I don’t want a political label, but Obama bears traits that resemble the anti-Christ and I’m scared […]
August 25th 2008
As state real estate and income tax collections head downward, tax collectors have turned their gaze toward online commerce. At the same time, a few states are emerging as havens from taxation. New York Goes After Affiliate Marketers with the Amazon Tax New York implemented the so-called Amazon tax. It seeks to change the common […]
August 24th 2008
Early this year I described how President Bush gutted the committee responsible for protecting citizens’ civil rights and privacy within the administration’s anti-terrorism programs. The congressionally mandated committee had become an “open joke,” amending its reports at the request of the administration it was supposed to supervise. So, hearing such criticism, the President simply didn’t […]
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