A possibly critical meeting of the Finance and Government Operations
Committee of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is being held this
Friday Jan. 31 from 1:30 - 3:30 in San Jose at 70 W. Hedding St., 1st floor in the Isaac Newton Center. The purpose of the meeting is to decide whether or not to affirm the recommendation by the Registrar of Voters to purchase Sequoia touchscreen voting machines. Read more about Computer Voting Meeting in San Jose this Friday
Art. I, sec. 8, cl. 8 of the Constitution reads: "Congress shall have Power To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." The Clause is typically known as the Copyright Clause, the Patent Clause, or the Intellectual Property Clause, but the power granted to Congress encompasses more than just authority regarding patents and copyrights. A more accurate descriptor is the Science and Useful Arts Clause. Read more about Edward C. Walterscheid
From Professor Lessig's Blog:
"with deep sadness
The Supreme Court has rejected our challenge to the Sonny Bono Law.
posted on [ Jan 16 03 at 12:09 AM ] to [ bad law ]"
Opinions, and other news posted there Read more about Eldred Decision
"The Unreal-Estate Boom," Wired Magazine
My long-gestating article on the real-world economies of virtual worlds is finally out, on newsstands and online, in the January issue of Wired magazine. It's a heart-warming tale of geekery and commerce, but if you just want the executive summary, it's just about all there in the headline and subhead:
New venture signals 802.11 emergence The growing popularity of wireless communication using connections based on the IEEE 802.11 or Wi-Fi wireless technology standard got a huge boost on 5 December, when AT&T, Intel, and IBM announced the formation of a joint venture whose aim to place a wireless Internet access point within five minutes of anyone in the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas by 2004. Read more about New venture signals 802.11 emergence
This matter involves attempts by Nymox, a Canadian pharmaceutical corporation, to learn the identities of several pseudonymous individuals. The action originated in a Quebec court, where limited pre-filing discovery may be permitted by the Court. In fact, no lawsuit has yet been filed in this matter, either in Canada or in the U.S.. The Quebec court issued an Order requiring Yahoo!, Inc. to release whatever information it had about each of the eleven named pseudonyms. Yahoo! Canada responded that the requested information resides on U.S. servers and thus a U.S. Read more about Clinic Files Motion to Quash "Nymox" John Doe Subpoena
Julian Dibbell will discuss real-world legal issues rooted in virtual-world
economies. In the last five years, virtual worlds like the massively
multiplayer role-playing games EverQuest and Ultima Online have become
sources of genuine wealth for their inhabitants. Scarce in-game items and
well-developed player accounts sell on eBay for hundreds of dollars, with
assets accruing to players at a rate that dwarfs the GNP per capita of major
economies like India's and China's. But who actually owns this wealth? The Read more about CIS Fellow Julian Dibbell
The powerpoint from the CIS Speaker Series presentation on SEC Internet Enforcement by Lisa A. Gok, Assistant Regional Director for Enforcement in the Pacific Regional Office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and Roberto Tercero, Senior Counsel in the Commission's Internet Enforcement Branch in Los Angeles is now available. Read more about SEC powerpoint Available
David Goldberg, one of Europe's preeminent free expression scholars, will present his latest paper that examines how Europe is approaching the free expresion vs. censorship debate stemming from 'children and the Internet' (or pornography online) issues. This includes the various debates, policies, decisions, recommendations, action plans, task forces, content rating & filtering schemes, hotlines, and educational/awareness raising programs. Read more about David Goldberg
