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Saturday, May 25, 2013

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Court Finds Fantasy Stories Obscene

Obscenity law and the First Amendment tend to run into each other from time to time and the whole "I know it when I see it" concept makes things a bit arbitrary in the best of situations. Still, it's pretty standard for people to assume questions of obscenity revolve around imagery -- still or video -- rather than written works. Text and stories often explore taboo subjects, but still are seen to have legitimate literary value. Stories like Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita involve somewhat horrifying concepts, but generally are still considered legitimate works of literature. In an age of easy creation for user-generated content, fan fiction and the like, it is not uncommon for things like slash fiction or related fan fiction to involve incredibly graphic scenes. Whether or not you see the appeal (and, personally, I don't get it at all), it's difficult to step...

SIIA Tells the FTC What Patent Trolls Are Doing to the Software Industry ~pj

There are now 68 public comments listed on the FTC's website on the topic of patent trolls. Patent Progress's David Balko's article , The End-Users Strike Back, notes that a surprising number are from end users, defined as "retailers, financial services, grocery stores, advertising, hotel industries, and even oil companies [who] are coming out in droves to fight abusive patent troll tactics":

Patent trolls have started to target end-users, especially small companies, because they typically lack the expertise, experience and ability to fight questionable claims. Litigation costs can quickly mount up to $250,000 to $500,000, and reach millions if the case goes all the way through trial (not to mention appeals). End-users also have to deal with disruptions to their business from discovery requests and managing the litigation. Often companies are forced to divulge secret financial and technical information as well as divert key personnel from their work to
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Costa Rica Turtle Egg Harvest Protest Email

Email that call for a stop to a supposed "attack against nature" on the beaches of Costa Rica claims that a series of attached photographs depict crowds of people digging up and stealing turtle eggs that they will later sell....

Apple Mobile Devices Cleared For Use On US Military Networks

puddingebola writes with this excerpt from a Bloomberg report: "The Pentagon cleared Apple Inc. (AAPL) devices for use on its networks, setting the stage for the maker of iPhones and iPads to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. and BlackBerry for military sales. The Defense Department said in a statement [Friday] that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple's products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform. The decision eventually may spur a three-way fight for a market long dominated by Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.'" Also, Apple devices are best for uploading viruses to alien craft....

Mice, Newts Retrieved After a Month Orbiting Earth At 345 Miles Up

The Associated Press (as carried by the Washington Post) reports that a living payload of newts and mice has been retrieved after a month orbiting earth in a Russian space capsule at an altitude of 345 miles, far higher than the ISS's orbital distance of 205 miles. Says the story: "Fewer than half of the 53 mice and other rodents who blasted off on April 19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome survived the flight, Russian news agencies reported, quoting Vladimir Sychov, deputy director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems and the lead researcher. Sychov said this was to be expected and the surviving mice were sufficient to complete the study, which was designed to show the effects of weightlessness and other factors of space flight on cell structure. All 15 of the lizards survived, he said. The capsule also carried small crayfish and fish."

Sophisticatedjanedoe / FightCopyrightTrolls Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week

Hi Techdirt! I'm known to this and other tech blog communities as sophisticatedjanedoe (or SJD). I run an anti-shakedown, anti-copyright-troll opinion blog Fight Copyright Trolls , which, I'm sure, most of you know: Techdirt often links to my posts, especially recently, since we all have been watching an illustrious show of SS Prenda sinking slowly but steadily.
Some might expect that my favorite posts would be all about Prenda, but no — I have wider interests than fighting ethically handicapped lawyers. Still I'm quite happy that copyright trolling disease that has penetrated the legal system is finally gaining attention from the general public. Techdirt, together with ArsTechnica and TorrentFreak (and, recently, Popehat ), have been pivotal in this respect.
The only Prenda-related post I want to specifically recommend is about the ISPs' appeal over former RIAA lobbyist judge allowing Prenda to get info on over 1,000 John Does . This...

Awesome Stuff: Cool Product Designs

For this week's awesome stuff , we've got three different projects that just caught my eye for being different and interesting in a design sense.

I don't know about you, but I've had a few too many experiencing having to try to inflate an air mattress of some kind or another, and realizing what a freaking total pain it is using regular valves (not to mention the inevitable annoying emptying process as well). So I have to say that the Windcatcher project definitely piqued my curiosity. I don't understand the mechanism behind it, but it certainly looks like an air mattress that you can fill with 4 or 5 breaths -- and all without having to put your mouth on anything. It looks kind of like magic, so check out the video.
These guys still have a bit of a way to go on the funding front,