Category: Legal

Items involving the law or legal action

EU/Microsoft Talks Collapse

It has not been possible for the European Commission to reach an agreement with Micorsoft over the bundling of Windows Media Player in versions of its desktop operating system.

Commissioner Mario Monti said in his statement a few minutes ago: “I would like to stress the constructive and co-operative spirit displayed by Microsoft in the last few weeks. I also want to acknowledge the high degree of professionalism of the members of the Microsoft team at all levels.”

The Commission is expected to meet next Wednesday to discuss next steps – it looks for certain that there’s a heft fine on the way to Microsoft’s European headquarters.

Commissioner Monti’s statement

Discussion over at Slashdot

Streaming Patent Claims Thicken as Playboy Licenses Technology

Acacia Media Technologies Group, part of Acacia Research Corporation, has found a new licensee for it patent claim on transmitting media over the web: Playboy.com.

Acacia acquires patents based on broad definitions – and then pursues companies using technologies in similar areas. The company claims to own the patents relating to transmitting compressed video and audio online – a fairly basic component of the internet these days. Acacia don’t actually provide a product for streaming media, or a service – they just claim the patent and will license the right to you.

Playboy.com have been granted the 118th license to use streaming technology – analysts estimate that Acacia are looking to take about 1 or 2% of the income that licensees make from streaming.

The company had recently started action on 39 “adult entertainment” sites, and it seems these businesses seem to be their preferred targets rather than, say, Micorsoft, RealNetworks or Apple. Their reasoning is that content providers have billing systems in place with consumers and so it’s an easier revenue stream to tap into.

Acacia Research

Yahoo Finance

EU/Microsoft Mediaplayer Decision Due Today

The EU’s National Antitrust Exports Advisory meets to day to give their decision on one of their longest running cases – Microsoft’s bundling of multimedia applications in their Windows operating system.

This is the first of an expected two meetings – Microsoft will probably be given a deadline today, and will be expected to provide a “lightweight” version of Windows without its bundled applications, making it easier for other software manufacturers to include their own multimedia players and browsers when conusmers purchase a new PC. We would be very surprised if MS Europe didn’t already have a “core OS and applications only” version of Windows ready to go. Since this case have been going on since Windows 95, they’ve had plenty of time as there have been at least five major versions released since then.

The current solution for MS, the “Set Program Access and Defaults” tool, included in the last service packs, was introduced as a result of legal action, but does not tackle the controversial issue of software bundling.

The second meeting will be on the 22nd of March, where we predict that Microsoft will get hit up for a couple of hundred million euros.

Of course, Microsoft will appeal against both measures, prolonging the case even further – but perhaps next year you’ll be able to buy a PC with RealPlayer instead of Windows Media as the default multimedia application.

The EU’s Antitrust Site

Watching Microsoft Like A Hawk

Nintendo Uses Patent to Crack Down on ROM Copying

There’s been some confusion in how this story is being reported, so we thought we’d go over the key points.

Nintendo’s patent applies to emulating ROM-based games consoles, such as the N64 and GBA in other systems. You’ll no doubt have seen this before when you’ve played Mario Kart on the way over to New York from London: obviously there aren’t a hundred SNES consoles behind the cargo hold (if there were, it might explain why they’re so pricey on eBay).

From the patent document: “A software emulator for emulating a handheld video game platform such as GAME BOY.RTM., GAME BOY COLOR.RTM. and/or GAME BOY ADVANCE.RTM. on a low-capability target platform (e.g., a seat-back display for airline or train use, a personal digital assistant, a cell phone).”

The patent can be used to prevent other people making commercial use of a similar system – such as Firestorm gbaZ, and that’s exactly what’s just happened. Nintendo contacted Kyle Poole, responsible for the emulator and demanded that he no longer promote, market, use or distribute the Firestorm gbaZ or pursuse any further emulation of any Nintendo system. Nintendo’s key is that “All of the software for Nintendo’s proprietary video game systems is distributed in a tangible medium, sold through retail outlets. None of the games are distributed in digital versions on the Internet. Any such distribution, or promotion of any such distribution, is illegal.”

Crimson Fire – home of the Tapwave Emulator

Slashdot on the affair

Microsoft, AOL, Earthlink, Yahoo Gang Up on Poor Defenseless Spammers

Only two months after the US can-spam act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing), Microsoft, AOL, Earthlink and Yahoo have taken legal action against at least a hundred of the individuals that have been clogging up your inbox with all those offers of loans, cheap medicines and naked men, women and livestock.

The can-spam act made many of the spammers techniques illegal – such as sending bulk email by the misuse of open proxies (basically a relay for sending mail), using false email addresses and false unsubscribe options.

The plaintiffs aren’t entirely sure who they are prosecuting – many of the defendants are as yet unnamed, but they’re confident they’ll know who they are by the time the cases get to court.

This is a tiny, tiny step in the progress towards reducing the amount of spam that is sent worldwide every day. This legal action from MS et al will do little to stop the vast tidal wave of spam from around the world – only when changes are made to email software and mail transmission can we look forward to seeing any reduction.

Microsoft’s Coordinated Spam Reduction Initiative (CSRI)

BBC Q&A on Spam

Spam filters on ZDNet

EU Passes the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive

The European Parliament has passed the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, an anti-piracy law covering media and other copyrighted goods across the entire EU.

The new law has had an early amendment to restrict civil lawsuits to commercial counterfeiters and pirates such as those selling copied football shirts, CDs and videos. In it’s original form publishers could pursue individuals through the courts for downloading music and other media in good faith, rather like the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) still argue that the amendment is not enough and that individuals could still be prosecuted as under the new law. Companies are allowed to raid homes, freeze bank accounts and seize property though proposals for custodial sentences were dropped. In the US, organisations such as the RIAA used the DMCA to prosecute file sharers, and resulted in a number of unfortunate legal cases against children.

Interestingly, the new law was guided through the courts by Janelly Fourtou. By sheer coincidence, her husband is Jean-Rene Fourtou, chief executive of Vivendi Universal.

The EFF on the new law

SCO Round-Up

SCO is charging companies a licencing fee for using Linux – despite the fact that they don’t offer a distribution of the open source operating system, but instead claim ownership over part of the code used in the kernel.

  • Last week SCO claimed that Computer Associates (CA) had bought a “Linux IP Licence”. This would have been a big win for SCO had it been true: instead CA had actually bought some UnixWare licences from the Canopy Group.
  • Midweek, SCO announced legal action against companies using Linux in their business or websites — these were AutoZone, and Daimler-Chrysler.
  • A leaked memo from SCO stated that they’d considered taking action against Bank of America, whilst another leaked memo refers to a much larger amount of funding from Microsoft than previously thought: US$86 million
  • The the court in Nevada where SCO are pursing their legal claims runs its website on a Linux server. They do not possess a licence.
  • The Judge in the case has now ordered SCO to provide the disputed source code. Part of SCO’s tactic has been to not identify the code portion – as soon as the kernel developers know which part they are laying claim to, the kernel will be rewritten (probably over night) and SCO will have no further claim.
  • SCO lost US$2.25 million in the quarter ending 31st January, against an estimated income of US$20,000 in Linux IP Licenses.

The key reason we bring you news in this area is because Linux is a fundamental part of many of the devices that Digital Lifestyles readers use now, or will use in the future: the Linux kernel has been extremely successful as an embedded operating system in consumer devices.

The majority of set-top boxes use a Linux kernel as their operating system, Linux is the core of many phones and PDAs, and PVRs (and PVR-capable cards) are increasingly either Linux-based or feature extensive Linux support. Even your G5 Macintosh running OSX has more than a whiff of the penguin about it, just under that Aqua look and feel. This is because other operating systems are often too flabby to function on the limited hardware available or licensing another operating system can just be too expensive.

If SCO are successful in their legal claim it will push up the cost of licencing the kernel for use in embedded devices.

The Halloween X Memo – Microsoft Funding

SCO Sues First Customers; Judge Orders SCO to Submit Disputed Code

SCO named the recipients of their first two lawsuits in their mammoth online conference call yesterday: AutoZone and Daimler Chrysler. They are being targeted as they run Linux – and of course SCO claims ownership to part of the source code of the Linux kernel, having found its way there from UNIX System V.

Meanwhile, in Utah, SCO have been ordered to identify all lines of Linux source code that it claims ownership of. Once the disputed code is identified it is expected that Linux kernel programmers will simply remove and rewrite the offending sections immediately, regardless of who the code belongs to – just to be safe.

Show me the code!

AutoZone

SCO Delays Promised Tuesday Lawsuit

Citing the need for more time, SCO did not begin promised legal action against the two companies they wish to prosecute for using intellectual property that SCO claims ownership of.

SCO, in a move entirely fitting with how they’ve handled the Linux/Unix source code issue to date, refuse to even name their targets until they are ready. However, the company has already stated that the soon-to-be recipients of the lawsuits are SCO license holders – this move to sue its own paying customers has raised eyebrows, and not for the first time.

The Santa Cruz Operation’s legal behaviour has been seen as increasingly erratic, with several volte face moves of late – and in fact the entire structure of their claim has changed. Originally a dispute over trade secrets, and claiming ownership of millions of lines of code, SCO have revised their claim to a copyright case over a small amount of code. Code over which IBM claims ownership.

SCO promises to name the recipients of its lawsuits on Wednesday – we’ll cover it here.

SCO’s live webcast — Wednesday, March 3, 2004 – 9:00 AM MT

News.com

Slashdot

Electronic Frontier Foundation Propose a Licensing Scheme for Filesharers

After a year of research, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging copyright holders to join together to offer blanket licenses to P2P networks.

They are drawing parallels with the copyright problem radio once faced in the US – Performing Rights Organisations (PRO) such as ASCAP and BMI were founded to allow radio stations to play music legally and ensure that artists and publishers were properly compensated.

The EFF also regard music licensing in the internet age as dogged with the same problems that the player piano industry fought though in 1909 with sheet music manufacturers. This early situation was also solved by a blanket license.

The money to be made is attractive – if users paid, for example, US$5 per month, income to the music companies would be more than US$3 billion – and almost in pure profit as no CDs would have to be manufactured or shipped.

The EFF’s proposal (PDF)