rulings

Facebook: That gaming buddy is not your friend

A game on Facebook's platform called "PackRat" has been causing some issues for the site, according to a thread in the game's discussion forum.

The aim of PackRat appears to involve amassing graphical "cards" to chalk up points--sort of like the original Pokemon game, some cards are easy and common while others are rare. One of the ways to get new cards is by "stealing" them from friends, so having a huge network of friends who are also playing the game gives PackRat players a big advantage. Reading on in the forum, … Read more

Federal court hands open-source licenses a significant victory

Yesterday, a US federal court of appeals handed open source a significant victory. An earlier district court ruling in Jacobsen v. Katzer had put open-source licensing on shaky ground by treating the Artistic License as a contract, with some injurious readings on likely remedies under an open-source license.

As Mark Radcliffe details, the Jacobsen ruling [PDF] is a boon to all open-source licensing, and not merely those that choose to use the Artistic License:

The CAFC reversed the District Court's decision and its reasoning is very helpful for the open source community. The court found that the limitations in … Read more

Meet Wrex, the uncouth robo-dog

It's been a busy few days for the guys over at RobotsRule. First they got a hands-on look at the "Tri-Bot," successor to the once-beloved Robosapien, and now they've set their sights on "Wrex The Dawg."

The latest creation from WowWee's bot meisters is an ill-mannered toy that's "absolutely terrible at being a dog and even worse at being a robot," the site says, "with an appearance that resembles Frankenstein's Dog if he were assembled from a disjointed set of junkyard parts and a face not even a … Read more

Judge agrees Dell engaged in fraudulent, deceptive practices

A New York State Supreme Court said Tuesday that Dell and its financial services arm misled customers.

Judge Joseph Teresi ruled that the world's second-largest PC maker engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business, and abusive debt collection practices. The company was accused by the state of New York of offering no-interest or no-payment financing options for its products while Dell Financial Services would fail to honor them.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed the suit in May 2007, asking for an injunction against the company's business practices and monetary damages for affected customers.

Further court proceedings … Read more

Aristocrat case raises requirements for means-plus-function software patent claims

The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Aristocrat Technologies will require software patent drafters to take more care to describe the algorithms covered by their software--or risk patent invalidity. ( See Aristocrat Technologies.) The court held that expert testimony that a programmer would know how to write code to perform a given function cannot supplement an incomplete patent disclosure when software claims are written using "mean-plus-function" format. Means-plus-function format means that something is claimed by the function it performs rather than by a specific structure--for example, a means-plus-function claim might recite a "means for fastening paper together" … Read more

Craigslist cleared on discrimination claims

Craigslist.org can't be held liable for discriminatory ads posted on its site, according to a court ruling released Friday.

A group of Chicago lawyers had sued the online classifieds site over real-estate ads that stated discriminatory preferences such as "no minorities" or "no children." The group, the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, argued that such ads are prohibited under the Fair Housing Act and that Craigslist should be held liable for allowing them to be posted on its Web site. Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court … Read more

Southern Cal gets its due at Twiistup 2

Last night, members of the Los Angeles tech community (and one Bono impersonator) gathered at the Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice for Twiistup 2, the second of a series of Valley-style blowouts for Southern California Web companies and geeks. In front of a backlit, Mondrian-style bar, attendees of the sold-out event talked tech, networked, and vetted business plans over music spun by DJ Quickie Mart. I had a chance to talk with most of the event's "showoffs," two of which--community site Faqqly and the social shopping site ThisNext--we've already covered. Here's a brief … Read more

9th Circuit rules against contract changes by fiat

It's long been a practice within the software world to refer to terms and conditions of a service or product via URL.

In other words, I might sign a physical contract with Customer X, but the contract points to all sorts of other online "documents" for specifics of training, support services, etc. Savvy attorneys, therefore, require that such "moving targets" be removed, forcing them to be hard-wired into the document.

But now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (which covers California, Washington and Oregon) is helping the not-so-savvy, as ComputerWorld reports. You can read the ruling in its entirety here (PDF).

The court said that because a contract is an agreement between two parties, one of the parties cannot change it unless the other party agrees to the change...… Read more