Anonymous Chinese Bloggers May Become Extinct Very Soon

from Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

"Don't spread rumours online. Delete bad comments immediately. Don't write about porn. Be sensitive to other nationalities, races, religions and cultural customs." - if you agree to all these conditions, you are welcome to write a blog in China.

The Chinese Government has asked blog companies to sign a "self-discipline pledge" that encourages bloggers in China to register using their real name, email, phone number and other contact information.

This directive is likely to become effective very soon as most blog providers in China have already agreed to sign the pledge meaning if any blogger in China were to use their service for writing a blog, he or she will be have share his contact information.

Surprisingly, China already has over 30 million registered bloggers.

© 2007 Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

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Seagate patent decision could prompt more settlements

Source: Financial Week

By Andrew Osterland

August 21, 2007

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears most of the country's appeals of patent litigation, provided a new precedent for attorney-client privilege in patent lawsuits late yesterday. The decision is likely to make it more difficult for plantiffs to prove infringement and thus lead to more settlements, according to patent attorneys.

The ruling came in a closely watched intellectual property case involving a suit filed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and private technology company Convolve against disk-drive manufacturer Seagate Technology in 2000 for patent infringement.

The decision was not about the underlying patent and whether or not Seagate infringed on it, but rather the definition of willful infringement and the extent of attorney-client privilege in patent cases.

When the court agreed to take the case in January, it announced that it would hear it "en banc." In other words, all ten judges on the appeals court would hear the case as opposed to the customary panel of three. "The court recognized that this was a very important issue, and they had to consider it as a full court," said Charles Barquist, a patent litigation partner with Morrison & Foerster, based in Los Angeles. Mr. Barquist, along with several colleagues, filed an amicus brief in support of Seagate's position.

The issue was whether Seagate should be forced to hand over communications with its trial lawyers to the plaintiffs in the case. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District ruled that the company did have to, which prompted Seagate to file its appeal.

The appeals court indicated it would also review its 1983 decision in a case known as Underwater Devices that established a standard for individuals and companies regarding patent infringement. That decision stated that parties had a duty of care to make sure that they weren't infringing on a patent. If they didn't meet that duty of care, they could be charged with willful infringement, which carries treble damages. In practice, that meant getting a legal opinion.

In the Seagate case, plaintiffs argued that Seagate waived its attorney-client privilege by turning over the opinion from separate counsel on the matter in question. It demanded that all communications between the company and its trial lawyers on the matter should also be disclosed. The district court agreed, at which point Seagate appealed.

The appeals court not only overturned the lower court's decision on the waiver of privilege issue, it also raised the bar for proving willfulness on the part of the defendant. Plaintiffs must now prove "objective recklessness" by defendants rather than just a failure to take due care.

"The new standard won't change the frequency with which willfulness is alleged, but it will be harder to prove," said Mr. Barquist. "It may facilitate more settlements too, as plaintiffs develop more moderate expectations."

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Google Adds Embedding To Google Maps

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

Google announced the addition of YouTube style embedding to Google Maps this morning.

Google Map mashups have been popular for a long time now, however for the non-programming inclined including a Google Map on a blog or website hasn’t always been easy. The new embed feature (as above) now provides an easy way for anyone to include an active map on their site.

Embedded maps can be customized in terms of size and can also include driving directions, search results, or a user generated map.

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BlogMusik To Go Legit; Launches Free & Legal Music On Demand

from TechCrunch by Ouriel Ohayon

Back in September last year Michael suggested everyone check out BlogMusik quickly before it was shut down. BlogMusik is a service born in France that lets you search for mp3 files on the web and listen to them in streaming mode for free. At the time the service was young and had no particular licensing agreements. A few months later, the SACEM, the organization in charge of collecting payments for artists’ rights sent them a cease and desist letter with a view to stop the service. A lot has happened since (beyond a rather nice site redesign and addition of sharing features).

BlogMusik will announce tomorrow that they came to an agreement with the SACEM, clearing the service of copyright infrigement accusations. The details of this agreement are not are not being disclosed, but other deals suggest it is based on a revenue sharing mode. BlogMusik’s business model is relying on advertising and affiliate revenue coming from the sales of songs on iTunes and Amazon. This agreement should cover BlogMusik for any music they host wherever the music is listened from. However they still have to come to an agreement with organizations representing majors and labels (Pandora had to face new webradio rates imposed by the RIAA). This is being taken care of according to the CEO of the company and new agreements should be announced soon.

All in all this is a good news for BlogMusik The company now has an opportunity to become a true free legal alternative to listen to music on the internet. Unlike Pandora this is a music on demand service where you choose the titles you want to listen to (although you have a smart playlist option to generate automatically radios out of a song or an artist).

BlogMusik.net will also change name and become Deezer.com. This is a good thing i had a hard time getting the UR/nameL right with this “k” in the middle (not mentionning the .net). RadioBlogClub, another popular french service was forced a few months ago to change hosting provider following a complaint sent by the same SACEM. The service was interupted a few days and opened again as fresh as new. To date no official licensing agreement was made with the company.

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It's Full Of Stars: Google Conquers the Stars After Fully Invading Earth

from Gizmodo by Jesus Diaz

After taking over planet Earth Google is all over the stars like James T. Kirk on blonde alien chicks: they just added a new option to watch the skies in Google Earth. We tried it and it's quite good, even if some of the photos don't smoothly blend into each other. The search works great and they even have a time lapse mode to watch planet movements in relation to the stars. Go get it at Warp 9. [Google Earth]

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