Intellectual Property Law

Wolfram Alpha !!!!

Posted on May 19, 2009
http://www.wolframalpha.com/ Great fun - watched the video - many new ways to create the illusion of knowing by rearranging data..... Without detracting in the slightest from the genuine accomplishment of WA, I here repeat my concern that proper critical thinking skills must be taught and practiced...

FEMA TRAILER Evictions? (speaking of off the grid)

Posted on May 14, 2009
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/03/FEMA-trailer-eviction-deadline-ambiguous/UPI-26741241390395/

Off- the- Grid Green Airstream!

Posted on May 14, 2009
http://www.jetsongreen.com/2009/05/green-renovation-livingreen-airstream-altbuild-2009.html

Largest re-cycled building?!?

Posted on May 14, 2009
http://www.homedesignfind.com/green/worlds-largest-recycled-building-to-open-in-berkeley/ One finds interesting stuff which is distracting......I really wanted to find the cost of a Z Glass house from lot to living....

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THIRST

Posted on May 14, 2009
Is water a human right- or a property right? http://ethicsinsociety.stanford.edu/ethics-events/events/view/518/?date=2009-05-14

Will best writers migrate to video games?

Posted on May 13, 2009
http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/for-whom-the-video-game-tolls/?hp

Classic Literature for Gamers

Posted on May 13, 2009
At last- some zip into Dante! Not as efficient as Cliffs Notes but a bit more fun. http://www.dantesinferno.com/home.action

Green Living but where is the dog door?

Posted on April 23, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-treehousereview21-2009apr21-pg,0,5215477.photogallery?index=8 Lassie needs to climb a ladder....and where is the handicap accessible toilet, eh??? My picks: 8, 12 and 13

Clean and Green; Produce and Pesticides

Posted on April 20, 2009
Pocket guide to best & worst for pesticide usage. for the downloadable guide and more information see http://www.foodnews.org Why Should You Care About Pesticides? The growing consensus among scientists is that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood...

Music Reaches Any Body

Posted on April 08, 2009
Inspiring!!! Can You clap the sound of snow? Deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie can! Accessibility of music to Every Body --- Give this a listen: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html Particularly wonderful in light of having watched a 1970 DVD of Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic/ Young People's Concert- where all visible players but one were white guys - no women, no body different...

I Phone for the Blind

Posted on April 08, 2009
iPhone for the blind

Worlds.com launches Virtual World Patent Suit

Posted on February 24, 2009
Economic hardtimes foster wrangling. In a wrinkle uniquely "new millenium, ensuring a distinction of the current downturn as compared with earlier troughs, litigators wrangle realtime over virtual gaming worlds. Virtual worlds developer Worlds.com (provider of custom virtual environments for corporations) has sued NCSoft, the Korean maker of virtual worlds such as Lineage, City of Heroes and Guild Wars...

Twitter awards

Posted on February 11, 2009
140 characters in search of authors. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123435724633872715.html

Is Google culpable for Cell Phone hate speech?

Posted on February 05, 2009
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/google-executives-face-jail-time-for-italian-video/ For some reason, this scenario reminds me of Shirley Jackson's short story, The Lottery.

Color Matters in Some Cognitive Tasks Says Study of 600

Posted on February 05, 2009
Color shown to affect work performance One should check the cohort sizes supporting the various conclusions. Here is the link to the study. As with most "hot headlines" in science, it makes interesting chatty conversation, but it pays to read the protocol and see the underlying experimental design so as to temper incautious generalizations.

cell phone novels

Posted on January 20, 2009
Cell Phone Novels In 2007, cell phone novels held four of the top five spots on the literary best seller list. And now I can't text while driving in California. Darn- how am I going to get my cell phone novel finished?!? Move to Tokyo and ride the train? Or, stick to CalTrain and BART and text while in motion? Balzac would have liked to have it so good...

Too Long for Twitter

Posted on January 17, 2009
The link for a Lehrer News Hour interview with Neil Henry is too long for Twiiter, so here it is.... FauxNeme types again :) http://pbs-newshour.onstreammedia.com/cgi-bin/visearch?user=pbs-newshour&template=play220ram.html&query=*&squery=%2BClipID%3A5+%2BVideoAsset%3Apbsnh052201&inputField=%20&ccstart=2465465&ccend=3002785&videoID=pbsnh052201

Freshman Science is not a spectator sport

Posted on January 17, 2009
Submitted by LA based contributor, Bob Coleman: According to the New York Times, top American universities are changing the way they teach freshman science?especially physics. check here Reasoning from the fundamental truth that most of us learn by doing, MIT's professor Eric Mazur is pushing to replace the 300-student freshman physics of (for many of us) painful memory with small groups of students working collaboratively and interactively: "'Just as you can?t become a marathon runner by watching marathons on TV,' Professor Mazur said, 'likewise for science, you have to go through the thought processes of doing science and not just watch your instructor do it...

YouTube for FREE WHEELS?

Posted on January 14, 2009
Will YouTube for Free Wheels....You can, too! Ford's offering 6 months' everything-free usage of their new Fiesta (small car) to 100 people who create 2-minute YouTube videos explaining why they deserve one. Contestants need a web presence and the ability to write and/or create videos: http://www...

Holiday Despair: Gateway Emotion

Posted on December 23, 2008
Deep debt and despair transformed into enduring secular story (original column appears in the Christian Science Monitor). FYI Project Gutenberg has audio version of "A Christmas Carol" for easy listening..... 'A Christmas Carol' was not just a book but rather a Victorian-era Christmas miracle...

Stanford, Hadron and Protein Yawns

Posted on December 17, 2008
Forget the Mall. Forget tinsel. A great story is what pushes back the dark. Particle physics is a riveting tale. A crowd filled the Panofsky auditorium last night at SLAC SLAC. Kids, teenagers mingled in the exhibits parents and grandparents secured seats Physics is a family affair here in Silicon Valley...

Gift Idea

Posted on December 15, 2008
Creature Comfort

LA Readers Write: Renewable Energy

Posted on December 10, 2008
Thanks to Bob Coleman, LA based contributor, for this green tech biz pointer: Check out Balloons for affordable solar power at Renewable Energy World Brief excerpt: December 5, 2008 Cool Earth Is Scaling Up Solar Energy Generation by Marsha W. Johnston, Contributor California, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld...

Los Angeles Shiny & Bright

Posted on December 10, 2008
Los Angeles, near Wilshire Blvd., this simple shiny tree festooning struck my fancy. Hubbel it's not, but shiny it is. photo credit: me and my iphone

Los Angeles Holiday Greenery

Posted on December 09, 2008
Los Angeles: holiday greenings Photo credit: me and my iphone

Pulitzer & Pearl

Posted on December 08, 2008
Los Angeles based reader/contributor, Bob Coleman, submitted these topics for consideration: 1) The day after the annual Pearl Harbor commemoration U.S. Commission report made public: says we're in danger of losing cyber-war, and that Obama needs to appoint a Hacking Czar 2) Pulitzer Prizes will now consider on-line work as journalism...

Chicago Cubs may be orphans:Tribune Bankrupt: Internet Style Book publishing

Posted on December 08, 2008
Chicago Cubs need a new home. The Tribune Company is bankrupt. Crumbling of traditional newsmedia. Alarm, alarm. The rise of newer media: Twitter-ites alerted me to a new publication The Organic Internet. Observing that it is available for free download as well as purchase, I am interested in these current publication models...

Twitter: Food Project Update

Posted on December 04, 2008
The game: Twitter is the medium we're using to attract "geek" recipes. Join up and submit your fave. My handle on twitter is (wait for it....) FauxNeme. A brand new venture into character building. Why? New names for new dishes. I mean, where are the shepherds making "Shepherd's Pie" anymore? Thanks to all who have contributed recipes so far ...

Happiness is Contagious!

Posted on December 04, 2008
Smile and your on line friends smile...see page 2: Happiness IS Contagious

Twitter: CEO Evan Williams: Best Quip

Posted on December 03, 2008
San Francisco December 2 2008 Quipped Evan Williams, CEO TWITTER: "If you're a company on the Internet, Day 1, you're International; Day 7 you have clones."

Twitter in Plain English

Posted on December 03, 2008
Some background; comments on Twitter to follow in mini posts http://en.blog.buzzparadise.com/twitter-for-dummies/

San Francisco Twitter

Posted on December 03, 2008
San Francisco Grand Hyatt Hotel, December 2 2008 Interviewer: Kevin Maney (closest to podium) Interviewee: Evan Williams (closest to the tree)

Somali Pirates

Posted on December 03, 2008
http://http://optionarmageddon.ml-implode.com/2008/12/02/somali-pirates-in-discussions-to-acquire-citigroup/

Stanford Hosts Celebration of California's William Saroyan

Posted on November 25, 2008
Download file

US Turkey Sentiments

Posted on November 24, 2008
At odds with National Diabetes Awareness month, November features the US celebration of Thanksgiving, epitomized by the below kitchen towel at a local Palo Alto fine grocery: photo credit: me and my iphone

Avatar Murder Lands Woman in Jail

Posted on October 23, 2008
Real crime, real passion, real jail time - but the victim was an avatar...!!! Divorce me and You're Dead! Thanks to K.R. for submitting this story....

Mini Mythbusters

Posted on October 21, 2008
I confess I enjoy watching the broadcast show "MythBusters," vicariously rigging all manner of apparatus winches, clamps, rotary arms, timing circuits and generally playing around within the arena of physics. If you haven't seen the show, they start with some myth and the questions about the properties at play...

Carp or Koi

Posted on October 19, 2008
Title dilemma Tree of Carping? Can one hear kvetching murmurs on the gentle breeze? "This branch-- its really getting under my scales" Or, the accurate but too -long- for- a- Flckr tag: Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Cypriniformes Family: Cyprinidae Genus: Cyprinus Species: C...

Media Manipulation 1919 style

Posted on October 18, 2008
From 2008, plagued by campaign spam and spin of viral messages and robo-calls, a look back to a time of ink and inches: In 1922, Roscoe Pound and Felix Frankfurter undertook a detailed quantitative study of crime reporting in Cleveland, Ohio, newspapers for January 1919, counting column inches...

Quote-able Quotes

Posted on October 18, 2008
"Future lawyers should be more aware that law is not a system of abstract logic, but the web of arrangements, rooted in history, but also in hopes, for promoting to a maximum the full use of a nation's resources and talents." -Justice Felix Frankfurter http://en...

Pumpkin Plump

Posted on October 17, 2008
Is that a gourd bar pick-up line? Guess my weight and take me home?

Segue Fully Loaded

Posted on September 20, 2008
Try new things, and keep the mind young. A few weeks ago, while in beautiful San Diego, a friend and I rented Segues. I had admired the technological achievement, and wanted first hand experience. Although we were given helmets and a half hour orientation, I was not ready to ride on the path a few yards from the beautiful Pacific Ocean...

San Francisco: Born Digital Release Fete

Posted on September 08, 2008
San Francisco Event: September 15 2008 Book Talk and Reception for Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser Monday, September 15th, 2008 6:00PM, to be followed by a cocktail reception. Free and open to the public, no RSVP required...

Heroes

Posted on September 01, 2008
Heroes the TV show is great, right. We won't discuss the problems of time travel as described by Cauchy and string theory (next time - I know you can't wait !) But in a ligher vein, after you've read Berlinski's short history of mathematics, Infinite Ascent, you'll enjoy seeing how Jame Kakalios maps (jovially and with nary an equation up his sleeve) so many of the mathematical concepts into the world of Spiderman, Ironman, Batman : superheroes...

Quarterly taxes nigh: take the big picture

Posted on August 17, 2008
Quarterly taxes will soon be due. Again. A few days ago I posted the fun comparative approach to animal courtship, mating and reproduction (Headless Males Make Great Lovers. Read it and see why the geeky male bower bird steals toothbrushes along with baubles, bangles and bright shiny things)...

Food Glorious Food- for thought

Posted on August 10, 2008
Voting time means the usual circulation of emails recounting American suffragettes suffering to change a prohibition on the right to vote. Often jail and hunger strikes are mentioned. I read and send along various useful historical reminders, each calculated to revive appreciation for a right fought for by others...

Fannie Mae, Freddie and Me

Posted on August 07, 2008
Palo Alto real estate foreclosures triggered a feeding frenzy in August. Now, in light of the looming demise of Fannie Mae et al, how ought one handle the stress of primal concerns? Reading infiltrates the wet-ware in ways films or the cartoon world of Second Life cannot...

Guns, Copyright, Guns Guns Guns

Posted on June 27, 2008
The US Supreme Court upheld the invalidation of the total ban on handguns in DC. [District of Columbia v Heller]. Parsing the Second amendment into a prefatory clause - "Because a well regulated Militia is necessary to the security of a free State" - and an operative clause-"the right of the people to keep and bear arms" is not without controversy...

Digital Publishing

Posted on June 27, 2008
International Digital Publishing Forum (formerly Open eBook Forum) is the International Trade and Standards Organization for the Digital Publishing Industry. Stay tune for a discussion of standards in the e audiobook field. See also eMusic Publishing Partners

eMusic Publishing Partners

Posted on June 19, 2008
Random House Naxos Hachette Penguin McSweenies BBC Worldwide Simon & Schuster Brainsync L.A.Theater Works Tantor Media Phoenix Books Listen and Live Reagent Press Audio Evolution Hay House Publishers

Technology Law & Patent Resource Short List

Posted on June 18, 2008
A short list of good reading Law Journals Boston University Journal of Science & Technology Law http://www.bu.edu/law/central/jd/organizations/journals/scitech/index.html Duke Law & Technology Review http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/ Harvard Journal of Law & Technology http://jolt...

Beverly Hills: 360 deals in music

Posted on June 17, 2008
Beverly Hills, California From The Beverly Hills Bar Association: Making Sense of the New Wave in Artist Deals -- The Insider's Guide to 360° " Recording " Deals After years of financial turbulence and changing business models due to the decline of physical record sales and disruptive technologies, music companies are now commonly viewing recording artists' ancillary income as vital new revenue streams...

eMusic CEO Pakman on Piracy & Profit

Posted on June 16, 2008
Los Angeles hosted BookExpo May 2008 and http://eMusic's David Pakman gave a requiem for DRM in audiobooks. As with bottled water, where free is everywhere, non-free goods must simply be better. Opening with a recounting of the travails of music piracy (i...

LA: BookExpo Dave Pakman of eMusic Part 1

Posted on June 12, 2008
At LA Book Expo, Dave Pakman, CEO of eMusic spoke of the "death of DRM" for audio books..

Los Angeles: BooxExpo 2008

Posted on June 10, 2008
Los Angeles, June 2008 Coming soon: Synopsis Dave Pakman CEO of eMusic RIP DRM: epublishing of audio books

Los Angeles: Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream and the Idea of Partnerships

Posted on June 09, 2008
From Los Angeles contributor Bob Coleman I don?t often recommend an obituary as a jolly story, but this remembrance of Baskin-Robbins co-founder Irvine Robbins qualifies. For one thing, ya gotta love a guy who ate ice cream for breakfast and still lived to be 90...

Urban Cyclists Unionize

Posted on June 08, 2008
(submitted by Bob Coleman) In Toronto, cyclists form a first-of-its-kind union Believed to be the first of its kind, the Toronto Cyclists Union plans to offer insurance, roadside assistance, advocacy, and even an online dating service. Kathy Marks cocks her head, listening for the din of a thousand bicycle bells...

Neville Appointed to CA Bar Exec Committee

Posted on June 04, 2008
Ms. Neville, a veteran IP attorney, has been appointed by the Board of Governors to the California State Bar Law Practice Management Executive Committee. Her term will end in 2011.

San Francisco:Embarcadero after rush hour

Posted on May 23, 2008
In the San Francisco Embarcadero, only the sound of this fountain, and the ferry bell from the tower across the street (out of frame). photographer: dneville

Second Life: Virtual Store-Real Music

Posted on May 22, 2008
Second Tunes is a service for musicians who want to sell their music in Second Life. As of last month, about a hundred artists are on the SecondTunes roster. To sell someone else's music in Second Life, You are limited to 150 songs at a time, and you must get a license from Harry Fox Agency for $15 and 9...

Internet slang: DAFS

Posted on May 22, 2008
Lingo- according to the OED, refers to a foreign or unintelligible tongue. For those looking to interpret internet slang, try short Rice U list It may come in handy when trying to figure out if you've been "dissed". But consider, slang may not have helped this lost Japanese-speaking African Grey Parrot get home Smarter Than Lassie!!!

Second Life: More virtual world property disputes

Posted on May 21, 2008
Canadian courts see breach of contract claim for activities in Second Life I was typing in "murder" trying (so far unsuccessfully) to hunt down a lead for a Second Life incident sometime back in which executive business type avatars were "killed" by a car crashing into the board of directors meeting...

Player Sues Over Loss of Virtual Property

Posted on May 21, 2008
On-line game player sues game operator, alleges loss of "virtual property" Who took My Virtual Weapons Cache This is interesting. Real property, I get. Intellectual property, we accept. Virtual property? In the words of the inimitable Mr. Spock, "Fascinating...

Second Life: Internet Manna or Mishigas

Posted on May 21, 2008
Virtual Law (and Crime) in Virtual World Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) and Avatar EdMarkey (D-SL?) alter conducted hearings in Washington DC and Second Life for the House Subcommitee on Telecommunications and the Internet entitled "Online Virtual Worlds:Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium...

Silicon Valley: Innovation On Innovating: Open Source Health Research

Posted on May 09, 2008
Patenting and Open Source Platform Silicon Valley nonprofit Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) provides an early glimpse of next-generation institutional innovation (BusinessWeek.com, 11/15/07) as it emerges on the edge of medical research and drug discovery...

USPTO, United Nations & the Enola (not so Gay) Bean

Posted on May 06, 2008
On a trip to Mexico, Larry Proctor bags a bean, then patents it, then asserts Mexican Farmers cannot import this bean - indiginous to Mexico- to the US. After more than 10 years, and unrecompensed losses to farmers, the USPTO succumbed to UN pressure and struck down the bean patent...

GETTING PAID: Music Publishing Company: Simple Set Up Steps

Posted on May 03, 2008
Want to Get Paid? Who doesn't! Simple Steps to Setting Up A Publishing Company (so you can get paid!!!) First: Affiliate with ASCAP or BMI Application forms give you 3 choices of name, and it is vital to get a name that ensures you are properly paid (and not confusingly similar to other companies)...

New York Federal Judge sets Internet Music Royalties

Posted on May 01, 2008
ASCAP is thrilled estimating as much as $100 million in payments covering 7 years period ending in 2009; Digital Media Assoc., repping internet services, declines comment. U.S. District Judge William Conner's 153-page decision didn't specify the total amount owed to the ASCAP members, but he provided an example on how the formula would apply to the music royalties owed by AOL and Yahoo for 2006...

Copyright for Code Thugs

Posted on May 01, 2008
Malware is an ugly reality in cyberspace. Hackers ceaselessly barrage us with incendiary code calculated to thwart break or pervert our software. A new threat: violate our copyright, and we'rr report you to..to..to US!!! http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9111031

College as Incubator: blending theory with training

Posted on May 01, 2008
In his 1986 comedy flick, Back To School, Rodney Dangerfield plays a tough, up-from-the streets entrepreneur who winds up in the classroom of a snooty, hopelessly academic business professor. The professor blathers on about the theoretical costs of a business start-up until Rodney interrupts to tell him he?s forgotten a few things?like paying off the building inspectors and kick backs to corrupt union officials...

WalMart video scandal

Posted on April 11, 2008
and who at Wal Mart failed to get the IP rights to the video UP FRONT??? Wake UP WalMart.... God is in the details....(or see the related story on WalMart selling bible action figures....) see www.bbc.co.uk Video embarrassment for Wal-Mart Wal-Mart store The footages shows Wal-Mart executives in unguarded moments Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, faces embarrassment and potential lawsuits after its corporate video archive was made public...

MySpace YouTube Web shield shrinks

Posted on April 08, 2008
Shrinking Immunity for Web hosts Jane Doe v Friendfinder Courts chip away at Web sites' decade-old legal shield Posted by Anne Broache for C/Net News.com For more than a decade, Web site operators have enjoyed a broad legal shield against lawsuits filed over material posted by their users, which has let user-driven sites like YouTube and MySpace...

Federal Judge Rules Posting is NOT Copyright Violation

Posted on April 07, 2008
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/04/boston-judge-making.html

Monday Madness: hedgehog as a weapon carries 60 month sentence

Posted on April 07, 2008
Toss a hedgehog, go to jail.... NZ man 'used hedgehog as weapon' A man in New Zealand has been charged with using a hedgehog as a weapon, the New Zealand Herald has reported. Police said William Singalargh, 27, had hurled the hedgehog about 5m (16ft) at a 15-year-old boy...

Dogster - on the Internet and looking for "community"

Posted on March 27, 2008
Who says the Internet is over-hyped, brain mushifying and de-humanizing? See DOGSTER and if you're feeling click-happy, try CHESS and if you are inclined to "share a stash" (or want to know what it entails) try RAVELRY

FaceBook? WePlay.Com! Thanks, CAA!

Posted on March 26, 2008
Creative Artist Agency and Pequot Capital are launching WePlay.Com a social networking site aimed at image promotion of young athletes ....some of the 52 million children reportedly involved in athletics. Investment to date: $4.5 million. Launch : mid April...

SOCIAL NETWORKING Ustream. tv and FWE&E Mar 25

Posted on March 25, 2008
Silicon Valley seminar... FWE&E Ustreamtv First speaker Ross Mayfield Edleman Survey Trust Peers Second speaker Jeremiah Owyang, presented Online Community Best Practiceshttp://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0.7211,44795,00.html Open Social [Neville Note: and at this point the tv disconnected...

Riverhead Headache: Faux Memoir Fiasco

Posted on March 24, 2008
Pity the clueless agent and editor fooled by Another case of Faux Memoir Riverhead Books (Penguin USA) has offered to refund purchase price to buyers who ask A White Valley Girl Pretends to Have Grown up in Gangland It reminds me of a young person in a gym encounter: Young person (to oldster): What do you do? Oldster: I'm a novelist...

More on www.wowowow and footwear

Posted on March 20, 2008
resource allocation in peripatetic indicators: Diversity in footwear... see Mar 19 post (below beneath Guitar Hero) for live links.... check out the newly launched http://wowowow.com and the NYT coverage http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/fashion/06WOW...

Guitar Hero---Live

Posted on March 20, 2008
Inquiring minds: this is me playing GH in Second Life :)

Doctor, Doctor

Posted on March 19, 2008
The proper use of honorifics is no small matter in Germany, a society given to formality where even longtime neighbors insist on addressing each other using their surnames. Those with advanced degrees like to show them off, and it is not uncommon to earn more than one...

Celebrity CyberFem & NOT OPRAH or Britney Spears

Posted on March 19, 2008
check out the newly launched http://wowowow.com and the NYT coverage http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/fashion/06WOW.html I did write in and comment about the silly high-heeled shoe icon as the tag for "The Women"...am I the only one of the opinion they could come up with an icon that was not emblematic of gender specific torture and bondage and many trips to the chiropodist/chiropractor?

fuseproject: San Francisco

Posted on March 17, 2008
Something akin to parental pride to open a magazine and see one's client profiled.... See page 44 Spirit (Southwest Airlines in flight magazine) March 2008 : interview with world famous designer Yves Behar and fuseproject , his SF based design firm...

Valley Zen and Neville : Were We at the Same Panel?

Posted on March 11, 2008
Stanford attracted a full house at the "free to the public thanks to the generous support of GOOGLE" Legal Futures conference Saturday March 8, 2008. It followed an all day "invitation" session and one could detect that more than a few participants referred to Friday and continued discussions to which most of the "public" (read: not invited to Friday) were not privy...

Amateur Versus Professional Content

Posted on March 11, 2008
Panelists (L to R) : Lawrence Lessig, Andrew Keen, Hal Varian, Tom Rubin, Paul Cappuccio, and the Honorable Alex Kozinski

Google Provides Good Eats on Saturday Morning

Posted on March 11, 2008
Bagels for the dissing dairy. The chocolate muffins were roundly praised. Those with mouth metal stuck to yoghurt.

Stanford Center for Society & the Internet

Posted on March 11, 2008
Or is it Center for Internet and Society? After a full day Saturday, I have a stack of cards, and a jumble of notes. Then there was the Open Source reception..followed by the sale at Tommy Bahama on Sunday....a busy weekend it was .......up next: our interview with Andrew Keen, author of the controversial "The Cult Of The Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture" Followed by World of Warcraft...

Free Rice

Posted on March 10, 2008
FREE RICE

Palo Alto/ Stanford Center for Internet and Society Legal Futures Conference

Posted on March 08, 2008
Today's schedule Legal Futures Conference

Leap Day & Legos

Posted on February 29, 2008
TEST Build Your LEGO MASTERPIECE And the url (reachable via a link in the above article) for the Mac download. The program's apparently from Lego itself, and v. 2.0 just released a few days ago: LDD

Sweet Smell of Success

Posted on February 24, 2008
The Nose Knows! Patented Scent!?

Stanford, California and Your Brain

Posted on February 21, 2008
California and Stanford spawn endless fun...just finished my 14 day free trial with Lumosity..check it out to see what keeps your brain pink and fresh...my personal observations: a) the pressure of scoring detracts from the incentive to "just play".....

Seinfeld, Madonna, and Uncle Miltie???

Posted on February 21, 2008
A light hearted article in the Boston Globe about Shame virally spread on the Internet as a creative punishment for intellectual property theft. Sadly, even though the article is aimed at new attorneys and law students, it could be a bit more definite about US history...

AT&T Comcast Play Nice!!! /Markey Bill:Net Neutrality

Posted on February 17, 2008
Markey Bill on Net Neutrality Rep. Charles "Chip" Pickering (R-Miss.), who has argued against Net neutrality regulations in the past, is now co-sponsoring the rewritten measure, which is being called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.

LA Writer's Strike- the future?

Posted on February 15, 2008
Post-Writer's Strike comments re-hash the same old tune: there's gold in the new and different; Yes thanks so much for sharing...and those who are betting on the web for media, marketing and advertising (see www.mediapost.com) tout web based "content" as the SOURCE MEDIAPOST editor writes: The Big Media companies need to get over their obsession with their own series...

Writers Vote: End Strike

Posted on February 13, 2008
Breaking News Alert The New York Times Tuesday, February 12, 2008 -- 10:42 PM ET ----- Writers Vote to End Strike Hollywood's writers made it official, ending their bitterly fought strike at the 100-day mark by an overwhelming margin. Of 3,775 writers who cast ballots, 92...

Dogs Dogs Dogs!!!

Posted on February 10, 2008
NEW BREEDS DEBUT AT WESTMINSTER DOG SHOW

Berkeley Symposium

Posted on February 08, 2008
As my blog cred grows, I get more requests to publicize and endorse...so far no perks, other than "moral happiness" (see my Feb 2008 book review column on Stumbling on Happiness) In any event, thanks to John Tsai of UC Berkeley who asked so very nicely that I publicize the following: IP & Entrepreneurship Symposium March 7 & 8, 2008 ~ UC Berkeley Law School Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology (BCLT) and the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ)...

Google Afterlife

Posted on January 23, 2008
Google Millionaires and their Second Life

California Dreamin'...on such a Winter's Day!

Posted on January 10, 2008
Not Katrina, but when the rain comes down, so do the palm branches... We DO need the rain:) Photo credit: YoursTruly Rightfully reserved Use with caution

Microsoft was mooned..and the link came down

Posted on January 09, 2008
Corporate theft of amateur photos is "exposed" in this rollicking Washington Post article Stolen Web SnapShots From theft to teen photos posted on Flickr causing suit against Virgin Mobile Australia (alleging invasion of privacy of the teen girl, whose light-hearted photo taken at a church car-wash is plastered all over advertisements without her family's consent, and failure to credit the amateur photographer, a violation of Flickr policy) to repeated posting of stolen pictures on Babble (blamed on an intern intractably oblivious to copyright law and who, according to the article, was fired because of the copyright flap)...

IPhone Readers Unite!!!

Posted on January 04, 2008
http://www.booksinmyphone.com/

Radiohead: Music Biz: is it working?

Posted on January 03, 2008
Music consumers & creators: more on Radiohead RADIOHEAD

Radiohead: Pay For What You Get . . . or Pay What You Can Get Away With?

Posted on January 03, 2008
The band Radiohead made waves recently by releasing their latest album over the Internet with a ?pay what you like? pricing model: anyone visiting their website could download a full copy, with payment optional and completely voluntary. According to The New York Times, the best estimates are that about 62% of downloaders early on were freeloaders: they paid nothing...

Los Angeles: max on mini

Posted on December 11, 2007
Seen at THE PETERSEN in Los Angeles... Is this classic design the future of transportation?

Stanford enriches Palo Alto with Symbolic Systems Forum

Posted on November 30, 2007
Stanford offers so much to us here in Palo Alto/Silicon Valley. If you missed this talk, see the Dec 6 (below) on facial recognition cues. Perhaps by then I'll have played to oft touted new games, and some discourse informed by experience will ensue. ***SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM*** ( http://symsys...

Stem Cells, Facebook, Mom and Dad

Posted on November 28, 2007
Today's New York Times has an article on stem cells, and an interesting issue concerning whether or not state research facilities will be liable for patent infringement on work that is close to cosmetic application (read: cash generating applications!)...

Silicon Valley remakes Hollywood?

Posted on November 27, 2007
Silicon Valley; Los Angeles....Netscape founder Marc Andreessen posted Patrick Goldstein (LA TIMES) column ostensibly on the Writers Guild. Goldstein touts the not so new concept of "writer entrepreneur" (writers have always been entrepreneurs - ask anyone who ever looked for an agent or shopped a script :) But I take issue with a glaring contradiction in Goldstein's loose draping of examples that masquerades as a point...

Mass Effect: The Eyesbrows have it

Posted on November 26, 2007
Video game as, ahem, "art?" Read New York Time writer Seth Schiesel's review of Mass Effect a new game for X Box released by Bioware. http://nytimes.com/2007/11/22/arts/television/22mass.html?ref=television "What does your face look like when you're telling a lie? Or what are the visual cues when you are speaking in a beguiling, slightly flirtatious way?" Mr...

Wii Xbox or PS3 with your pumpkin pie

Posted on November 21, 2007
San Jose airport will be the gateway from my XBox buddies and Phoenix is the Wii oasis at my brother Dan's house for Thanksgiving family play. Video Games are a popular activity for all ages, as the post feast family tag football fades for lack of young blood and a surfeit of older bones...

Perjury: Barry Bonds? Merck?

Posted on November 19, 2007
The New York Times send out a "news alert" about Barry Bonds which I received on my iphone...baseball fans need the breaking news I guess...just as interesting is this post by patent law expert Dennis Crouch. (check out Dennis Crouch at www.patenlyo for regular and comprehensive patent legal news and practice tips)...

San Francisco: Intel, HealthCare & Boomers

Posted on November 19, 2007
In San Francisco on Tuesday Nov 20th? Then run don't walk to the FREE/OPEN TO THE PUBLIC /NO Reservations Required!! Closing Keynote Session Gerontological Society of America, featuring Eric Dishman of Intel?s Health Research and Innovation Group Tuesday, November 20, 2007 9:45 a...

Evil Talk at Stanford

Posted on November 09, 2007
I feel duped. The title was undeniably catchy: Computing and the Problem of Evil!!! The speaker undeniably well-reputed: John Mitchell, whose citation rank is 31 of a cast of tens of thousands..he ranks as the 31st most cited author in the filed of computing...

Bar Popularity: San Francisco Bay Area Lawyers Blog

Posted on November 09, 2007
San Francisco Bay Area eggs on its writer-lawyers. Two score and then some legal bloggers - a majority members of the bar, and several non-lawyers- convened this week to discuss blogging. Blogging is every monad's path to "self-publishing"- why wait for a staid and hidebound law review or journal, or to moonlight as a journalist and suffer editors, or hunt, spear in hand, paltry advance checks from wooley mammouth publishers, when one can cook up and promulgate any sort of stuff with the speed and reach afforded by "the web"...