Perhaps the most famous of these patents is Amazon's patent for one-click web shopping, but it's far from being the only one.
Wendy Seltzer, an attorney for the EFF, said in an interview Monday that the goal of the new campaign is to prevent questionable patents like these from being used against individuals and small businesses.
"Traditionally, corporations have used patents to protect their work, but we've been seeing patents more and more frequently asserted against nonprofits and individuals and other nontraditional targets for patent enforcement," said Seltzer.
I think software patents were a bad idea to begin with, but these patents are obviously created as means of extortion (or, in some cases, to protect against such extortion).
In fact, I think there should be a hefty penalty for even applying for "bad faith" patents like these.
A Saudi man's diary of life in the "Magic Kingdom", where the Religious Police ensure that everything remains as it was in the Middle Ages.
In Memory of the lives of 15 Makkah Schoolgirls, lost when their school burnt down on Monday, 11th March, 2002. The Religious Police would not allow them to leave the building, nor allow the Firemen to enter.
Every time we're tempted to cut those Wahibi Islamofascists any slack, remember those school girls burned to death becuase it was more important for the "muttawa" (religious police) to follow insane chastity laws than saving the girls' lives.
He also notes how important bringing technology to the masses is in fighting dictatures. There is the Internet, of course, and there are mobile phones
When the Saudi people finally rise up in revolt and throw out the House of Saud, it won't be for democratic reform, and it won't be for an islamic republic. It'll be about mobile phones.
This was one of a number of scenarios suggested by NORAD officers for an exercise in April 2001, set up to test military leaders' response readiness in a case where the Pentagon's operation center was taken out, according to Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable.
Reportedly, the Joint Chiefs rejected the hijacking scenario as "unrealistic."
Oops!.
I bet they had just gotten the idea from reading Tom Clancy's Executive Orders.
Spain's new prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who won a surprise victory in the election thanks to al-Qaeda's murderous Madrid attack on March 11, has decided to order the Spanish troops in Iraq to run, not walk, home, much earlier than even his election promise indicated.
Bush sent a blunt reply:
The spokesman said in the five-minute conversation, Mr. Bush stressed the importance of carefully considering future actions in order to "avoid giving false comfort to terrorists or enemies of freedom in Iraq."
"It's likely to encourage those who are opposed to the coalition to believe that if they can cause more bloodshed and trouble then more will pull out," he said.
In case you are in doubt, Bush and Howard is speaking diplomatese, and their message to Spain is really: you cowardly gazpacho-eating surrender llamas have taught terrorists in Iraq, and everywhere else, that a combination of blackmail and terror works.
Be good and you will inherit the kingdom of heavens, said Jesus. Vote yes in Cyprus's crucial referendum on April 24 and you will go to hell - or so says a Greek Cypriot bishop.
He has warned Orthodox Greek Cypriots they face damnation if they approve a complex plan to reunite the island drafted by the United Nations.
"Those who say "yes" will be party to this injustice, will lose their homeland and the kingdom of heavens," Bishop Paul said in a sermon on Sunday quoted in newspapers on Monday.
