FTC Wants To Straighten Out IP Law 97
coondoggie writes with this excerpt from NetworkWorld:
"What do you get when you mix the government, the court system, company lawyers and Joe Consumer? A serious mess that would send most people screaming into the night. But the Federal Trade Commission is no such entity. It wants to straighten Intellectual Property (IP) out and today said it will hold a series of hearings — the first in Washington, DC on Dec. 5 — it will use to examine IP law and the myriad issues surrounding it. Interested bigwigs from the tech industry, including Cisco, Yahoo and the Computer & Communications Industry Association are expected to testify along with professors, lawyers and other industry players. The patent system has experienced significant change and more changes are under consideration, the FTC said."
The FTC held some different, but related hearings this week which addressed topics such as copyright law and DRM interoperability. Transcripts, podcasts, and summaries of the talks are available on the FTC-hosted "Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade" site.
BOHICA? (Score:2, Funny)
I sure hope the industry isn't colluding here and the government is looking out for our interests...
vc: buyers
Straighten out? (Score:5, Funny)
When did it go gay?
Re:Straighten out? (Score:2, Funny)
Right after they allowed software patents.
Re:Minnie (Score:5, Funny)
Nonono..
Mickey and Minnie *were* married, but they got divorced a few years back. Disney did an awesome job of keeping it out of the press, but I got the following story from an insider:
While it was happening, Mickey went to his lawyer and explained why things weren't working out between them. He ranted for over an hour, and when he was finished, his lawyer said
"Well Mr. Mouse, while I can sympathize with you, I'm afraid you can't divorce your wife simply because you think she's a bit odd."
Mickey jumped up and shouted "No! I didn't say she was odd - I said she was fucking Goofy!"
Re:no, no, you don't understand U.S. elections! (Score:4, Funny)
Obama won't be president until he's sworn in, in January.
THEN everything will magically and instantly be fixed.
Re:Those are easy odds to figure (Score:4, Funny)
Don't worry. They're just having committee hearings. These put two of the most useless concepts in human behavior (committee, meeting) together in one room. It's carefully designed so nothing of substance gets done.
That's for the little get together in the bar after the meeting.
Re:no, no, you don't understand U.S. elections! (Score:5, Funny)