] For the last few years the European Patent Office (EPO)
] has, contrary to the letter and spirit of the existing
] law, granted more than 30000 patents on
] computer-implemented rules of organisation and
] calculation (programs for computers). Now Europe's patent
] movement is pressing to consolidate this practise by
] writing a new law. Europe's programmers and citizens are
] facing considerable risks.

Software patents are a much riskier business. Instead of patenting the method for producting widgets, some people are making patents for scrollbars, mouseclicks, and other standard building blocks of modern software....

FFII: Software Patents in Europe

This is one of the funniest things I've seen recently. They got some mad skillz, yo.

The New Matrix.....Ping Pong Style

This is freaking outrageous. Why is this "crime" so horrible that it needs to be exaggerated to TEN TIMES the offense? I know that the issue is far from clear cut, but the fact that government officials are actively attempting to put legislation through that is this far out of whack, scares the living bajeezus out of me. Remember to vote early, and vote often, kids.

CNN.com - Bill would jail Internet song swappers

It's a trade off.....you're going on Springer either way....

Reuters: U.S. Children Fatter but Less Violent, Report Says

Spike Lee sued Viacom over their proposed rebranding of the cable network, TNN, to "Spike TV". I swear, if anybody even so much as thinks about "nox tv", I'm on them like R. Kelly on a school bus.

Spike Lee's head has just officially gotten stuck in the Holland tunnel.

Can the analysis of writing style actually tell us someone's gender?

/msg Sexkitten14 You're a man! I have proof!

A German woman is hoping to capatilize on her freakish gallstone creating ability. I guess that's a silver lining if ever there was one.

Wait, you're not going to throw that jar out, are you?

A US appeals court yesterday upheld an order against peer-to-peer service Madster, formerly known as Aimster. The unanimous decision said that the company could not escape claims of copyright infringement by an approach of "wilful blindness" that gives users the ability to mask the identity of files that they swap across the network.

RIAA - How do judges actually side with these people?

] Japanese bookstores are set to launch a national campaign
] to stop so-called "digital shoplifting" by customers
] using the lastest camera-equipped mobile phones.
]
] The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association says the
] practice is "information theft" and it wants it stopped.

This is a very interesting situation. On one hand, I don't think that magazine companies should worry too much about the "information theft" of one picture. However, if people were taking pictures of entire articles and sending them, I could see their concern.

The whole point comes down to the fact that the technology industry continues to grow at a rate which most other industries can't cope with. As technology advances, the free flow of information grows. Companies that understand this paradigm and embrace it, will prosper. Those companies that choose to ignore or combat the paradigm, will falter, and die.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan's 'digital shoplifting' plague

This is a rather well written article that takes both sides of the debate. Why religion? Why not?

Those with strict belief structures that deem any and all questioning of faith as heresy need not apply.

Why do people believe in God?