Copynights

I strongly recommend attending Copynight, a local open discussion on copyright issues organized by Riana Pfefferkorn, a law student at University of Washington and former EFF intern. Sarah and I will be attend a bit late, after Civil Procedure is done.

"Please join us tomorrow at the usual place and time to discuss current events such as the future of MP3 DRM, Congressional hijinks, and the RIAA's SWAT team [http://techdirt.com/articles/20070117/163531.shtml]. We'll down a few beers and (for law students) try to forget the stress of that summer job search...

Time: 7:30 PM, Tuesday, January 23
Place: Dad Watson's
3601 Fremont Ave. N., Fremont

Hope to see you there!

Riana Pfefferkorn"

PS we may also attend Liberally Drinking if time permits.

EDIT: I missed our previous post...

Decisions.... Decisions....

Two excellent events going on tomorrow evening in Seattle. Do I want to go to

The Seattle Drinking Liberally State of the Union Bingo Competition and Drinking Game?

or

The fledgling Seattle Copynight ???

My Alma Mater hates technology!

After reading the Chronicle of Philanthropy today, I am embarrassed to be a husky. The University of Washington is using a team of lawyers to take a widely-used, innovative technology away from consumers so that the University can profit.

I use Bluetooth to control my lego robot. My friends use it to talk on the phone. My dad uses it for his wireless mouse. The Washington Research Foundation, charged with defending the patents of the University of Washington, is claiming that all companies involved in the manufacture or distribution of Bluetooth technology are in violation of a patent for a radio-frequency technology developed by one of the University's electrical engineering students in the mid-nineties. (I checked Google patent search, but I didn't find anything of the sort)

The purpose of patents is to promote innovation. Would that student have been less likely to develop the technology in question if he knew that his university wouldn't be able to sue anyone who used it ten years later? Not bloody likely!

Many universities have committed to release their patents into the public domain, or at the very least, not litigate against companies trying to bring new technology to consumers. Why can't my Univeristy do that?

PS Due to Blogger switching out of Beta, a few people have told us that it republished all of our posts for the last month. I'm really really sorry about that, and if it happened to you, I would be happy to issue a sufficiently grovel-ridden email to you and anyone who might have been waiting to leave for a movie while you were cursing your rss reader.