TiesMorskate.nl

Quite an interesting defense Samsung put to the table in the US based version of the lawsuit Apple is pursuing in courts all over the world. Samsung is actually saying that Stanley Kubrick had already thought of a iPad-like device and depicted it in his 2001: A Space Odyssey movie. The Age even had an expert reflect on the probability of success:

“Generally science fiction is not legitimate prior art to a utility patent, because it does not provide an ‘enabling disclosure’, i.e. it does not inform the public how to make the fictional apparatus,” said Summerfield, who writes the patent blog patentology.com.au.

But he said there was no reason why science fiction could not be “invalidating prior art” to a registered design.

Read the full article here

And for some reason I don’t know if that’s a good thing. In the Economist article ‘Remember when books were worthy of burning?’ the author argues:

In London in 2011, however, bibliophiles can breathe easy: despite the riots, books have tended to stay safely on their shelves, their subtle power blithely overlooked.

Often the book stores are the only ones not looted by the retarded mob. One Waterstone’s employee went on saying: “If they steal some books they might learn something,”. Which is very, very true.

Read the full article here.

My favorite TechCrunch contributor Paul Carr wrote a great post on book piracy and why he clearly thinks it’s a non-issue.

To all intents and purposes, books borrowed from libraries mean authors receive no compensation. Meanwhile, every day, millions of people around the world loan books to their friends, or donate books to charities, or leave them on public transport or otherwise share them in ways that negate the need for the recipient to buy their own copy. None of this constitutes stealing from authors, and you won’t hear a peep of objection from the publishing industry or authors.

The full article is well-worth the read.

A. The new US Defense ministry

B. A drawing from the Venus Project (Zeitgeist)

C. The new Apple campus

Answers in the comments!

Very true!