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[Brentai]

Well, that's Apple's line.  But it kind of affirms what I've suspected in that the ruling doesn't say jack about a company's attempts to circumvent homebrew applications, it just means they can't outright sue you for it.

Which doesn't mean device makers explicitly have that right, or don't.  It just means the ruling is still in the air on that one.

[Thad]

(also homebrewing is not generally done for the purpose of security testing iirc but feel free to correct me)

Well, I was talking about the part about running custom apps rather than the security testing part.

(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

Technically only applies to phones, but I can see a broader interpretation showing up in the courts.  For example, no rational person would say "This applies to the iPhone but not the iPod Touch."

But it kind of affirms what I've suspected in that the ruling doesn't say jack about a company's attempts to circumvent homebrew applications, it just means they can't outright sue you for it.

Which doesn't mean device makers explicitly have that right, or don't.  It just means the ruling is still in the air on that one.

I don't think it's up in the air at all; you were right the first time: manufacturers are still allowed to use whatever ridiculous anti-circumvention techniques they want to try and stop people from jailbreaking their devices, they just can't sue anyone who circumvents them.

And again, it's limited to phones (again, with my caveat above that I think there's some wiggle room there) and breaking DRM for reasons of security or interoperability.

Still no backups, which is of course completely fucking asinine.  But it's a pretty big step in the right direction.

[Brentai]

So... crack party?

KRAKK KRAKK

[Thad]

The best thing you will read all day: Judge rules Dark Ages Spawn, Domina and Tiffany are derivative characters.

"Much as defendant [McFarlane] tries to distinguish the two knight Hellspawn, he never explains why, of all the universe of possible Hellspawn incarnations, he introduced two knights from the same century," [Judge Barbara] Crabb writes. "Not only does this break the Hellspawn 'rule' that Malebolgia never returns a Hellspawns [sic] to Earth more than once every 400 years (or possibly every 100 years, as suggested in Spawn, No. 9, exh. #1, at 4), it suggests that what defendant really wanted to do was exploit the possibilities of the knight introduced in issue no. 9. [...]

"If defendant really wanted to differentiate the new Hellspawn," the judge continues, "why not make him a Portuguese explorer in the 16th century; an officer of the Royal Navy in the 18th century, an idealistic recruit of Simon Bolivar in the 19th century, a companion of Odysseus on his voyages, a Roman gladiator, a younger brother of Emperor Nakamikado in the early 18th century, a Spanish conquistador, an aristocrat in the Qing dynasty, an American Indian warrior or a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I? It seems far more than coincidence that Dark Ages (McFarlane) Spawn is a knight from the same century as Medieval (Gaiman) Spawn."

As a bonus, Crabb uses the phrase "kick-ass warrior angels" in reference to Domina and Tiffany.

I would totally buy a comic by Judge Crabb.

[Büge]

Wow. It really tickles me to know that truth is often more awesome than fiction.

[Thad]

GPL scores historic court compliance victory

The Software Freedom Conservancy has secured $90,000 in damages for willful infringement of GPLv2, plus nearly $50,000 in costs from Westinghouse Digital Electronics over its illegal distribution of the Unix utility BusyBox. The company has also been ordered to stop shipping product loaded with BusyBox.

It's the first time a US court has awarded an injunction ordering a GPL violator to permanently stop distribution of out-of-compliance GPL'd software.

It might not be the last. The action is one of 14 that SFC has filed against the same number of consumer electronics manufactures and retailers for GPL violations, including Best Buy, Samsung Electronics America, and JVC Americas.

Westinghouse is bankrupt and they may never see that money, but this is a big deal as far as setting precedent.

And I think the keyword here is "willful".  They knew exactly what the fuck they were doing.  Why do people think they can get away with this shit?  You think because you compile it and hide it in firmware nobody's going to find out?

[Burrito Al Pastor]

9th Circut Court of Appeals rules that EULAs can void first-sale doctrine.

Man, between this and that "your car in your driveway isn't an area with a reasonable expectation of privacy" thing, they're really on a roll these days.

[McDohl]

...Oh, shit, I think I hear TA stomping up.

[SCD]

Good.  I want to know if this can make it into SCOTUS. 

[TA]

Apparently Nintendo has decided that having a thriving Pokemon fanbase is a bad thing, and is sending takedown notices to a bunch of the bigger resources for Pokemon.  I have no idea whether they really have a leg to stand on here but whether or not they do, this strikes me as kind of, um, psychotic.

[A²]

Elsewhere it was pointed out that there's a bunch of screwy shit (Spelling/Grammar errors, making up laws & deadlines that have no basis in actual law, etc) in the takedown notices that point to the most drunk lawyer ever, or someone's pulling a fast one over on the internet "for teh lulz"

[Brentai]

Damning evidence: AGNPH hasn't said anything about it.

EDIT: This is post #12345.

[Thad]

Neil Patrick Harris is an attorney general?

[Thad]

Ars: Judge in Xbox modding trial berates prosecution, halts trial.

A lot of it is that he's berating the witnesses for the prosecution for breaking the law (one recorded the defendant without his knowledge or consent, which is illegal in California; the other admits he's modded Xboxes himself).

More importantly, he seems to have a technical understanding of fair uses of modded Xboxes, and seems to be questioning the anti-circumvention clause itself:

“The only way to be able to play copied games is to circumvent the technology,” Gutierrez said. “How about backup games and the homebrewed?”

I'd say this is good news.

[Thad]

Prosecution drops case after first witness suddenly recalls that he saw the defendant put a pirated game in the modded console to test it out.

Victory for the good guys, but not as decisive as it would have been if they'd proceeded.  They knew they were going to lose and this way there's no precedent set.  Next time the ESA may have more competent witnesses.

[Thad]

Oh wow: depositions are up from the Kirbys' suit against Marvel.  A blogger called Danny Boy has the goods, with Bleeding Cool delivering some highlights:

John Romita
Stan Lee
Mark Evanier
Larry Lieber
Roy Thomas

I've read through the Thomas one and about halfway through the Lee one and I'm about to head to bed.  So far there aren't any real surprises (and these are from Marvel's submitted evidence so they're overwhelmingly pro-Marvel), but it's an interesting damn read anyway, just hearing it articulated in this much detail from primary sources.

EDIT: Finished the Stan Lee bit.  Pretty good.  My favorite part, in a discussion on Thor:

STAN LEE: I wanted him to be the son of Odin

Ladies and gentlemen, Stan Lee is now claiming credit for Norse mythology.

[Thad]

The Evanier one is long and contentious but, not coincidentally, damned interesting.  Evanier is a pro and doesn't fall for the lawyer's tricks.  Marvel's strategy here is clearly to establish that Evanier (1) wasn't there; (2) is biased by his friendship with Kirby; (3) has a financial incentive for exaggerating Kirby's accomplishments; and (4) hasn't done his homework.  The lawyer succeeded in (1).

A highlight is when the lawyer asks Evanier if he's studied anyone else's research in this area, and he responds flat-out that there isn't any, that he literally wrote the book on comics history.  And then he names off a few dozen people he's interviewed over the past 40 years and adds that he has about 300 more names he could provide if they want him to.

A couple key points he makes: Jack was only paid for pages that were accepted; if Stan made him redraw 4 pages, he'd still only get paid for a 20-page story even though he'd drawn 24.  So that makes it look a lot like a seller/client relationship, not work-for-hire.  And there's also the fact that Kirby created the Fourth World characters while he was still working at Marvel; the fact that Marvel didn't agree to the pay he wanted for them and he took them to DC pretty clearly establishes that Marvel did NOT automatically own every character he came up with while he was freelancing for them.  (And also that we may be going through this same story again with DC in a few years.)

Like everybody else, I would love to read a deposition from Ditko, but I imagine neither side really wants him up there.  I imagine he'd damage both sides' cases pretty heavily and it's not easy to predict whose side he'd damage more.

[Mongrel]

The Evanier one is the only one I read, actually, on account of Mark Evanier <3<3<3.

Care to elaborate on the Ditko point? I'm not as well up on the history of all this as I'd like to be.

[Büge]

The Evanier one is the only one I read, actually, on account of Mark Evanier <3<3<3.

Care to elaborate on the Ditko point? I'm not as well up on the history of all this as I'd like to be.

I'm curious about that too. I mean, I know Ditko went headfirst into Ayn Rand's ass at some point, but I'm not sure if that was before or after his stint at Marvel.

[Royal☭]

From what I understand, Ditko also has a fairly contentious relationship with Marvel, suffering many of the disputes over pay, copyright and credit that Kirby did during his stint. But there's also no love lost between him and Kirby, and I think in several cases Ditko has come out of seclusion to publicly cast doubt on Kirby's claims to the Marvel universe and his position on pay and attribution in general.