01 Sep 2004
Judges OK garage door openers

Wow - somebody in the legal establishment grew a brain. Wonders never cease ...

Digital Millennium Copyright Act doesn't prohibit a company from selling replacement garage door openers, federal appeals court concludes.

(link) [CNET News.com]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Pentagon Censors 'Right to Know' Video (AP)

Before you link this to my recent redaction post, read it carefully: the reason the Pentagon couldn't release the entire film was the inclusion of some potentially copyrighted material!

According to Jay Flemma, a New York copyright lawyer:

"Nobody wants to get sued, corporations would be served best by not including such material, but you certainly can make a strong argument this was fair use."
Fair use, indeed! Wake up, Mr. Flemma - a lot of material that should be covered by "fair use" is being taken away from our cultural heritage every day, mostly by, gasp!, copyright lawyers!

AP - The Defense Department spent $70,500 to produce a Humphrey Bogart-themed video called "The People's Right to Know" to teach employees to respond to citizen requests for information. But when it came to showing the tape to the public, the Pentagon censored some of the footage.

(link) [Yahoo! News - Top Stories]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

For CEOs, offshoring pays

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you ...

Chief executive officers at the companies shipping the most U.S. jobs overseas seem to be pocketing some of the savings, according to a new report.

(link) [CNET News.com]

00:00 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Constipated kids are more likely to refuse to use the potty

I don't know if I would've used the term "chicken and egg" to describe this situation, but I will advise the researchers of an observation of mine culled from long years of experience: adults who are constipated also often refuse to use the potty!!!

A lot of children who refuse to poop in the toilet during training are also constipated—but it's not clear what comes first, the constipation or the training problems. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania tried to resolve this chicken-or-the-egg debate.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Men from Middle Ages were nearly as tall as today

Apparently the Dark Ages weren't quite so dark after all - this surely does fly in the face of conventional wisdom.

Northern European men living during the early Middle Ages were nearly as tall as their modern-day American descendants, a finding that defies conventional wisdom about progress in living standards during the last millennium. ''Men living during the early Middle Ages (the ninth to 11th centuries) were several centimeters taller than men who lived hundreds of years later, on the eve of the Industrial Revolution,'' said Richard Steckel, a professor of economics at Ohio State University and the author of a new study that looks at changes in average heights during the last millennium.

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link