19 Apr 2006
Flowering Crabapple

Flowering Crabapple

23:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Microsoft, Autodesk Guilty of Patent Infringement

How ironic can you get?

A Texas jury has awarded $133 million in damages to David Colvin, after finding Microsoft and Autodesk guilty of infringing upon Colvin's two software patents for software antipiracy protection. Colvin's company, z4 Technologies Inc., filed patents for 'passwords and codes assigned to individual software copies to prevent unauthorized copies.' Microsoft was ordered to pay $115 million, and Autodesk $18 million for infringement of the product-activation schemes. A spokesman from Microsoft contends that 'Microsoft developed its own product-activation technologies well before z4 Technologies filed for its patent.' Appeals are expected.

(link) [Slashdot]

23:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

The documentation of church and state

Interesting map of religious affiliation in the United States, by state and county. Only Christian, of course, as I'm sure the survey felt that the 'other' category would too too small in most places to warrant bothering with.

The Bible Belt comes across as more of a patchwork quilt in the Map Gallery of Religion in the United States, a county-by-county accounting of the nation's churchgoers. Not surprisingly, Baptists are well represented in North Texas and Mormons throughout Utah, but who'd have thought to look for so many Mennonites in the middle of Montana?

(link) [CNET News.com]

23:00 /Asatru | 3 comments | permanent link