[Quote:]

Microsoft is at the centre of an embarrassing row over an attempt by a lobby firm strongly linked with the Seattle computer giant to rally opposition against rival Google’s proposed acqusition of internet marketing firm DoubleClick.

The Observer has seen an email sent by a director at leading lobby firm Burson-Marsteller to a number of top UK businesses. The email urges board members to raise the issue of Google’s dominance of search engines with politicians, regulators and the media.

The email asks companies to join a new organisation - Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplaces - which in the next few weeks will make a series of announcements on Google, internet privacy and copyright.

My dad has returned from vacation in the US, so:

It’s clearly a first generation product for Apple, there’s loads and loads of things that show areas where improvement is to be made, and there’s loads of places where the functionality is limited.

Even so, when compared to all the previous handsets I’ve used (including the windows mobile qtek 100 I was using until yesterday), this is a huge leap forward. There’s almost no comparison, this phone is many years ahead of the competion. A real joy to use, and there’s no way I’m going back. It feels like somebody just walked up to me and said “I hear you’re a 100 yard sprinter, I’ve got something for you: first, take off these wooden clogs, and remove the braces from your knees as well. And get rid of those steel ankle cuffs. Now try these nikes and see how easy it is…”

It really is that much better.

[Quote:]

Bavaria’s most glamorous politician — a flame-haired motorcyclist who helped bring down state premier Edmund Stoiber — has shocked the Catholic state in Germany by suggesting marriage should last just 7 years.

Gabriele Pauli, who poses on her web site in motorcycle leathers, is standing for the leadership of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) — sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) — in a vote next week.

She told reporters at the launch of her campaign manifesto on Wednesday she wanted marriage to expire after seven years and accused the CSU, which promotes traditional family values, of nurturing ideals of marriage which are wide of the mark.

“The basic approach is wrong … many marriages last just because people believe they are safe,” she told reporters. “My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years.”

After that time, couples should either agree to extend their marriage or it should be automatically dissolved, she said.

[..]

Former foe Stoiber said she did not belong in the CSU and European lawmaker Ingo Freidrich dismissed her views.

“She is diametrically contradicting our Christian, ethical values,” Freidrich said.

Is she really? What are those “Christian, ethical values” that prevent her from winning the leadership of the party?

Viewed as a party rebel, Pauli stands almost no chance of winning next week’s vote. The contest has been fought mainly between Bavarian state economy minister Erwin Huber and German Consumer Minister Horst Seehofer.

The popularity of Seehofer, a 58-year-old married father of three, has suffered from the disclosure that he had been having an affair with a younger woman who recently had his baby.

Ah.

I see.

[Quote:]

Tanya Andersen’s attorneys fees motion in Atlantic v. Andersen has been granted by the Magistrate Judge to whom the question was referred. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald C. Ashmanskas issued a 15-page decision in which he ruled as follows:

defendant incurred substantial fees before the claims against her were dismissed, including those incurred to file her motion for summary judgment and to respond to a motion to dismiss her counterclaims with prejudice. During that time, plaintiffs were either unable to obtain, or chose not to produce, significant evidence to support their claims…..when plaintiffs dismissed their claims in June 2007, they apparently had no more material evidence to support their claims than they did when they first contacted defendant in February 2005…..

Whatever plaintiffs’ reasons for the manner in which they have prosecuted this case, it does not appear to be justified as a reasonable exploration of the boundaries of copyright law….. In this case, plaintiffs dismissed their claims before any rulings on any significant legal issues under the Copyright Act, or the factual issues associated with plaintiffs’ claim. Choosing that course, on this record, should be deterred in light of its potential chilling effect on the public’s access to creative works. If this were to become a more typical course in prosecuting the type of allegations faced by defendant, it is reasonably foreseeable that members of the public would be more hesitant to use the Internet to share creative works in general, regardless of whether their specific conduct violated copyright law or occupied an area yet to be addressed by copyright law.

Copyright holders generally, and these plaintiffs specifically, should be deterred from prosecuting infringement claims as plaintiffs did in this case. Plaintiffs exerted a significant amount of control over the course of discovery, repeatedly and successfully seeking the court’s assistance through an unusually extended and contentious period of discovery disputes. Nonetheless, after ample opportunity to develop their claims, they dismissed them at the point they were required to
produce evidence for the court’s consideration of the merits….. this case provides too little assurance that a prosecuting party won’t deem an infringement claim unsupportable until after the prevailing defendant has been forced to mount a considerable defense, and undergo all that entails, including the incurring of substantial attorney fees.

The parties will be afforded an opportunity to file objections to the Magistrate’s report, after which time it will be submitted to the District Judge for finalization.

This is the same case in which (a) the RIAA insisted on interrogating Ms. Andersen’s 10-year-old girl at a face-to-face deposition, (b) the defendant filed RICO counterclaims against the record companies, and (c) the defendant recently converted her RICO case into a class action”

And it’s clear the RIAA knows it has no case, or they’d attack Harvard as well.

[Quote:]

The BBC Symphony Orchestra gave a performance of composer John Cage’s seminal piece 4′33″, which does not contain a single note.

Radio 3 broadcast the entire composition live, even having to switch off its emergency system that cuts in when there is apparent silence.

4′33″ John Cage 1952