Peter Black's Freedom to Differ

New IP podcast

UCLA Professor Doug Lichtman has launched a new podcast, Intellectual Property Colloquium.  This is how he describes it:

The project is called the Intellectual Property Colloquium, and it is essentially an online audio program devoted to intellectual property topics. We aspire to be something like an NPR talk show, but focused on copyrights and patents, and aimed primarily at a legal audience. The programs are neither lectures nor debates. They are conversations, ideally thoughtful ones, with guests drawn from academia, the entertainment community, and the various technology industries.

Each program lasts one hour; is downloadable; and (the kicker) any lawyer who listens to our programs can earn (free) CLE credit in California, New York, and any state that accepts one of those through reciprocity. (We should soon be able to offer CLE in all the states, but for now the combination of California, New York, and reciprocity should cover most of our audience regardless.)

I host each program; and our first one, a lively conversation with Fred von Lohmann of the EFF, is up and ready to go. A schedule of up-coming shows is already posted on the site, as are a variety of subscription features that provide updates every time a new audio is available.

Subscribe to listen to the podcast here.

Aussie Bloggers

Meg Tsiamis, Snoskred and Andrew Boyd have launched a new community project called Aussie Bloggers.  Here is Meg's description:

Our aim for this project is “empowering, encouraging, supporting and promoting Aussie Bloggers and the Australian blogosphere in general”.

To facilitate this goal, we have established a group blog (which will be launching on the 21st January, 2008) and a forum which is now open for registration.

To get the community established, we’ve gathered together a team of passionate, community minded Australian bloggers who have demonstrated a willingness to help other bloggers and are working towards raising the profile of blogging in Australia.

These bloggers will contribute posts for the blog, and serve as moderators in the forum. Many have been working very hard behind the scenes in getting the forum established.

Read more here, visit the site here, join the forum here and watch the video:

Aussiebloggers
Uploaded by aussiebloggers

Ridiculous patents

Cracked.com has published a list of the 10 most ridiculous inventions ever patented.  At Blawg IT Brett Trout adds some others that could have made the list.

Second Life Patent and Trademark Office

Virtual IP governance in Second Life.  From Blawg IT:

According to Virtually Blind, Second Life players FlipperPA Peregrine (aka Tim Allen) and Michael Eckstein have opened up a virtual Second Life Patent and Trademark Office (SLPTO) within the video game. This comes on the heels of six Second Life gamers suing Rase Kenzo (aka Thomas Simon) for stealing their intellectual property. The allegations range from Unfair Competition, to Copyright Infringement, to Civil Conspiracy. The designs allegedly stolen include clothing, shoes and beds.

The SLPTO does not have any immediate plans for generating income, its owners have wisely stepped back and decided to let Second Life denizens choose how the SLPTO can best be utilized.

Read more here.

Open letter to WIPO

Via Michael Geist: IP Watch posts a open letter to the WIPO Secretary General that demonstrate the enormity of the problems at the UN institution.

Geraldo Rivera: "Our Fox News Team Can Take This Bunch of ..."

TVNewser has this bizarre story:

FNC's Geraldo Rivera took his show At Large, outside Fox News' Manhattan studios tonight. And while it began smoothly enough (Rivera on the Times Square big screen, welcoming his Avenue of the Americas guests), 33 minutes into the live broadcast, a group of 9/11 conspiracy theorists had shown up, placards in hand, ready to be heard. And they were.

As he was trying to get through a segment on what happens when a baby is left in a hot car, Rivera turned to the protesters saying, "if you hear the shouting it's a group of demonstrators...9/11 was an inside job? Oh, Get a life!"

Rivera moved on with his guests, including legal analyst Jeanine Pirro. Then, as he tossed to a break said "when we come back we'll take you into the secret world of restroom gay sex...I think these demonstrators are all into restroom gay sex."

And so it continued for the rest of the show.

To prove it, Johnny Dollar's Place has the video:

Only in New York.

The Pirate Party

Ars Technica looks at how the US Pirate Party is seeking political legitimacy in the US:

It's a common sentiment among tech-savvy audiences that the current copyright and patent system in the US is "broken" to some degree. And while some politicians have put issues like patent and copyright reform at the top of their lists, there aren't many political parties out there that make it one of their sole issues. That's where the US "Pirate Party" hopes to step in; the group is now hoping to establish itself as an officially-acknowledged political body in the state of Utah.

Established in 2006, the US arm of the international "pirate party movement" says that it believes the government should encourage creativity and freedom instead of smothering it. According to the group's web site, "Creativity has come to a standstill in this country for those who wish to work within, and benefit from, the confines of the law." The Pirate Party cites current copyright and patent laws as the reason for this, and "that our law not only allows this, but enables this, is a travesty and a crime against innovators everywhere."

However, contrary to what the party's name implies, the US Pirate Party does not condone piracy. "We've chosen to adopt the Pirate name so as to pay homage to the creative artists of the past, or as they would now be known, Pirates, thieves, and copyright infringers," reads the web site.

Read more here.

The other Facebook lawsuit

Mashable reminds us about another Facebook lawsuit:

The high profile ConnectU case isn’t the only legal action being taken against Facebook: a firm in Radnor, Pennsylvania has filed a complaint against the Palo Alto-based company claiming patent infringement.

Read more here.

X-rated patents

This morning I blogged about trademarking "fuck" (see here), now Blawg IT draws my attention to X-rated patents.  Discover the world of X-rated patents here.