by Will Iredale and John Elliott -
MADONNA, who pioneered the pointy bra on stage, has called in lawyers over a range of skimpy bras and briefs adorned with her name and face.
As she convalesces at home this weekend after falling from a horse on her Wiltshire estate, they are gathering evidence for possible legal action.
By Karl Schoenberger -
Chris Israel, the Bush Administration's new czar for intellectual property rights protection, has the eyes of Silicon Valley on him.
The 35-year-old Commerce Department official, who was appointed in late July to fill the newly created post of Coordinator of International Intellectual Property Enforcement, will be the point man for putting pressure on China, the global capital for product piracy and a major bastion of illegally copied software.
by Jonathan's Schwartz -
You've probably seen a bunch of the coverage from what we announced on Sunday evening around an open digital rights commons at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit. I thought it'd be useful to put it all into context, and try to clarify some of the misimpressions.
Let me start with what's still viewed, by some, as controversial. I believe in intellectual property. Since Sunday, I've gotten a round of communications from those that believe the whole concept of IP is suspect, and digital rights management of any form is immoral (one writer used "evil"). I clearly don't share that view - you'll recall, Sun Microsystems is basically an intellectual property fountain - pour dollars in the top, some of the brightest minds go to work turning it into innovations, that are then translated into value by our customers and channels (and manufacturers).
By Frank Tiboni -
With mission-critical networks under attack, DOD works to plug holes
Taking a page from the past and one from the future, the Defense Department is devising ways to fight a new kind of threat that requires the strategic tricks of ancient warriors and the untested tools of network-centric warfare.
IP Owners Must Act Now to Protect Assets
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 2005--Many companies are seeing rapidly expanding international threats to and violation of their intellectual property rights, particularly in China. Despite recent initiatives by the Administration, given the complexity of and current strains in US-China bilateral relations, IP owners must not rely on the US government as a first line of defense of their rights.
China presents special challenges. Understanding the "China-threat" and mounting an effective program requires a solid understanding of the environment and the tailoring of a China-specific protective program.
by Muhammad Mahboob Ali -
THE rules of the game are stacked against developing countries, and the Uruguay Round (UR), which created the rules-based World Trade Organisation (WTO), has not changed the situation very much. Most of the protection for industry and agriculture in industrial countries was left intact. Part of the dissatisfaction with the WTO is the perception that the issues it addresses are those, which concern the developed countries, brushing aside those of interest to the developing world.
By Laura Rance -
An old saying comes to mind as the debate unfolds over Monsanto’s plan to patent pig reproductive technologies. When you wallow with pigs, you can expect to get dirty.
This patenting proposition has all the trimmings of a stinky mess as evidenced by Greenpeace’s worldwide campaign to stop it in its tracks.
By James Jefferson -
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A Florida man was convicted Friday of stealing information from data-management company Acxiom Corp. in what prosecutors said was the largest federal computer theft trial ever.
The jury convicted Scott Levine, the owner of defunct e-mail marketing contractor Snipermail.com, on 120 counts of unauthorized access to data, two counts of access device fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.
Applied Nanotech CEO Dr. Zvi Yaniv, a liquid crystal display pioneer: It’s only a matter of time before a 100-inch flat screen TV becomes affordable.
By Nir Natan -
The past year has been a record for flat screen television makers, and it will not be long before 100-inch flat screen televisions will be available at affordable prices, believes Applied Nanotech CEO Dr. Zvi Yaniv, a liquid crystal display (LCD) pioneer. Yaniv is an inventor with many patents to his name, and a serial entrepreneur who is no applying nanotechnology for commercial uses, including LCDs.
By Issac John -
DUBAI - THE headway made by the UAE in combating piracy in computer software, film and music could be more remarkable if the Emirates succeeds in overcoming a major hurdle — a lack of consumer awareness and concern about this illegal activity besides non-cooperation from the public.
Industry analysts and software experts believe that the next logical step for the UAE — which now has a low piracy rate of 34 per cent as against the global average of 35 per cent — is to foster a generation of consumers committed to, and convinced of the long-term social, ethical and economic impact for intellectual property rights (IPR) protection.
By Carol Hymowitz, The Wall Street Journal -
In today's knowledge-based economy, businesses walk a fine line between being security savvy about protecting their sensitive data, and creating such a Big Brother atmosphere that they trigger the very brain drain they want to prevent.
Technology gives job-hopping employees an easy way to take reams of data with them when they walk out the door. But that same technology also lets companies track exactly what is downloaded from networks. "To create a fair, efficient and innovative work environment, you can't lock everything down," says Michael Allison, chief executive officer of ICG, a Princeton, N.J., corporate-investigations firm.
By Andrew Murray-Watson -
The ideograms are on the wall for Marconi. Ever since the telecoms equipment company lost out in April on a vital contract with BT, it has been ripe for sale. to a larger rival.
Despite interest from a number of European groups, the most likely buyer prepared to pay around £650m for the troubled company, formed from the rump of GEC and headed by chief executive Mike Parton, is its Chinese rival Huawei. This would make Marconi the latest British group to fall into the hands of faster-growing Asian rivals.
Toronto, ON, August 12, 2005: According to a survey recently released by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST) and conducted last month by independent researcher Uthink, software piracy is running rampant on Canadian university campuses, with 47 per cent of Canadian university students admitting that they pirate software by downloading it online without paying for it, and 53 per cent saying that they swap computer disks among friends.
The survey measured the attitudes and behaviours of 3,000 college and university students across Canada, including 500 students who identified computer science as their major.
By David Needle -
Tech employees sending out trade secrets to competitors. Government workers e-mailing hate mail and pornography. Private financial and health information routinely sent out over the Web unencrypted and unprotected.
These are but a few of the startling assertions in the new book, The Insider: A True Story Reveals the Threat to Intellectual Property From High-Tech Industry Insiders.
By Jay Solomon, The Wall Street Journal -
WASHINGTON -- Back in the 1980s, David Szady was among the premier Soviet spy catchers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, studying every aspect of the Kremlin's mole network. Today, he is mobilizing agents across the U.S. to sniff out spies from a new rival: Beijing.
"China is the biggest (espionage) threat to the U.S. today," says Mr. Szady, now 61 years old and the FBI's top counterintelligence official.
Deal may have to pass U.S. muster and Huawei may not have the stomach for legal fight on American shores.
The rumored purchase of Marconi, the British telecommunications equipment maker, by Huawei, a Chinese networking gear manufacturer, is already ensnared in a tangled international web.
The United Kingdom-based trade union, Amicus, is calling on the U.K. government to review any possible sale of Marconi under the country’s mergers and acquisitions framework.
Industrial piracy and counterfeiting are among the major risks faced by companies doing business in China, according to a study on intellectual property protection by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.
"Piracy of one kind or another is infused throughout the Chinese economy and it will likely get worse before it begins to get better," said Mahesh Lunani, a partner based in Roland Berger's Detroit offices.
By Anne Broache -
BALTIMORE--Future worms could evade a network of early-warning sensors hidden across the Internet unless countermeasures are taken, according to new research.
In a pair of papers presented at the Usenix Security Symposium here Thursday, computer scientists said would-be attackers can locate such sensors, which act as trip wires that detect unusual activity. That would permit nefarious activities to take place without detection.
By Lyuba Pronina -
Russia plans to call in the support of the United Nations in its battle to regain leadership of the small arms market, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.
In a move to tackle unlicensed manufacturing of arms including its best selling Kalashnikov assault rifle, Russia wants to have its intellectual property rights on small arms recognized under a UN initiative against illicit trade in small weapons.
By Drog (Canada), from a Greenpeace press release:
Greenpeace researchers have uncovered a patent application from the biotech giant Monsanto which, if granted, would give the company world-wide control over breeding of pigs and their off spring. Greenpeace warns that Monsanto's aggressive patent practices covering genetically modified (GM) crops and normal seeds threaten biodiversity, endanger world food security and ruin the livelihoods of farmers and calls for the patent applications to be withdrawn.
Speaking at an international conference on Biodiversity, Biopiracy and Patents (1), being held in New Delhi, Eric Gall of Greenpeace International said: "Monsanto is once again trying to control the food we grow. This is patenting life. This is abuse of patent laws and it is an outright offence to farmers world-wide."
By Chris Crum -
Criminal-driven security attacks and emails with viruses increased by 50% in the first half of this year according to a report released by IBM today.
Among the biggest targets for such acts have been government financial services, and manufacturing and healthcare industries. The threats are aimed at extorting money and stealing critical data and identities.
by Jim Kouri, CPP -
The cyber threat confronting the United States is rapidly increasing as the number of actors with the tools and abilities to use computers against the United States or its interests is rising. The country’s vulnerability is escalating as the US economy and critical infrastructures become increasingly reliant on interdependent computer networks and the World Wide Web. Large scale computer attacks on US critical infrastructure and economy would have potentially devastating results.
