Legal
The web and all its emerging technologies constantly test the limits and abilities of individual world legal systems. If I weren’t a web developer, I might have attended law school, so I take great interest in legal implications and issues affected or created by the web.
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On Patenting
Ever wonder if you were violating a patent? Now you can find out with the push of a button with the patented Google Patent Search! Just like the "arrangement of facts" case from the 1980’s, Google isn’t doing anything new here. They’re arranging publicly available information in a certain way to make it accessible and […]
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On You-Witnesses
It seems that user-involvement can’t go far enough. From the earliest message boards to chatrooms, to online networking, to wiki software, blogging and vlogging, user-generated content seems to be in high demand, and only getting higher. Yahoo and Reuters recently announced a new service (or product) known as "You-Witness News," in which people are asked […]
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On Wi-Fi
The recent trend of free, city-wide wireless internet access is raising some eyebrows, mine included. From BBC News, "Manchester could become the biggest free wireless internet hotspot in Europe under plans unveiled by the city council." If a city is providing free internet access, what are the implications for its citizens and users? What do […]
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On Online Referencing
I’m not sure if anyone else has ever used the phrase "online referencing." If not, maybe I should copyright it. What I mean by my new phrase are these websites that serve as a collection of material or information, that claim to "try to make users’ lives easier." Take, for example, the Daily Jolt. The […]
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On Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License. “Attribution,” “Noncommercial,” “Share Alike.” Each of these parts to the license are important. They mean that if you use anything from this site, you must credit the author–me. You may not use anything from my site for profit. That would be stealing. And […]