On March 16, 2010, NDP digital issues critic Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) tabled Motion 506 to expand Fair Dealings as well as a private members bill Bill C-499: An Act to amend the Copyright Act (audio recording devices) which seeks to extend the existing Private Copying regime for audio recording to devices. The next day the Heritage committee tabled a motion supporting the extension of the regime to devices, indicating the support of the Liberals and Bloc for this policy direction.

While I fully support the motion on extending Fair Dealings, the impact of the private members bill is much more complex and needs discussion. This is what Mr. Angus intended.

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Sigmund Freud once said that in order to be truly happy in life, a human being needed to acquire two things: The capacity to work, and the capacity to love.

“EVIL PLANS” is really about being able to do both, at the same time.

This is my tenth year blogging. I’ve done a lot of stuff since I started. Published cartoons, sold wine, sold suits, pimped Microsoft, sold art, written e-books, ranted on endlessly about marketing and all sorts…

But looking back, I realize it all served a served a common purpose: to unify work and love.

Then I notice, the people who read my blog the most avidly, and the bloggers I tend to read most avidly, hell yeah, they’re mostly trying to do the same thing too, in their own way. It’s a definite pattern.

To unify work and love. Are you one of these people? If not, don’t you think you should be? I mean, after friends and family, what the hell is there?

Just askin’…

parallel_prankster writes "Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is a professor of politics at New York University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California. In his new book, The Predictioneer (The Predictioneer's Game in the US), he describes a computer model based on game theory which he — and others — claim can predict the future with remarkable accuracy. The website also has a game page where he provides an online version of the game and information on how to play." The (semi-paywalled; may need to register) New Scientist has a story on de Mesquita, too; a snippet: "Over the past 30 years, Bueno de Mesquita has made thousands of predictions about hundreds of issues from geopolitics to personal problems. Overall, he claims, his hit rate is about 90 per cent."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

bonch writes "Agencies under the Obama administration cite security provisions to withhold information more often than they did under the Bush administration. For example, the 'deliberative process' exemption of the Freedom of Information Act was used 70,779 times in 2009, up from the 47,395 of 2008. Amusingly, the Associated Press has been waiting three months for the government to deliver records on its own Open Government Directive."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

bonch writes "Agencies under the Obama administration cite security provisions to withhold information more often than they did under the Bush administration. For example, the 'deliberative process' exemption of the Freedom of Information Act was used 70,779 times in 2009, up from the 47,395 of 2008. Amusingly, the Associated Press has been waiting three months for the government to deliver records on its own Open Government Directive."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chris Brown's first report of the day is in, filed by phone during an extended break in the court session. The jury got to hear today about Judge Dale Kimball's earlier court rulings.

We have all the important rulings in a new, special section on Groklaw's Novell Timeline page, so you can follow along. But for speed, here's the 2004 ruling and the 2007 ruling that his report references and that the jury heard excerpts from or a summary about today.

Update: Hey, look at this, a new searchable database, CourtWeb where you can search full text of court rulings for free. Not every order is in there, but eventually I hope they will be. I see Google seems to be in this project. I want to say thank you. Be sure to choose to expand to 100 documents, if you are searching for SCO Group. This is exciting.

The parties in SCO v. Novell have, as promised, filed their proposed jury instructions. And SCO has filed a proposed Jury Verdict form. And Novell has filed a new motion regarding letting the jury know about prior court rulings. SCO has, Novell says, once again crossed the line, despite the court's admonition not to do so. In its examination of Dr. Gary Pisano, it again elicited damages information all the way to 2007, long after there were favorable, to Novell, court rulings. As a result, Novell should be allowed to defend itself by telling the jury about them. Dr. Christine Botosan also calculated her figures into 2007, and Novell in its cross examination should be allowed to ask her about events that happened during that time period. "The prejudice to Novell is palpable," Novell points out.

Our reporter from the courtroom in the SCO v. Novell jury trial, Chris Brown, has now filed his first reports for today, and I'll add to them as his further reports arrive.

Today saw the finishing up of Darl McBride's testimony and the judge issued rulings on the various motions filed by the parties. But the big news is that Darl McBride has now admitted on the stand that SCO didn't need copyrights to run their Unix business. They need them only to run SCOsource. That is a huge admission, one which undercuts one of SCO's experts, and particularly undercuts SCO's interpretation of the APA and Amendment 2. Why? Because in 1995 and 1996, when those two documents were negotiated and executed, there was no such SCOsource program nor any thought of ever having one. He may be called back to the stand.

We also learn from an exhibit that HP decided not to take a SCOsource license in part because purchasing a license would be the equivalent of supporting terrorism. And then the SCO experts began to testify, beginning with Dr. Gary Pisano. Also, note that the final report from yesterday's session is now posted there.

Yesterday, there was a sidebar discussion about allowing in material regarding why customers chose not to sign up for SCOsource. The judge found a case that he thought was definitive, so it was not allowed in. Today, SCO has filed a motion to allow the testimony that the judge ruled inadmissible, and there is also a letter from Brent Hatch, with the testimony SCO wishes to show the jury attached.

swandives writes "Australian gamers will dress as zombies to raise awareness about the lack of an R18+ rating for video games in the country. The protest will begin at Hyde Park Fountain on March 27 and lumber through Sydney, raising awareness of the need for a higher classification rating and hopefully causing a bit of havoc at the same time! Computerworld Australia has pictures of previous zombie protests in the lead-up to the event. Australia has a long history of lobbying for an R18+ games classification but, even after a decade, video games are banned from sale if they exceed the maximum M15+ classification. So far, the list of banned titles includes 7 Sins, Risen, Left 4 Dead 2 and Dark Sector. Others, like Alien vs. Predator, were initially banned but appealed the rating and are now MA15+."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Novell anticipates certain questions SCO is likely to ask two of its experts, and rather than having long sidebars, which the judge has already said he doesn't like, they have filed objections they figure they'll be raising, along with a new case that supports their position, TK-7 Corp. v. Estate of Barbouti. This way things can be hashed out in advance.

Novell has found this 10th Circuit case, TK-7, that indicates that Dr. Gary Pisano ought not to be allowed to use the Yankee Group study's numbers as the basis for his opinions, since he didn't look into the methodology. And yes, on the basis of this new case, Novell respectfully says that Judge Ted Stewart's denial of Novell's earlier Daubert motion was in error:The Yankee Group survey is hearsay, and SCO should not be permitted to dress it up and introduce it as Dr. Pisano's unexamined and untestable opinion. They have, in short, painted the judge into a corner, and he will either have to follow case law, or he'll have to find a newer case that contradicts the one Novell has found. Judges are supposed to be bound by case law, with a bit of wiggle room. The judge denied the motion without the benefit of this case, which Novell says, "requires a different result." This case is dynamite. Whoever found it fell asleep grinning.

eldavojohn writes "A couple of years ago it was announced that the Boeing-built virtual fence at the US-Mexico border didn't work. Started in 2006, SBInet has been labeled a miserable failure and finally halted. A soon-to-be-released GAO report is expected to be overwhelmingly critical of SBInet, causing DHS Chief Janet Napolitano to announce yesterday that funding for the project has been frozen. It's sad that $1.4 billion had to be spent on the project before the discovery that this poorly conceived idea would not work."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thousands of anti-government protesters in Bangkok dumped their blood in front of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's house. The previous day saw a similar bloodbath at his office and the Democrat Party headquarters. Protest leaders claim to have spilled 600 liters of blood collected from 60,000 people in the two-day gore fest. "Hundreds of liters of blood of the common people are mixing together to express one common demand — and that demand is for Abhisit to get out!" said protest leader Nattawut Saikua.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chris Brown was in the courtroom for us today. It was all Darl McBride today, and there also was some sparring over SCO expert, Christine Botosan, he reports. It looks like the jury will be hearing about Judge Dale Kimball's ruling after all, because Novell intends to ask her about what happened to the stock when he issued his rulings.

And there will be more Darl tomorrow. Also Novell has filed its opposition to SCO introducing IBM materials, as they asked to yesterday.

I’m still in Austin, drinking a beer at the SXSW Blogger Lounge, as the Interactive bit of the show comes to a close. I’ll be driving home to Alpine tomorrow.

To mark the occasion we created nine prints, “The SXSW 2010 Series”. We were showing them at the trade show booth and yeah, they were selling like hot cakes.

For 2010 we designed another “Austin is The Killer App” print- you see it here on the left, or click here to see it enlarged etc.

Anyway, if you had a great time at SXSW ‘10 (like I did) this print series will make for great little souvenirs. Rock on.

Novell has filed a Notice of Filing of Offer of Proof Regarding Prior Inconsistent Declaration of Steven Sabbath. It is making a record that SCO was allowed to present testimony in direct examination that Novell knew was contradicted by deposition testimony, but then Novell couldn't tell the jury about it, because of rulings by the judge.

I gather Novell has noticed what you have, that the judge's ruling was not fair to Novell.So they are making a record, listing very thoroughly why the deposition is allowable under the rules, how they would have used it to rebut SCO's witnesses, and precisely how the materials are contradictory. This may be related to the discussion we heard about yesterday, where it was discussed if Ms. Madsen would have to return. It surely will be part of any appeal, should it prove necessary. But the judge can simply change his ruling, solving the issue.

Chris Brown attended the jury trial today for us in SCO v. Novell, and he has the details about the mistrial motion, the denial of the motion to allow evidence, and there was testimony today from Kim Madsen and Darl McBride and a deposition played of Steven Sabbath. The mistrial was related to the denial of Novell's motion to allow evidence. The judge said what SCO told the jury was inappropriate, and he merely warned SCO not to go "close to the line again." I'm sure SCO will mend its ways immediately.

It seems Novell moved for mistrial on March 15 at the trial in SCO v. Novell. And there has been a decision on Novell's motion to allow evidence. The docket doesn't yet reflect the order on the motion to allow evidence, but you can see that it happened in this, the full text of the order on the oral motion by Novell for a mistrial:This matter is before the Court on Defendant's Motion for Mistrial, made orally on March 15, 2010. For the same reasons stated in denying Defendant's Motion to Allow Evidence Responding to SCO's Allegation that Novell's Slander Continues "To This Very Day," Defendant's Motion for Mistrial is DENIED. As soon as we have the order providing "the same reasons, I'll update this article.

On Friday, at the trial in SCO v. Novell, SCO told the judge that they'd file their response to Novell's Motion to Allow Evidence on Monday. And so they have:Novell seeks to present evidence to the jury in the form of snippets of text selectively lifted from prior judicial opinions in this case. Novell claims these snippets would be used to rebut the factually correct assertion, made in SCO's opening statement and the answer of one witness to a single question, that Novell's claim of ownership of the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights continues to appear on Novell's website "to this very day." As with Novell's previous attempts to introduce such evidence, the Court should reject this attempt to present the jury with judicial statements, not in context, that are not relevant to the claims and defenses presented here, but that would create jury confusion and be highly prejudicial to SCO. Wait. That's not how we remember it. We remember SCO saying not just that the claim of *ownership* continued to this day; they said that the *slander* continued to this very day. From the transcript [PDF]: So this is a campaign of slander, broadcast and repeated to the world that continues to this very day....

And to this day Novell, on their web site, continues to republish that slander. You gotta watch the Boies Boyz, my friends, with a very close eye. They could talk a bird out of a tree before he realizes there is no worm.

boarder8925 writes "In a move sure to surprise no one, Obama has come out on the side of the MPAA/RIAA and has backed the ACTA: 'We're going to aggressively protect our intellectual property,' Obama said in his speech, 'Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the American people [...] It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century. But it's only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can't just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.