Computing New Brunswick

IBM Makes about $1 Billion Dollars a year from their patents they license. IBM and Amazon have been getting nowhere in their negotiations lately. IBM Contends that most of the Amazon website store infringes upon patents from the 1980’s patent portfolio IBM controls. and Amazon does not pay IBM for a license to the patents in question.

See some information over at arstechnica

IBM asserts that Amazon has violated five patents:

• US 5,796,967 – Presenting Applications in an Interactive Service.
• US 5,442,771 – Storing Data in an Interactive Network.
• US 7,072,849 – Presenting Advertising in an Interactive Service.
• US 5,446,891 – Adjusting Hypertext Links with Weighted User Goals and Activities.
• US 5,319,542 – Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalogue.

Users are seeking clarification about Windows Licensing

Users are demanding clarification from Microsoft about how scenarios like these will play out under the new licensing.
The new licensing has caused confusion, especially for power users who rebuild their computers with new components several times a year, or who plan to upgrade their computers more than once in the lifetime of the OS. Microsoft’s new licensing for Windows Vista that will allow them to transfer a Vista license to only one machine other than the computer for which it was purchased.

“My question about the one-time transfer is what constitutes a machine?” asked Windows user Roger Halstead. “I have four machines and they are running legal copies of XP Pro. Those four machines are in a constant state of upgrade. I have to reactivate the OS around three or four times a year due to upgrades.”
[hmmmm..... I guess Microsoft isn't making enough money........]
Another Windows user, Mark Smith, who has his own business developing custom data-acquistiion and analysis packages for industrial applications, says the policy shows how “arrogant” Microsoft has become… ” its new attitude is ‘To hell with the customer, we’re going to do whatever we want because the customer has no choice but to buy Vista.’”

I was listening to CBC  a few weeks ago and I remember reading this in August so I dug up some links about how a comma in their contract with Aliant cost Rogers over $2.Million .

Wall Street JournalLawBlog ; RobHyndmanBlog ; CRTCdt2006-45
I know someone who is a lawyer; and know the care she puts in to her legal docs; this really demonstrates a hit to the pocketbook.

—————————————————————————————————

Other Lawyer issues

Don’t forget a trip to your lawyer before you travel; just in case ….
An Identity theft story 8-); chills you to the bones huh? [from 2003]

Wrong man arrested after identity theft

A British man was arrested in South Africa and held for 2 weeks on an FBI
warrant after his identity was stolen by a fraudster. He was only released
after the real suspect was picked up in the U.S.
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2806827.stm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

British pensioner falsely accused by the FBI of being one of America’s most wanted men has arrived back in the UK.

Charity worker Derek Bond told a news conference at Heathrow he had come “close to the edge” during his ordeal.

All Because a Mr Sykes used his name 14 years previously as an alias.

—————————————————————————————-
IdentityTheftRepersussions

How it began
Byrd’s nightmare began in 1998, he said. A man arrested on drug charges that year identified himself to local officials as Malcolm Byrd.Thanks to an article in the local Janesville Gazette, the real Malcolm Byrd found out about the identity theft, and headed to the police to correct the error. The paper ran a correction, too. But that was hardly the end of the ordeal.

XP did not have a specific limit for the number of times the license was transferable, but that Microsoft wanted to be “specific” about transfer rights with Vista.
A change Microsoft made to Windows client licensing since XP is that only two versions of Vista — Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Business — can be run as a virtual operating system in a virtual machine.
THESE ARE VERY EXPENSIVE!!!  something like $500!

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/101606-microsoft-allows-one-vista-transfer.html

Consumers will be able to transfer the operating system license they purchase to only one machine other than the one for which they originally buy Vista, said Shanen Boettcher, a Windows general manager at Microsoft. He said Microsoft thought the change made sense because “lifetimes for PCs are getting longer.” Most likely, a user will not need to transfer an operating system license to more than one computer during the time that operating system is the latest one available, Boettcher said.

Microsoft also has tightened up antipiracy features in Vista, and users who do not verify that their version of the operating system is authentic with a software license key within 30 days of its activation will lose the use of certain features of the PC until they do so. The company unveiled this characteristic of Vista, called its Software Protection Platform, about two weeks ago.
………

I know this will cause problems. I have seen quite a few “this version may not be legitimate” notifications.
what a lot of people don’t reaize that reduced functionality means it’ll turn on and tell you it has a licensing problem then will only allow you to resolve that licensing issue and nothing else until licensing is resolved.