Tag Archive for AMZN

| January 8, 2011
Comments Off on Paul Allen Internet Tax Collector

Paul Allen Internet Tax Collector

patents trollMicrosoft co-founder Paul Allen has reloaded in his attempt to sue the world for patent infringement. Allen’s Interval Licensing filed an amended patent infringement suit against most of the leading online tech companies. The first try (which I wrote about here) was tossed out by the judge because it failed to point out exactly how each firm stole Allen’s ideas.

Microsoft co-founder Paul AllenInterval’s amended, 35-page filing (PDF) claims that Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Facebook, and eight other online companies use Allen’s patents whenever they use a browser for navigating through information, managing a user’s peripheral attention while using a device, and alerting users to items of current interest. The filing claims that features as Apple’s Dashboard software, the notifications interface in Google’s Android operating system, and Netflix’s (NFLX) viewing suggestions are infringing on Interval patents. It asks for unspecified damages from those companies as well as an injunction on them shipping any products with allegedly infringing features.

It looks like Google’s Android operating system is directly targeted by the lawsuit including its notification system for texts, Google Voice messages, e-mails, and other alerts display information “to a user of a mobile device in an unobtrusive manner that occupies the peripheral attention of the user.” As before, the suit doesn’t target Microsoft (MSFT) or Amazon (AMZN) (which pays rent to Allen’s Vulcan Real Estate), even though both company’s products would seem to infringe on the same patents.

Rob Pegoraro at the Washington Post writes:

the Interval claims continue to be insultingly generic. For instance, an allegation that AOL and Gmail’s spam-filtering software infringes on an Interval patent because it is “based at least in part on a comparison between the new email and other emails that have been received.” (Sure: Like nobody ever thought to make such a statistical comparison until Interval came along.) Later, it contends that when Netflix “generates a display of related content items” after “a user views a particular content item,” that infringes on an Interval patent too. (Right, because the concept of a store or a catalog suggesting a related item to a shopper didn’t exist until Interval scientists had a brainstorming session.)

Mr. Pegoraro continues:

Interval’s patents are junk. They describe general concepts that should have been obvious to anybody of ordinary skill in this field in the mid 1990s–and for which it shouldn’t be difficult to find “prior art” showing that other people had thought of the same thing years before. Had the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office provided the “high quality” examination of patent applications it promises, it’s hard to see how these patents would have been granted in the first place.

Mr. Pegoraro also cites PaidContent.org’s Joe Mullin in a commentary (emphasis in the original):

If patent claims on such basic ideas are found to be valid, there are surely hundreds of other potential defendants that could be sued by Interval Licensing. Paul Allen would be essentially a tax collector for the internet.

The firms named in the suit are:

Do you believe the U.S. Patent Office is still useful?

Does Paul Allen deserve to collect a tax from every Internet user?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| June 25, 2010
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Google Remotely Removes Apps

Google Remotely Removes Apps– Updated 03-19-2011 – After the recent discovery of some 50+ malicious applications on the official Android Marketplace, Google removed the malware as soon as they became aware of their existence. According to Help Net Security, this was four days too late to prevent the tainted applications from being downloaded over 50,000 times.

In response, Google remotely executed its Android kill switch to delete the apps in question. Google is pushing an update to close the software hole.

In an official confirmation of the incident, Rich Cannings, Android Security Lead says that Google will notify the owners of the affected devices after the malicious app(s) are deleted and the update is installed, “You are not required to take any action from there; the update will automatically undo the exploit,” he explained. </update>

Over at the Android Developers Blog, Rich Cannings, Android Security Lead details how Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) can remotely remove applications from an Android phone. The article explains how the Android Security team removed two applications that violated the Android Market Terms of Service.

The Google article says, “...we’ve also developed technologies and processes to remotely remove an installed application from devices.”  The article says that Google chose to remove the applications because they knew better, “ … we decided … to exercise our remote application removal feature…”. Google does try to minimize the impact of this ability in Chrome by stating,  While we hope to not have to use it, we know that we have the capability to take swift action …”

I wrote about Google’s and Apple’s control of the OS in 2009. The master marketers at Google have spun this ability to delete any file to be a good thing. However, nowhere in the article does Google state that it will not remove files in an arbitrary fashion like Amazon’s 2009 big brother-like overnight removal of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| January 28, 2010
Comments Off on Privacy Day 2010

Privacy Day 2010

Privacy Day 2010Data Privacy Day is January 28, 2010.  Data Privacy Day is an international celebration of the dignity of the individual expressed through personal information according to its sponsors. In this networked world, in which we are thoroughly digitized, with our identities, locations, actions, purchases, associations, movements, and histories stored as so many bits and bytes, we have to ask – who is collecting all of this – what are they doing with it – with whom are they sharing it?

For its part, Google (GOOG) has released a video highlighting the ways it uses some of that personal data it collects about you to make your life easier and then explains that you can opt-out of some of Google’s data collection policies.

Nicrosoft logoMicrosoft (MSFT) has released the results of a study on data privacy.  According to the Microsoft survey, the results illustrate how we, as a society, are still grappling with the intersection of privacy and online life. For example, 63 percent of consumers surveyed are concerned that online reputation might affect their personal and/or professional life, yet, less than half even consider their reputations when they post online content.

Finally, Fewer than 15%  of consumers in any of the countries surveyed believe that information found online would have an impact on their getting a job.  The Microsoft study found 70% of surveyed HR professionals in the U.S. have rejected a candidate based on online reputation information. Reputation can also have a positive effect as in the United States, 86% of HR professionals stated that a positive online reputation influences the candidate’s application to some extent; almost half stated that it does so to a great extent.

Electronic Frontier FoundationFor its part, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published, “The E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy ” which outlines six elements of Ebook readers’ privacy policies:

The EFF surveyed the policies and found that Google Books and Amazon Kindle will monitor what you’re reading. The EFF also found that all the E-book readers will keep track of book searches and book purchases.  The Kindle, Nook, and Reader shared information collected on your book selections, searches, and purchases is shared outside the company without your consent. The good news is that the a free, open-source FBReader (for Windows/Linux) does not collect data on your book selections or searches.

Google Books and Amazon Kindle will monitor what you're readingThese privacy issues are important for citizens and businesses. Firms have to consider whether they are complying with laws and regulations requiring consumer privacy protections. They know that customers have to trust their technologies and services before they will use and pay for them.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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