Quite a bit of communication/technology law news today…just a few brief thoughts:
Oral Arguments in ATT v. Microsoft
The Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether Microsoft’s sending Vista master disks overseas with some of AT&T’s code constitutes patent infringement. While I’m not quite up to speed on this case, it certainly bears mentioning as the Court may rule on whether or not software may be patented. Currently, computer programs (or more specifically, their source code) are protected by copyright, while in some cases the functions that a program performs have been granted a patent. At one point, Justice Breyer asked, “Since it’s never been held that it’s patentable in this Court, if I were writing something, should I say ‘on the assumption that it’s patentable?’ Since the issue isn’t raised?” The Assistant Solicitor General arguing on Microsoft’s behalf dodged the question, the possibility of a Court statement on the patentability of software could answer some pressing questions.
Edit: Here’s an article from Ars Technica with a good overview of the case background.
RIAA College Crackdown (Full AP story, Local)
The RIAA is targeting higher education with higher numbers of copyright complaints–1000 at some institutions, and 513 so far this school year at UW-Madison. Our school takes a “three pronged” approach to encouraging copyright compliance (in full disclosure, I work for the UW-Madison Division of Information Technology, which is responsible for these guidelines):
The first line of defense is awareness, starting with the “appropriate use” guidelines Internet users on campus are supposed to read and acknowledge when they get their network ID. That’s followed up with e-mails, posters and presentations to keep the issue on students’ radar. DoIT also restricts the capability for music file-sharing by throttling down the bandwidth for UW housing.
This naturally begs the question: do students pay any attention to the e-mails, posters, and presentations? Certainly, part of the University’s duty is to educate students to be law-abiding (if critical) citizens. However, I wonder to what lengths we need to go to… “education” about copyright might become contentious or even political, but promoting critical thinking about a law that a large number of students break is potentially time and resource intensive.
Read on for more developments in the “state secrets” case against AT&T.