RegisterFly held in contempt of court as injunction is made permanent
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Saga appears to be nearing end Could the RegisterFly mess be wrapping up at last? That appears to be the case, according to ICANN's blog.â¦
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A law firm in Colorado has been fined by federal court after a spam filter intercepted an important court notice.
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Organisers trying to overturn court decision suspending free show over security concerns.
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(InfoWorld) - A recent federal court ruling pertaining to open-source software in model railroads could derail enforcement of open-source licenses altogether, according to Mark Radcliffe, general counsel for the Open Source Initiative. If allowed to stand, the decision could withhold an important and expected remedy from open-source licensors, that being the ability to get an injunction against license violations, Radcliffe said. But the case does not necessarily set a precedent for other judges to follow, countered Eben Moglen, founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center. In the case, the plaintiff, Robert Jacobsen, claimed that the defendant, Matthew Katzer, sought royalties from Jacobsen on software covered by invalid patents obtained on open-source software. The software in this case was from the JMRI (Java Model Railroad Interface) Project, with which Jacobsen is involved. The original complaint is viewable here. According to court filings by Jacobsen, Katzer filed a patent application tailored to the capabilities of JMRI three days after the release of new JMRI software in 2002. The plaintiff alleged breach of the obscure Artistic License for open-source software and copyright infringement due to the removal of original copyright notices and substituting the name of Katzen's company, Radcliffe said.Â  But in a ruling on the case in San Francisco on August 17, Judge Jeffrey S. White denied a motion by the plaintiff seeking a preliminary injunction from infringing copyrighted open-source material. To establish copyright infringement, the plaintiff needs to show ownership of the copyrights and copying by the defendants, the judge said. Defendants, meanwhile, said they voluntarily ceased all potentially infringing activities. "This is one of the first cases about enforcement of any open-source licenses," Radcliffe said. In his ruling, the judge said the Artistic License was a contract and the failure to include copyright notices was not a restriction on the scope of the license, according to Radcliffe. Jacobsen sought to have Katzer put copyright notices in his software reflecting that it was open source. "What the court said was that remedy is not available," said Radcliffe. The remedy for contract violations under US law is damages, not injunctive relief, in which the court would order a party to cease a violation, Radcliffe wrote in his blog. The case, Radcliffe said, is a blow to the fundamental basis of open-source software, he said. "Most people in open source believe if you violate the license, you're outside it, Radcliffe said. "What this case indicates is that expectation may be wrong," he said. Assessing damages for use of open-source software is difficult because the software is given away free, according to Victoria Hall, attorney for the plaintiff. "What are the damages for an open-source project? These aren't your typical contract damages," she said. The case raises questions about the rights of those who release software via open source. "What rights do they have, and how strong are those rights?" Hall asked. But she and Moglen pointed out that the case does not necessarily set a precedent for future cases. "It seems to me a not very important ruling," said Moglen, who has not been involved in the case. The Software Freedom Law Center provides free legal services to those who make and distribute free and open-source software. "I do believe that the use of a more carefully drafted and more industry-tested license will probably help courts and other parties to deal with software in a more informed and accurate way," Moglen said. To avoid the lack of clarity in the Artistic License, the JMRI Project will switch to the GNU General Public License. "I think the big advantage [of GPL] is the automatic license revocation that is present in GPL that is not present in Artistic License," said Hall. Jacobsen also plans to appeal the judge's ruling, said Hall. Katzer defined to comment on the case. His attorneys did not return phone calls from InfoWorld. The judge set a September 14 date for a case management conference to further deliberate on the matter.
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Blog: A judge has ruled that Linden Lab can't dismiss a property case against it, or move the case to arbitration.
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This domain will self-destruct in five seconds "In the past couple of weeks, over 70% of the non-jurisdictional contacts my Office has received have concerned registerflyâ¦ In most circumstances, the matter would be refered to Mr. Mike Zupke, ICANN's Registrar Manager, and he would in turn pass along consumer concerns to the registerfly contactâ¦ If, however, Mr. Zupke determined that the matter you are complaining about is unrelated to the Registrarâs Accreditation Agreement, or any other ICANN policy, he will likely encourage you to work out the situation with the registrar..." ICANN Ombudsmanâs Blog, February 12, 2007â¦
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Â· Ruling means pioneer may have to close centreÂ· Move follows years of dispute with authority
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TORONTO (CP) - Six Nations protesters embroiled in a contentious land dispute in southwestern Ontario can continue the occupation indefinitely without being in contempt of court, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Thursday.
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The site that helps people evade registration roadblocks on websites couldn't evade trouble itself. Its server host, perhaps bowing to pressure, pulled the plug last week. But a new host is found and BugMeNot is back up. By Rachel Metz.
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A High Court judge says thousands of court claims for the return of overdraft charges should stay on hold.
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Keep our web sites free! Silicon Justice Is this the dawning of the age of the defamation take-down notice?â¦
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A Belgian court said on Friday it  would wait until after the new year to decide whether to cancel  an injunction forbidding Web search leader Google Inc. from  reproducing extracts from Belgian press reports.
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A federal judge dismissed an airline industry lawsuit that sought to block a state law, which would ensure basic services are provided to delayed passengers, the New York State attorney general said on Thursday.
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What needs to be done Comment The scorn heaped upon ICANN recently for its laissez faire attitude toward customer allegations of fraud by its accredited registrar Registerfly - a scandal in which ICANN spent the better part of a year repeatedly referring customers back to Registerfly, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of misconduct - has forced ICANN to acknowledge that it is a responsible for holding its accredited registrars to certain ethical standards. Well, it's a start.â¦
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Tele2, one of Denmarkâs largest Internet service providers, said it will fight a court injunction mandating that it shut off access to a file-sharing Web site.
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The practice of stopping people at New  England's main airport and detaining them for questioning based  on their behavior is unconstitutional and must be stopped, the  American Civil Liberties Union said in a lawsuit filed on  Wednesday.
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November 26, 2004 (CHICAGO) - A US Bankruptcy Court judge in Chicago has blocked efforts by a creditors&#39; group to repossess 14 United Airline jets.