There actually is a way to legally "protect" recipes, namely something called a know-how (you don't seem to discuss this topic to much on techdirt). This angle might work if the plaintiff can prove that they took measures to actually keep the recipe a secret and that the recipe was stolen. Hard to imagine that could be applied to something as trivial as a pizza recipe, though. Still, I would expect even a half-assed lawyer to know that this is probably a better approach than a trademark dispute.
I wanted to make a picture saying "Your ad here" under "The banner reads as follows:", but the comment section doesn't allow images. Seriously, someone should do something about this.
If anything, this is a remainder that using spreadsheets for stuff they weren't meant to be used for (like maintaining databases) is a sign of idiocy. Especially if the spreadsheet is buggy and heavy on control-free spellchecking.
There was a film-noir "I was a Communist for the FBI", and there was also a sci-fi comedy "I was a Zombie for the FBI". I guess along with "I was an Intern for the NSA" they would form a neat trilogy, wouldn't you say?
It's all very noble of him that he took those 15 minutes to thwart that patent; and it's very nice that anyone who cares enough could do it. But it strikes me that what this guy do was actually the job of a patent examiner. So why are those people, supposedly experts in their field and in patent law, not doing exactly that? If it takes only 15 minutes to make a search, and if most of those patent applications are this way, then why don't they just do their job? Are they dumb? Incompetent? Corrupt? Explain it to me someone.
Not being a native English speaker myself, I feel a bit silly reminding you that the phrase "is it not piracy until..." actually implies that it is piracy. Or was that your intention? I get confused...
This reminds me of one of the Feynman stories from the time he was working for the Manhattan Project. As a sort of prank-hobby, he found a way to discover safe combinations, which was relatively easy when you had a chance to temper with an open safe for a couple of minutes. He demonstrated it to some high-ranking officer in charge of one of the Uranium production facilities, and explained how it's done, recommending that all the employees should always lock their safes and never leave them open unattended. The response of the officer on the other hand was to tell all the employees who had any contact with Feynman to change their safe combinations. He learned about it during his next visit to that facility, when people started avoiding him.
I guess there is something peculiar about a government agent's mentality which makes those people defy common sense.
What I find exceptionally crazy about this one is that NSA can "retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they (...) are encrypted". Think about it for a moment. According to the FISA "court" the mere attempt at exercising your basic constitutional right to privacy makes you suspicious and therefore not eligible to privacy. Talk about circular reasoning.
I just love that "definition". If you haven't understood what it means, let me disentangle it for you. It basically says that informal economy is the thing that lies on the lower end of the scale of an economic property called "formality", which is defined as "non-informality".
That footnote doesn't make sense. If Google never received any FISA requests, they wouldn't be tied up by any gag orders, and therefore they could just say: "We never received any FISA requests". So the filing itself confirms Google received some FISA requests.
Well, maybe it could have prevented 9/11 but that would really be a tragedy, because then the US government wouldn't have a justification for taking away basic freedoms and wouldn't be able to implement the mass surveillance in the first place. Where would the US be then, huh?
This is yet another reason why our western writing system is in serious need of a reform, as many characters are confusingly similar. Another prominent example are the letters "I" and "l" which virtually any OCR system confuses and which is a huge pain in the ass when ripping English subtitles. This inconvenience is a source of waste of endless man-hours in the pirate industry.
Actually, from what I understood, Dotcom doesn't plan to sue them in any case. His idea is rather to license the patent to someone (probably some patent troll) and let them deal with it, while he gets his license fees straight away.
Well, if it was a 'copy' maybe Monsanto should cover it with copyright. That would certainly make things easy for them and I'm sure the "justices" of the US Supreme Court would applaud the approach.
On the post: DOJ Releases Report On Cleveland Police Department Investigation And It's Bad News All The Way Down
Liable to hit a taxpayer
http://youtu.be/gvSgJIwzUyE
On the post: Target And Kmart Pretending To Be Prudes In Australia Over A Vocal Anti-GTA5 Minority
Update
On the post: Pizzeria Attempts To Trademark The Flavor Of Pizza. Yes, Seriously.
Know-how
On the post: James Clapper's Office Declassifies Another Set Of Fully-Redacted Pages
Your add
On the post: Using Spreadsheets In Bioinformatics Can Corrupt Data, Changing Gene Names Into Dates
Idiocy
On the post: Apparently Pretending You Work For The NSA May Scare Off Potential Muggers
I was a * for the *
On the post: How To Thwart Broad Microsoft Patent App Using Microsoft's Own Prior Art In Just 15 Minutes
Examiners
On the post: If The Feds Say Collecting Data Is Not A Search Until It Looks At Them, Is It Not Piracy Until You View The File?
English
On the post: NSA Bosses Mantra: Who Cares What The Law Says, 'Collect It All'
Aerys Targaryen
On the post: NSA's Response To Snowden Leaks Isn't To Stop Spying, But To Make It More Difficult To Blow The Whistle
Feynman effect
I guess there is something peculiar about a government agent's mentality which makes those people defy common sense.
On the post: Latest NSA Leak: Rules On How They Use Data Without A Warrant
Re: Re: Encryption
On the post: Latest NSA Leak: Rules On How They Use Data Without A Warrant
Encryption
On the post: WIPO: Informal Economy Innovates In The Absence Of Intellectual Monopolies
Definition
On the post: Google, Without Admitting It Gets FISA Orders, Files Lawsuit To Challenge FISA Gag Orders
No sense in that footnote
On the post: Dick Cheney's Crystal Ball Says That NSA Surveillance Could Have Stopped 9/11
That would be a tragedy!
On the post: DoD: If You See A Leaked NSA Document, Press SHIFT And DELETE To Get Rid Of It
Deleting
On the post: Magic Hat Brewery Sues West Sixth Brewing, Claiming 6 Looks Too Much Like 9
On the post: Kim Dotcom Threatens To Sue Google, Facebook And Twitter Over 2-Factor Authentication Patent If They Don't Help Him
On the post: Monsanto Wins Case Of Seed Patents; Planting Your Own Legally Purchased & Grown Seeds Can Be Infringing
Copyright
On the post: Silliest Argument Ever: Just Because A YouTube Paywall Launches It Means More Money Is Made
Why not?
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