Patents: Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and International Harmonization of Patent Laws

At Patently-O, Dennis Crouch has a piece titled The Court's Future Role in the International Harmonization of Patent Laws which discusses a provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act that relates to the "Sense of Congress" -- to quote the Act:

"[T]o improve the United State patents system and promote harmonization of the United States patent system with the patent systems commonly used in nearly all other countries throughout the world...."

Read Crouch here.

Authors Guild Sues Five Universities and a Library Partnership Organization for Copyright Infringement via Google Books Library Project

At Computerworld, Juan Carlos Perez writes that Authors Guild sues universities over Google book scanning.
Really, where would the world be without the Authors Guild? and their greedy publishers?
Think about it.
They are battling -- out of commercial greed -- for the public's right to know -- nothing.
The march of progress is always being held back by people who are totally out of line with the modern world.

USA and the Poor: 46 Million Americans Live in Poverty According to the Census Bureau

The Los Angeles Times has an interactive poverty map that accompanies the article titled Record 46.2 million Americans live in poverty, Census Bureau says.

Take a look.

FCC Net Neutrality Rules Forthcoming

Cecilia Kang at the Washington Post "Post Tech" headlines that

FCC’s net neutrality rules to trigger legal, Hill challenge,

writing:

"As the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called net neutrality rules move closer to becoming official, expect lawsuits and a challenge by lawmakers to overturn the rules, experts say...

The FCC’s rules prohibit Internet service providers from blocking services or arbitrarily speeding up or slowing traffic on their networks. The rules are focused on wireline ISPs. The FCC only forbids wireless providers from blocking voice and video telephony services (Skype, Google Voice) on wireless networks."

Read the entire piece here.

Law and Athletics: Major College Sports as a Form of Unpaid Slavery? The NCAA Definition of Amateurism is a Golden Goose for the Chosen Few

The NCAA these days is busy playing policeman and handing out penalties left and right to students, totally ignoring an impossible situation as far as college athletics is concerned -- the total exploitation of so-called amateur athletes.

A report has studied the economics of major college sports and has come up with astounding financial numbers. The headline at the Chicago Sun-Times reads:

Should college athletes be paid? As much as $1M says new report - Chicago Sun-Times

where Frederic J. Frommer of the Associated Press (AP) writes:

"A national college athletes’ advocacy group and a sports management professor calculate in the report that if college sports shared their revenues the way pro sports do, the average Football Bowl Subdivision player would be worth $121,000 per year, while the average basketball player at that level would be worth $265,000....

“The NCAA’s definition of amateurism has proven to be priceless to obscenely paid coaches, athletics administrators, and colleges but has inflicted poverty on college athletes,” the report charges. It found that some football coaches’ bonuses alone were worth more than the entire scholarship shortfall for their teams."

Read the entire article here.

Obviously, this whole matter is a legal question whereby the entire status of amateurs under the law must be redefined to accord with the realities.

Similarly, the archaic view that educational institutions are not commercial enterprises must be substantially amended.

It can not be that many MAJOR areas of human activity are regarded to be exempt from taxes, thereby subsidizing a great many areas of activity -- as opposed to other areas of human activity which are equally worthy, but which receive no such tax exemptions. There is no sound reason for this.