Posts tagged as:

law

Bad Joojoo – You’ve Been InterServed! CrunchPad v Fusion Garage

by Jay Garrett on December 12, 2009

joojooI guessed that after Fusion Garage dismissed Michael Arrington’s and TechCrunch’s involvement with the Crunchpad as being merely another blog on the release of the rebranded tablet, JooJoo, that the sound of lawyers preparing paperwork could be heard in the distance.

As sure as eggs are eggs the document INTERSERVE doing business as TECHCRUNCH and CRUNCHPAD INC versus FUSION GARAGE LTD has been filed.

According to Arrington, much of the key intellectual property – including the board and much of the mechanicals – is owned by Pegatron, the manufacturing arm of Asus.



”Pegatron was licensing this IP (intellectual property) back to the project exclusively. Fusion Garage is no longer working with Pegatron, they’ve hired a new ODM. They have likely given Pegatron’s IP to the new ODM to speed development. Pegatron has expressed concern to us about this, and I would not be surprised if they sued Fusion Garage separately over this issue,” claimed Arrington.

Unsurprisingly, Fusion Garage CEO Chandrasekar “Chandra” Rathakrishnan vehemently disagreed with Arrington’s claims.

“The JooJoo tablet – including the hardware and UI – was built and designed by Fusion Garage. We have been working on [this device] since February 2008,” Chandra told TG Daily. “Remember, TechCrunch originally wanted to acquire Fusion Garage, but that didn’t happen. [It is also worth noting] that [Arrington's] original [CrunchPad] price point of $200 was utterly unrealistic. In fact, it was little more than a hallucination.” 


My only word of advice would be to hang on before preording the Joojoo for the $500 deposit – I know it’s nice and been a long time in coming as the CrunchPad but if Arrington’s lawsuit is true regarding the lack of Fusion Garage’s sound capital resource then this could end up being a long wait and could involve you kissing your cash goodbye.

I for one will be waiting to see it fully reviewed and perhaps even sat on my desk at Gadgety Towers before advising you to splash some cash ;)

Check out the Civil Cover Sheet below if you love litigation ;)


SF-38-303-C2_20091210160410_00000001 –

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EU Directive Makes ISP’s Store Your Web Habits

by Jay G on April 7, 2009

private-bearsCan you smell that?

That’s the distinct whiff of 1984 in the air.

A new EU directive means that from today all Internet service providers are required to keep data on your user habits and usage.

It states that all ISPs in the Union have to, by law, keep records for a year of online communications.

Thankfully, your emails and Internet phone calls will not be stored, as the directive is designed to establish only “whether there has been contact between suspects”. This data is protected by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

A warrant will be required to see the data on connections, but civil liberty campaigners are still concerned that the information will be accessible to other public bodies and local authorities other than the police – probably for a small charge ;)

This legislation is a lead-up to the proposed centralised government database which the government reportedly plans to use this kind of information for pre-emptive searches “for suspicious patterns to identify suspects”.

The BBC reports that some governments can see where this is going and actually stood up to the directive.

Germany has mounted a legal challenge and Sweden is going one better by simply ignoring it. Cool huh?

Our beloved government, however, has grabbed its ankles and agreed to reimburse ISPs the cost to them for storing this info.

Yup.

Not only are we being spied on even more now – we’re also going to be chipping in £46 million for the privilege over the next eight years.

So? Does this make you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that we’re being so “well protected” or would rather carry on your private business – and it be private?

Why not leave a comment below?

That is if you don’t mind having it stored on a government database :0

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XBox 360 Damages Your Discs and Microsoft Knows!

December 16, 2008 Click to read more →

Tut-tut Microsoft!
Recently voted most desired console, nay, present this Christmas Microsoft has kept a major failing under its hat.
Whilst the big M has said that their Xbox 360 was capable of scratching discs and offered a fairly limited exchange program for damaged games there seems to be documentation that proves that Microsoft has known about the problem [...]

Robo Cop To Report For Duty In UK

August 11, 2008 Click to read more →

AI Professor, Noel Sharkey from Sheffield University (that’s in South Yorkshire folks!) has announced his findings after spending two months looking at trends and the evolution of robotics around the world.
At the centre of his predictions is the vast amounts of data that robots could store on-board and their ability to access databases containing all [...]

T3 Mobile Defender – Lamperd Less Lethal (hopefully)

July 1, 2008 Click to read more →

The Police riding mountain bikes.
The Police on roller blades.
The Police riding scooters.
Now, none of the above really strikes fear into me, a law abiding citizen. 
So I’m guessing that hardened criminals would just point and laugh at that selection quite openly.
Until, that is, they realise that the scooter is the Lamperd Less Lethal’s new T3 Mobile Defender.
The scootery [...]

Thankfully 93% of UK Drivers are Aware of the Handset Law

May 15, 2008 Click to read more →

Some rather interesting facts have just been released from Jabra research today.
On the plus side first; apparently 93% of UK drivers realise that you can end up in the slammer for 2 years if you’re caught using your mobile phone handset whilst driving and that 68% think that the penalty should be even stronger.
I [...]

Apple Sued – iPhone Caller ID

February 29, 2008 Click to read more →

One Romek Figa claims to have patented a caller ID system that has been infringed by the iPhone.
Figa’s patent, which was granted in 1990, refers to a two-line LCD screen and external caller ID equipment and describes a way to associate incoming numbers with stored contact names.
He is ultimately looking to halt sales of the iPhone and [...]

New Electric Police Car Hits 40 KPH!

February 29, 2008 Click to read more →

Living in London I see a lot of ‘Green’ policies – the latest of which is the fine for high-polluting vehicles; so it’s of no surprise to see the steady increase of those funny little G-Whizz electric cars.
What’s next?  The police using golf-carts???!!!??
Eerrrrrrm……
An Electric Police Car is just what this seems to be. 
Obviously to patrol the [...]

Burn Baby Burn – Legally

January 9, 2008 Click to read more →

If amendments go ahead you will no longer be flaunting the law each time you transfer your choonz from computer to a digital player or copy a CD for your own use.
Most of us have been breaking the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 each time we’ve copied tracks from CDs to our PC or digital player, or [...]