Posts tagged Ip
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Breakfast links: Regulatory choices
Large retailers may have to pay more; Food truck rules going down; NPS stepping back on Penn; Utility problems; Compare bikeshare geographically; Companies quiet on transit nationally; And …. Keep reading…
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A copy of DC’s laws is now free and open
After open data advocates pointed out how ridiculous it is that private companies have a copyright on the only publicly-available versions of DC’s laws, DC Council General Counsel David Zvenyach helped make a public domain version and posted it online. Tom MacWright explained the problem last month. DC, like many governments, contracts with a company (in this case LexisNexis)… Keep reading…
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DC’s laws aren’t yours
There’s a deep, persistent, and crippling problem with the laws of DC: you can’t download a copy. Due to a weak contract and a variety of legal techniques, it’s not possible to create better ways to read the law or download it for offline access, or even to try to do better than the crummy online portal that serves as its official source. It also means that it’s… Keep reading…
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Can we get more proportionality in criminal justice?
I was heartbroken to read that Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old Internet freedom activist, author of RSS, and Reddit cofounder, killed himself on Friday. I’d met Aaron a few times; on April 6, 2009, he emailed me to ask about books he should read on city policy issues. Aaron clearly suffered from depression, but his family, law professor Lawrence Lessig, and many others are also… Keep reading…
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Transit agencies may get reprieve from patent troll
Any transit agencies around the nation who haven’t yet gotten sued by patent troll ArrivalStar might be in luck. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has found prior art which may prove the patent invalid, and has asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to reexamine the patent. The owner of the patent controls two offshore firms, ArrivalStar and Melvino Technologies,… Keep reading…
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Patent troll sues transit agencies who provide real-time info
Martin Kelly Jones doesn’t make or sell a thing, but has made a living by suing transit agencies who use real-time tracking technologies that he says he owns. It’s a practice known as “patent trolling.” Jones filed his first transit-related patent in 1993, securing rights to the idea of letting parents know when school buses were running late. More… Keep reading…
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Zimmerman and Linton debate Google
A few hours after debating the value of innovation regarding NextBus, Arlington’s Chris Zimmerman and Maryland’s Gordon Linton continued their debate over technology at the full Board meeting. In the interim, the Metro Board renewed John Catoe’s contract with a small raise. I addressed the Board during the public comment period about Google Transit, presenting… Keep reading…
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Zimmerman and Linton on innovation
At Thursday’s Metro Board meeting, issues around open access to data arose twice, once around NextBus and once around schedule data and Google Transit. Both times, Board member Chris Zimmerman of Arlington advocated for Metro to take an encouraging stance toward innovation, while alternate Board member Gordon Linton of Maryland suggested Metro should limit access to information… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: Scolding all around
Bad Apple; Bad planning; Bad anti-planning; Bad candidate; Bad parker; Good blogs; Good slate. Keep reading…
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New York MTA threatens blogger, asserts copyright over schedule
The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority’s lawyers are going after a local blogger, and attempting to block an iPhone application showing Metro-North railroad schedules. The blog StationStops writes about Metro-North Commuter Railroad service north of New York City, and often criticizes its operations. Its creator, Chris Schoenfeld, also created an iPhone application… Keep reading…