Summary
This paper advocates that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum don’t challenge the current legal system, since they fit comfortably enough into the immaterial asset legal definition. As such, while a blockchain-based cryptocurrency can’t be considered as legal tender or electronic money, it can be exchanged on a contractual basis as it happens with every other kind of good. Continue reading “A contribution to the analysis of the legal status of cryptocurrencies”
The Early 2000th BT Way to Sell the Internet
I took this picture in Liverpool (UK) back in 2006 while I was hired to assist a Swiss Television crew shooting a documentary on the Echelon’s ? station at RAF Menwith Hill base. Continue reading “The Early 2000th BT Way to Sell the Internet”
GDPR is a danger for (non)intellectual property
There is no such thing as ? “right to access algorithms” under the GDPR .
Section 15 first paragraph letter h) GDPR only gives the right to obtain
meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing for the data subject.
but this definition can hardly be considered as a synonym for algorithm, thus is just plain wrong to say that GDPR deals with mathematical methods.
As it should be well known even outside the circle of the Intellectual Property cognoscenti, within the EU algorithms have no legal protection (and this is rightly so, because you can neither copyright nor patent mathematics) so the only way an industry can take advantage of a specific mathematical method (i.e. an algorithm) is through secrecy.
Pushing the GDPR reach more far from what is written into the law means to force a company to withdraw from the only way to protect a company’s valuable assets.
Apple’s High Sierra, Adobe and Your Hidden Stakeholder – long
After – and I state it again – after the launch of High Sierra, the “new”, i.e. mostly incompatible, Apple operating system, Adobe warns its customers that
has discovered the compatibility issues listed below when running Illustrator CC 2017.1 and earlier on macOS 10.13 (High Sierra). Unexpected behavior may result due to compatibility issues with graphics processing units (GPU) or Apple File System (APFS).
Continue reading “Apple’s High Sierra, Adobe and Your Hidden Stakeholder – long”
Apple to move its calves into another barn
A “new” i.e. “incompatible” feature on your brand new Macs: no more physical ESC key on the keyboard, to prevent your perfectly running software to do so. ?Adieu! ?VI!
A “new” i.e. “incompatible” power socket for your MacBook Pro, to force you to discharge your old charger.
A “new” i.e. “incompatible” file system on your Macs (APFS), to make your system interacting haphazardly with your files. 1
A “new” i.e. “incompatible” operating system (High Sierra) to not work properly with your currently running software (from Office, to Indesign and Illustrator.)
A “new” – guess what? yes, “incompatible” – HTML 5 API to allow DRMs enforced at user-agent level 2
There are now enough calves in the valley, and the time is right to move them to another barn, where they can stay calm and dumb, with nobody but the rancheros from Cupertino telling them what, how and when to do.
They finally got it.