More Wired coverage of the BT patent case.

“Assuming for a moment that they have a valid case, then BT made a huge error in allowing that patent to sit unclaimed for so long,” said patent attorney Vincent Jerham. “Had the company piped up when those first Web pages were published and informed people that it owned hyperlink technology, then businesses and Web publishers could have chosen to use hyperlinks or not. Showing up now, more than a decade after the party started, has effectively killed any chance of collecting prior-usage fees.”

John McChesney of NPR visits Aspen and talks about Pringles cans, free networking, and Boingo [RealAudio required]: The intro said that these networks may pose a threat to existing telephone networks. McChesney interviews Jim Selby, and gets the facts right: he notes that the technology was designed for a few hundred feet, but that Shelby (like many others) can range for miles.

[80211b News]

I know that Bob Cringely gets up people’s noses, but I really like his approach to WiFi. And if you lived like me in a village that was a communications black hole, you would too. This particular column has some interesting stuff about how some smart guys are providing broadband in Starbucks without having to ask Starbucks’ permission — or sharing the revenue with them!

It turns out, though, that the folks at O’Reilly can’t quite bring themselves to believe Cringeley’s claims about his revised home broadband set-up. They also have a nice account of how they made a high-gain antenna from a coffee can.

Financial Times report on the BT ‘hyperlink patent’ case.

‘If the court finds that patent number 4,873,662 on “Information handling system and terminal apparatus” does give BT rights over hyperlinks, its victory would be embarrassing, albeit lucrative.

BT admits this apparent goldmine lay unnoticed for decades before being unearthed in a routine trawl of its intellectual property portfolio.

Any chance to exploit the patent in Europe had gone by the time BT woke up to its significance. But a delay in issuing the patent in the US means it does not expire there until 2006.

If BT wins its case, its delay in latching on to the potential of the patent may anger shareholders. ‘

Yet more on the BT ‘hyperlink patent’ case. The patent [No 4, 873,662] is dated October 10, 1989. The application was filed on August 15, 1980 and there is some reference to 1976 — though this seems to be in relation to a British patent. Something strange here…

Michael Kinsley is leaving Slate.

More on the BT ‘hyperlink patent’ case.

Wired News: Judge Dubious About Link Patent. But a federal judge with a laptop on her desk warned that it may be difficult to prove that a patent filed in 1976, when today’s Internet was barely imagined, somehow applies to modern computers. “The language is archaic,” said U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon. “It’s like reading Old English.” [Tomalak’s Realm]

As an Irish citizen, I’ve never taken that much interest in the British royal family — they’re not my problem, as it were. But the flood of photographs of the Queen and her late sister unleashed by the latter’s death has reminded me that they and I have one thing in common — an admiration for the Leica M-series rangefinder camera. Whenever they wanted to take a picture, out came the M4s with 50mm Summicrons. But then, they can afford that kind of exotic stuff…

Google in a Box!

The Google Search Appliance integrates hardware and software to create a plug-and-play solution that takes minutes to install and can be maintained easily by one administrator. More details here.

SF-Gate report on how Larry Lessig, James Boyle & Co have come up with a new ‘commons’ licence.

“In a boon to the arts and the software industry, Creative Commons will make available flexible, customizable intellectual-property licenses that artists, writers, programmers and others can obtain free of charge to legally define what constitutes acceptable uses of their work. The new forms of licenses will provide an alternative to traditional copyrights by establishing a useful middle ground between full copyright control and the unprotected public domain. ”