In a statement of bravado that bordered on delusion, the president of French film and production company Gaumont announced that, "between the 15th of May and the 15th of December 2011, not a single French film was downloaded on the Web," due to France's strict anti-piracy law Hadopi. In Gaumont’s financial report(PDF) released this month, Gaumont president Nicolas Seydoux (who also leads France’s ALPA, an association against audiovisual piracy) praised Hadopi and other organizations for significantly reducing all kinds of digital piracy in the second half of 2011. The statement may not be (read: it's probably not) entirely true. As French site Numerama points out, Seydoux preceeds that proclamation by saying that the ALPA detected 110 million incidents of audiovisual piracy and sent 8.7 million ... Continue reading →

An administrative law judge for the International Trade Commission issued a recommendation that the commission ban 4GB and 250 GB Xbox gaming consoles from import to the United States. The recommendation(PDF) was released to the public on Monday, and would punish Microsoft for infringing against some of Motorola’s patents. The patents permit video transmission and compression on the console and between the console and its controllers. Not all import bans are created equal though. In Judge David Shaw’s statement, he suggested a cease and desist order be placed against Microsoft. It would, "require the respondent to submit an annual report to the Commission regarding the number and value of infringing goods in its domestic inventory," according to the authors of ITC Remedial Orders in the ... Continue reading →

Yesterday we reported that International Trade Commission (ITC) judge David Shaw recommended to the full ITC Commission that the import of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 slim models should be banned to the US, but patent expert Florian Mueller doesn't see it happening. Speaking to GameIndustry International, Mueller (who runs the excellent patent law blog Foss Patents) says that the ITC will take public interest into account before making such a ruling. He calls Shaw's recommendation business as usual as well. "I've never seen an ITC judge make any other recommendation than an exclusion order if his initial determination is that there is a violation," says Mueller. "This is the normal course of business." "Unlike judges at courts, ITC judges don't make the decisions: they merely recommend ... Continue reading →

HONOLULU (AP) -- Deer can swim, but not very far. When they showed up for the first time on the Big Island of Hawaii, mystified residents wondered how they got there. The island is some 30 miles southeast of Maui, where deer are plentiful. Hawaii wildlife authorities think someone dropped a few from a helicopter on the northern tip of the island. And tracks along the southern coast indicate deer were pushed into the ocean from a boat and forced to paddle ashore. Whether they arrived by air or sea, wildlife managers want to eradicate them to avoid a repeat of the destruction seen on other islands where they ate through vineyards, avocado farms and forests where endangered species live. Officials estimate that there are ... Continue reading →