Enlarge / Pharmaceutical bottles on a conveyor belt in South Africa. (credit: Westend61 / Getty Images) The Biden administration has thrown its weight behind an international effort to loosen patent and other legal protections for COVID vaccines. “The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver […]
Enlarge (credit: Peter Dazeley / Getty Images) The Snapchat Speed Filter in action. (credit: 9th Circuit opinion) A California federal appeals court has denied legal immunity to Snap for the 2017 death of two teens and a 20-year-old when their car crashed into a tree at 113 miles per hour (180 km/h). Parents of two […]
Enlarge / President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday, May 14, 2020. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg) Facebook’s quasi-independent Oversight Board announced its decision today to uphold the ban on former President Donald Trump’s account. In a ruling issued Wednesday, the board said […]
Netflix’s former vice president of IT operations was convicted of taking bribes from technology vendors in exchange for awarding them contracts with Netflix, the US Department of Justice announced Friday. The former Netflix VP’s illegal scheme forced colleagues to use a variety of products, including one that suffered from “severe” performance problems and another that […]
Enlarge / Joe Biden speaks at a rally in Georgia on April 29, 2021. (credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) In the next few weeks, President Joe Biden is expected to choose a new director for the US Patent and Trademark Office. In recent days, I’ve talked to a dozen people who are deeply involved in […]
Enlarge Thousands of Amazon employees, including those who developed private-label goods for the e-commerce giant, enjoyed years of access to sensitive third-party seller data, according to a new report. An internal audit in 2015 traced the issue to lax security protocols, including the use of a tool called “spoofer access,” which allowed Amazon employees to […]
Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says goodbye to members of a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee afters testifying during a hearing on June 16, 2020, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla) After four years of running the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai is now working for a conservative think tank and a private-equity […]
Enlarge (credit: Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine/Flickr) The US Environmental Protection Agency announced a rule Monday that would phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the potent greenhouse gases that are widely used as refrigerants. Though HFCs aren’t intentionally emitted in the regular use of refrigerators and air conditioners, they often leak out at various phases in an […]
Enlarge (credit: Kroger) Kroger, one of America’s biggest grocery chains, is beginning to test a drone-delivery service in the Cincinnati area. Starting this week, Kroger will begin testing deliveries near the company’s store in Centerville, Ohio. “Customer deliveries are scheduled to begin later this spring, and a second pilot is scheduled to launch this summer […]
Enlarge / Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Miami on April 08, 2021. (credit: Joe Raedle / Getty) Both houses of Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature have passed new legislation banning social media companies from deplatforming political candidates or censoring large journalistic organizations. Gov. Ron DeSantis has expressed support for the bill and is expected to sign it into […]