The Sidney Morning Herald reveals that, according to the European Union’s information security agency, “[p]rinters and copiers could be the weak spot in many companies’ cyber defences, warned on Tuesday. In a report, the EU experts warned that companies are often unaware of the dangers posed by printers that are connected to the internet and can be used by criminals to penetrate networks or view stored documents.”
In an article in IP Law & Business, Wolf Greenfield lawyer Edward Walsh points out that “two recent events should give for-profit companies new reasons to re-evaluate the ways in which they use open source software as well as the extent to which they use it. These events are: (1) the release of a new version of the widely used license that covers such software, i.e., the General Public License version 3, and (2) a round of lawsuits filed by the Software Freedom Law Center against for-profit companies using the software for commercial gain. Four companies to date, the largest of which is Verizon Communications Inc., have been sued for violation of the GPL.” Walsh goes on to warn that “[a]lthough the lawsuits are not about changed provisions in the GPL, both events are muscle-flexing by the free software community and, taken together, may foreshadow new risks in the irreconcilable conflict between open source software and its widespread use by for-profit companies. With the filing of court documents, a philosophical debate about the proper place for software in society has become a business dispute with the risk of substantial consequences. For-profit companies using open source software should take notice and understand the risks.”
The Washington Post reports that “[g]lobal trade talks have stumbled again after a frustrated mediator suspended negotiations over industrial goods, complaining that it was ‘pointless to continue’ because diplomats were refusing to negotiate. The halt in discussions to reduce industrial tariffs, demanded by Don Stephenson, Canada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization, late Monday, could block a crucial stage of negotiations with a goal of striking an agreement between opening markets in agriculture and in manufactured products. After seven years, the World Trade Organization’s so-called Doha trade round — named for discussions that began in the Qatari capital — is at a crucial junction if negotiators are to reach a global accord to reduce trade barriers and tariffs by the end of 2008.”
The Mercury News today has an interesting article on how web start-ups aim to fill the gap in student lending by “facilitating loans between students and anonymous investors or even friends and family members.”
The International Herald Tribune writes that “[t]he market for Asian initial public offerings has reopened after a dismal start to the year, but with pricing power in the hands of investors, issuers are lowering their fund-raising expectations. […] ‘What we’re seeing is issuers becoming a lot more sanguine and reasonable about the price that they want to achieve,’ said Kenneth Poon, co-head of Asia capital markets origination at Citigroup.”