Category — Political Economy

AOL Quietly Wins IM Patent. Tony Kontzer in Information Week is reporting that AOL has been awarded an important patent covering much of the technology behind instant-messaging services.

In the latest example of a potentially market-defining patent being granted without fanfare, AOL Time Warner quietly has become the owner of a patent, granted in September by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that covers much of the technology behind instant-messaging services. Patent No. 6,449,344 appears to be a far-reaching one, with more than 200 claims that give AOL exclusive rights to a “communications system for facilitating locating a user who is connected to a communications network, preferably for the purposes of establishing point-to-point communications.” [Living Without Microsoft]

This patent will be busted, i think there is enough evidence to bust most of it as I type this. We've been debating this for some time on air-l the list of the association of internet researchers, and I'm fairly convinced that most of the claims can be insubstantiated due to prior art

In Post-Soviet Russia, The Peace Corps Gets Sent Home To YOU!. Plastic::Work::International: In another sign of growing anti-Americanism, Russia has given the Peace Corps the boot. As an added afront, the Russians cite possible spying as an explanation. [Plastic: Most Recent]

This seems to me to be another indicator of the second rise of the nation state, i think we may be heading toward a reactionary phase toward globalization in which citizens and other state entities begin a round of isolation and reentrenchment. In this case, in the former Soviet Union, one can see this even more, but i guess the big indicator will be China.