Mobile » German Court Deals Another Flesh Wound to Samsung's Galaxy Tab

Samsung still has plenty of legal avenues to pursue in Europe to widen its distribution channels for the Galaxy Tab, in spite of a German court's intransigence over the design issue. In this case, Samsung would be best off attempting "to invalidate the Apple patent by finding industrial designs that pre-date Apple's patent and disclose similar "minimalist" design elements," suggested attorney Will Trueba. First it gave Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) the...

Internet » Behind the Pay Wall, Part 1: Fan Sites Play Ball

While Internet users have been staunchly frugal about paying for online content, at least one breed of website, the fan site, has thrived using pay walls. Peddling hyper-specific information about high school athletic prospects, fan sites appeal to a particularly zealous audience. And with media companies like Yahoo and Fox investing tens of millions into these sites, the subscriptions -- and the revenues -- continue to grow. The University of...

Internet » Behind the Pay Wall, Part 2: You Gotta Have a Gimmick

"There is no mass market in pay journalism online," said Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi. "There is so much information on the Internet. The minute you put something behind a pay wall, you give an opportunity for someone else to do it for free. Human nature is that if I can get it for free, I'm going to get it for free. If a pay wall is going to work, you have to have some extremely specialized information." Behind the Pay Wall, Part 1: Fan...

Internet » Amazon Redesign: Limbering Up for Tablet Action?

Amazon has slowly begun rolling out a homepage redesign. The new look comes alongside rumors that the e-commerce giant is just about ready to unveil its own tablet device, and the revamped Amazon layout may fit more neatly into a mobile device's touchscreen. "This is a significant departure," noted analyst Rob Enderle. The next time you make a shopping trip to Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), you may be in for a surprise. The Net's largest retailer...

Internet » Few Doors Remain Open for Yahoo

Yahoo may be in a ditch, but it still could haul itself out -- it has a strong brand and a lot of assets. It wouldn't be easy to accomplish, though. At this point, the best bet for Yahoo would be to get acquired by a company like Microsoft, which would integrate Yahoo's assets with its own, suggested tech analyst Charles King. "If they get acquired, the company and its employees would have a chance to survive." After the firing of Yahoo (Nasdaq:...

Internet » Facebook Rakes In Mountains of Megabucks

Though Facebook hasn't disclosed its official revenue figures, a recent report indicates the privately held social media giant took in $1.6 billion in revenue for the first half of 2011. The company's power to draw advertiser dollars has long kept it on Wall Street's list of hot IPO possibilities, but recent market volatility may delay the company's plans to go public -- if they even exist. Despite growing competition from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG),...

Internet » Behind the Pay Wall, Part 3: A Breed Apart

Is it more than exclusivity that distinguishes fan sites from their failed pay wall peers? Any number of movie review pages or restaurant reviews have interesting and indeed exclusive content. But sports, and recruiting in particular, appeal to something more emotional than, say, the latest dirt out of Hollywood. Behind the Pay Wall, Part 2: You Gotta Have a Gimmick Fan sites are immune from many of the Achilles' heels that plague other media...

Computing » FSF's Star Turn in the Android FUDathon, Part 2

The people and companies ... who disregard the Internet "don't be a dick" rule ... need more incentive to comply. However, even they don't lose the right to use the code permanently unless they decide to "be a dick" permanently. In those cases, it doesn't matter how many copies of the code they get -- each new license for each new copy would be terminated as soon as they attempted distribution outside the terms of the license. FSF's Star Turn...