Slashdot reported today that the 44 claims made in Blackboard’s patents have been rejected after reexamintion by the US Patent Office. There is still a period for comment by both Blackboard and the corporation they are suing, called Desire2Learn, which is why this decision is labeled as non-final.

The patents granted were widely criticized as being too trivial and too broad, allowing Blackboard to sue basically any competitor of learning management systems. Blackboard’s is the “Learning System” used by the University of Florida.

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UF’s campus newspaper the Independent Florida Alligator has an interesting Editorial on privacy violations in Tuesday’s issue. They chastise the mainstream press for highlighting the privacy breach concerning the Democratic candidates’ passport snoopings while ignoring the plentiful and massive security breaches of Joe Gator personal information. They point out that “there is still no national law to protect the privacy of the information you share online.”

Even a few years ago such a niche topic would probably not have been taken serious by many students but the increased time spent on social networking sites and the Internet in general seems to have changed that.

The Alligator remains skeptical about any of this changing soon but of course: knowing is half the battle.

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This Tuesday it’s time again to meet for CopyNight! Join us for this fun social gathering co-hosted by Florida Free Culture about copyright, art, technology and much more. Tentative topics include the new Adobe DRM, who is trying to sue TurnItIn and all the tangents we can think of. You’ll find us on the back porch, just enter through the front and go straight.

What: CopyNight Gainesville
When: Tuesday, March 25t 2008 at 7pm
Where: Tim and Terry’s (1417 NW 1st Ave.)

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