After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill (AP) : Technet

After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill (AP)
Renowned attorney Bennett to represent Megaupload (AP)
Kodak gets 2013 deadline to reorganize (AP)
RedPad: Android tablet for Chinese politicians that costs twice as much as the iPad (Yahoo! News)
Stretched Audi R8 becomes the world’s fastest limo (Yahoo! News)
LuxeInACity Means Free Luxury -- If You Can Score an Invite (Mashable)
Congress puts brakes on anti-piracy bills (Reuters)
Amazon setting up first "fulfillment center" in India (Reuters)
One of world's smallest premature babies released from hospital (Reuters)
German court knocks down one Samsung patent claim against Apple (Digital Trends)
SOPA/PIPA Indefinitely Shelved After Massive Protest (ContributorNetwork)
Judge narrows Apple and Motorola patent battle to five points (Digital Trends)
Studying up on Apple’s new education apps (Appolicious)
Study: Algebra iPad app garners higher math scores over traditional textbooks (Digital Trends)
Renowned attorney Bennett to represent Megaupload (AP)
Jobs was told anti-poaching idea "likely illegal" (Reuters)
Google revenue down, Android can help (Appolicious)
How the major stock indexes fared on Friday (AP)

After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill (AP)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 08:01 PM PST

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Jim Abrams, Associated Press – 1 hr 35 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Caving to a massive campaign by Internet services and their millions of users, Congress indefinitely postponed legislation Friday to stop online piracy of movies and music costing U.S. companies billions of dollars every year. Critics said the bills would result in censorship and stifle Internet innovation.

The demise, at least for the time being, of the anti-piracy bills was a clear victory for Silicon Valley over Hollywood, which has campaigned for a tougher response to online piracy. The legislation also would cover the counterfeiting of drugs and car parts.

Congress' qualms underscored how Internet users can use their collective might to block those who want to change the system.

The battle over the future of the Internet also played out on a different front Thursday when a loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous" shut down Justice Department websites for several hours and hacked the site of the Motion Picture Association of America after federal officials issued an indictment against Megaupload.com, one of the world's biggest file-sharing sites.

The site of the Hong Kong-based company was shut down, and the founder and three employees were arrested in New Zealand on U.S. accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. New Zealand police raided homes and businesses linked to the founder, Kim Dotcom, on Friday and seized guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials there said.

In the U.S., momentum against the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act and the House's Stop Online Piracy Act, known popularly as PIPA and SOPA, grew quickly on Wednesday when the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Web giants staged a one-day blackout and Google organized a petition drive that attracted more than 7 million participants.

That day alone, at least six senators who had co-sponsored the Senate legislation reversed their positions. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in statements at the time and again on Friday, stressed that more consensus-building was needed before the legislation would be ready for a vote.

On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was postponing a test vote set for Tuesday "in light of recent events." House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, followed suit, saying consideration of a similar House bill would be postponed "until there is wider agreement on a solution."

With opposition mounting, it was unlikely that Reid would have received the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation to the Senate floor.

The two bills would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. The legislation would bar online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as credit card companies from doing business with an alleged violator. They also would forbid search engines from linking to such sites.

The chief Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., cited estimates that copyright piracy costs the American economy more than $50 billion annually and that global sales of counterfeit goods via the Internet reached $135 billion in 2010. He and Smith insist that their bills target only foreign criminals and that there is nothing in them to require websites, Internet service providers, search engines or others to monitor their networks.

That didn't satisfy critics who said the legislation could force Internet companies to pre-screen user comments or videos, burden new and smaller websites with huge litigation costs and impede new investments.

The White House, while not taking a specific stand on the bills, last week said it would "not support any legislation that reduces freedom of expression ... or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said online piracy is an issue that has to be addressed, "but everybody has to be in on it for it to work and get through Congress."

The scuttling, for now, of PIPA and SOPA frustrates what might have been one of the few opportunities to move significant legislation in an election year where the two parties have little motivation to cooperate.

Until recently "you would have thought this bill was teed up," with backing from key Senate leaders and support from powerful interest groups, said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who cosponsored the original bill but quickly dropped his backing on the grounds the bill could undermine innovation and Internet freedom.

Moran said the "uprising" of so many people with similar concerns was a "major turnaround, and in my experience it is something that has happened very rarely."

Moran said PIPA and SOPA now have "such a black eye" that it will be difficult to amend them. Reid, however, said that there had been progress in recent talks among the various stakeholders and "there is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved."

Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer protection and privacy advocacy group, said Google and Facebook and their supporters "have delivered a powerful blow to the Hollywood lobby." He predicted a compromise that doesn't include what many see as overreaching provisions in the current legislation.

"It's been framed as an Internet freedom issue, but at the end of the day it will be decided on the narrow interests of the old and new media companies," he said. The big questions involve who should or shouldn't pay — or be paid — for Internet content.

Leahy said he respected Reid's decision to postpone the vote but lamented the Senate's unwillingness to debate his bill.

"The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," Leahy said. Criminals in China, Russia and other countries "who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided" it was not worth taking up the bill, he said.

In the House, Smith said he had "heard from the critics" and resolved that it was "clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products." Smith had planned on holding further committee votes on his bill next month.

The bill's opponents were relieved it was put on hold.

Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, commended Congress for "recognizing the serious collateral damage this bill could inflict on the Internet."

The group represents Internet and technology companies including Google, Yahoo and Amazon.com. Erickson said they would work with Congress "to address the problem of piracy without compromising innovation and free expression."

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has joined Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Moran in proposing an alternative anti-piracy bill, credited opponents with forcing lawmakers "to back away from an effort to ram through controversial legislation."

But the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, former Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, warned, "As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves." The MPAA, which represents such companies as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., is a leading advocate for the anti-piracy legislation.

Renowned attorney Bennett to represent Megaupload (AP)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 06:35 PM PST

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, AP Business Writer Matthew Barakat, Ap Business Writer – Fri Jan 20, 9:35 pm ET

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – When Megaupload executives arrive in court to answer charges that they orchestrated a massive online piracy scheme, they'll be backed by a prominent lawyer who has defended Bill Clinton against sexual harassment charges and Enron against allegations of corporate fraud.

Washington attorney Robert Bennett said Friday that he will represent the company, which was indicted in federal court in Alexandria Thursday on copyright infringement and other charges.

The U.S. government shut down Megaupload's file-sharing website on Thursday, alleging that the company facilitated illegal downloads of copyrighted movies and other content. Seven individuals — including the company's founder, who had his name legally changed to Kim Dotcom — were also charged. Dotcom and three others were arrested in New Zealand; three others remain at large.

New Zealand police raided several homes and businesses linked to Dotcom and seized guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, officials said.

In Hong Kong, where Megaupload is based, customs officials said they seized more than $42.5 million in assets. They said the company operated out of luxury hotel space costing more than $12,000 a day, and they seized high-speed servers and other equipment from the offices.

The shutdown and indictment generated headlines around the world in part because of the size and scope of Megaupload's operation. Sandvine, Inc., a Canadian company that provides equipment to monitor Internet traffic, said the website alone accounted for about 1 percent of traffic on U.S. cable and DSL lines. The site is even more popular in many foreign countries.

Bennett said that "we intend to vigorously defend against these charges" but declined to comment on the case in detail.

Bennett is best known for serving as President Bill Clinton's attorney when he was accused of sexual harassment by Paula Jones. He has also represented Defense Secretaries Clark Clifford and Caspar Weinberger.

Megaupload was no stranger to accusations that its website existed for the sole purpose of mass copyright breach. Before its website was taken down, Megaupload offered a more detailed defense of its operations, claiming in a statement that such accusations are "grotesquely overblown."

The company said it had a clear, easy-to-follow procedure if movie studios or other copyright holders saw that their products were being illegally shared on Megaupload, and said that it responded to those "takedown notices" as required by law.

"Of course, abuse does happen and is an inevitable fact of life in a free society, but it is curbed heavily and efficiently by our close cooperation with trusted takedown partners. It is just unfortunate that the activities of a small group of `black sheep' overshadows the millions of users that use our sites legitimately every day," the statement said.

Indeed, sites like megaupload.com, known as cyberlockers, can fulfill legitimate needs and are used every day by people looking for an efficient way to share or transfer large files that can't easily be sent by email.

In their indictment, however, federal prosecutors offered a detailed glimpse of the internal workings of the website. They allege that Megaupload was well aware that the vast majority of its users were there to illegally download copyrighted content.

According to the indictment, in a 2008 email chat session, two of the alleged coconspirators exchange messages, with one saying "we have a funny business . . . modern days pirates :)" and the other responds, "we're not pirates, we're just providing shipping services to pirates :)".

In another instance, one of the defendants allegedly laments in colorful language that an episode HBO's "The Sopranos" has been uploaded to site, but the dialogue is in French, limiting its appeal.

In fact, prosecutors allege that the entire website was specifically designed to encourage piracy. The website provided cash bonuses to users who uploaded content popular enough to prompt mass downloads — such content was almost always copyrighted material.

Stefan Mentzer, an intellectual property partner with the White and Case law firm in New York, said it's likely that Megaupload will try to argue at least two defenses: One is that its service qualifies as a so-called "safe harbor" under Digital Millennium Copyright Act — the federal law governing copyright infringement — if they can show, for instance, that they had no actual knowledge that infringing material was on their system. Another possible defense would be jurisdictional — specifically, that a case can't be brought in the Eastern District of Virginia against a Hong Kong-based company like Megaupload without evidence that they directed criminal activity related to the district.

But Mentzer said both defenses would be a challenge, given the evidence that prosecutors appear to have collected.

"The Department of Justice doesn't just cavalierly file these lawsuits," Mentzer said.

Federal prosecutors have made Internet piracy a priority in the last decade, especially in the Eastern District of Virginia, which can claim jurisdiction over many such cases because large portions of the Internet's backbone — servers and other infrastructure — are physically located in northern Virginia's technology corridor.

The vast majority of those cases have resulted in guilty pleas and prison time. On Friday, a day after announcement of the Megaupload case, a federal judge sentenced Matthew David Howard Smith, 24, of Raleigh, N.C., to 14 months in prison for his role in founding a website called NinjaVideo. That site was one of many shut down in 2010, at a time when it facilitated nearly 1 million illegal downloads a week.

NinjaVideo was what prosecutors called a "linking site" to Megaupload. Casual users of Megaupload would be unable to find popular movies and TV shows on the site without the proper links. Sites like NinjaVideo allowed users to easily search for the desired movies or music and provided the links that enabled them to download the content from Megaupload.

The other co-founder of NinjaVideo, Hana Beshara, was sentenced earlier this month to 22 months in prison. While she admitted guilt, she portrayed herself as a sort of Robin Hood of the online world, stealing from greedy movie studios to provide entertainment downloads to the masses in the form of free films, TV shows, videogames and music.

While the legal defense for piracy may be difficult, accused Internet pirates clearly have their supporters, as evidenced by the millions of people who use their sites as well as the response to Thursday's Megaupload shutdown. Within hours of the indictment being unsealed, the loose affiliation of hackers known as Anonymous caused temporary shutdowns of the Justice Department website as well as the websites of the Motion Picture Association of America and other industry groups that support a tougher piracy laws.

It could be months before the criminal case against Megaupload gets underway. The four defendants arrested in made an initial appearance in a New Zealand court Friday and are scheduled to make a second appearance on Monday. Authorities have said it could take a year or more to bring them to the U.S. if they fight extradition.

___

AP Business Writers Daniel Wagner in Washington and Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Kodak gets 2013 deadline to reorganize (AP)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 12:26 PM PST

By BEN DOBBIN, AP Business Writer Ben Dobbin, Ap Business Writer – Fri Jan 20, 3:26 pm ET

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Eastman Kodak Co. has a little over a year to reshape its money-losing businesses and deliver a get-out-of-bankruptcy plan.

Girded by a $950 million financing deal with Citigroup Inc., the photography pioneer aims to keep operating normally during bankruptcy while it peddles a trove of digital-imaging patents.

After years of mammoth cost-cutting and turnaround efforts, Kodak ran short of cash and sought protection from its creditors Thursday. It is required under its bankruptcy financing terms to produce a reorganization plan by Feb. 15, 2013.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in New York gave Kodak permission to borrow an initial $650 million from Citigroup.

He also set a June 30 deadline for Kodak to seek his approval of bidding procedures for the sale of 1,100 patents that analysts estimate could fetch at least $2 billion. No buyers have emerged since Kodak started shopping them around in July.

Through negotiations and lawsuits, Kodak has already collected $1.9 billion in patent licensing fees and royalties since 2008. Last week, it intensified efforts to defend its intellectual property by filing patent-infringement lawsuits against Apple Inc., HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics and Fujifilm Corp.

Kodak is also pursuing another high-stakes dispute before the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., against Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. over image-preview technology it patented in 2002.

Kodak has said it hopes to garner $1 billion from the two-year-old claim. But the commission, a U.S. arbiter for trade disputes, recently put off its decision until September.

Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak turned photography into a mass commodity at the dawn of the 20th century and was known all over the world for its Brownie and Instamatic cameras and its yellow-and-red film boxes. It was brought down first by Japanese competition and then an inability to keep pace with the shift from film to digital technology.

"They're a company that knows more about imaging than anyone else in the world," said Robert Burley, a photography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. "But I think they lost their ability in their corporate structure to turn those innovations into real-world applications and get them on the market fast.

"There were just too many fronts to deal with, too many battles all at the same time."

In its Chapter 11 filing, Kodak said its nearly decade-long overhaul has been undermined since 2008 by a sluggish economy and high restructuring costs. Its payroll has plunged below 19,000 from 70,000 in 2002, and it hasn't had a profitable year since 2007.

"At the same time as we have created our digital business, we have also already effectively exited certain traditional operations, closing 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs, and reducing our workforce by 47,000 since 2003," CEO Antonio Perez said.

"Now we must complete the transformation by further addressing our cost structure and effectively monetizing non-core (intellectual-property) assets," Perez said in a statement.

Kodak's stock edged up to 32 cents in over-the-counter trading Friday afternoon. The bankruptcy filing prompted the New York Stock Exchange to delist the securities.

RedPad: Android tablet for Chinese politicians that costs twice as much as the iPad (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 02:35 PM PST

Stretched Audi R8 becomes the world’s fastest limo (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 01:15 PM PST

LuxeInACity Means Free Luxury -- If You Can Score an Invite (Mashable)

Posted: 19 Jan 2012 03:04 PM PST

Veena Bissram Veena Bissram – Thu Jan 19, 6:04 pm ET

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: LuxeInACity

Quick Pitch: LuxeInACity is a social luxury city guide.

Genius Idea: An exclusive invitation-only social network for members to interact with each other and their favorite luxe companies.

[More from Mashable: Beepl Adds a Personalized Twist to Q&A]

If you travel often, spend three times as much on luxury goods than the average person and -- oh wait -- earn a starting salary of $150,000 or more, you may just be invited to LuxeInACity, your online private concierge.

LuxeInACity is an exclusive invitation-only social luxury city guide that lets members interact with each other and top luxe companies. For its opulent members, the social guide features a wealth of luxury and travel-related information for 125 cities around the world and 50,000 luxury companies.

The site provides luxury information and sights to see for all of its featured locations, including Anguilla, Paris, Cayman Islands, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Sydney, and many more.

"We wanted to create a one-stop resource for luxury information," Roxanne Gernier, founder of LuxeInACity, told Mashable. "Every day we add luxury news, videos, blogs, etc., just to inform our members on what is going on in the luxury world."

LuxeInACity also provides information for its featured categories which includes arts & culture, automobile, jewelry, restaurants, nightlife, boating, service, fashion, wine & spirits and villas. If members are searching for car dealerships for example, they can click on the "automobiles" category to find dealerships in a specific city.

Along with the options to create a personalized profile and communicate with other members via private messages, LuxeInACity members also get free access to the following:

Luxe Events: International where to go and when to go calendar. Users can also post events and invite friends to attend.
Luxe Forums: Exclusive forum for members to discuss interesting topics.
Luxe News: Daily news from numerous international sources.
Luxe Videos: Entertaining videos from YouTube.
Luxe Blog: Engaging luxe blog written by the luxe team.

Featured Company

LuxeInACity is self-funded, currently has 150 exclusive members and will publicly launch in late February.

Image courtesy of LuxeInACity

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Congress puts brakes on anti-piracy bills (Reuters)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 09:01 PM PST

By Jasmin Melvin Jasmin Melvin – 35 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation in its tracks on Friday, delivering a stunning win for Internet companies that staged an unprecedented online protest this week to kill the previously fast-moving bills.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would postpone a critical vote that had been scheduled for January 24 "in light of recent events."

Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation until there is wider agreement on the issue.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products," Smith said in a statement.

The bills, known as PIPA (PROTECT IP Act) in the Senate and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House, are aimed at curbing access to overseas websites that traffic in pirated content and counterfeit products, such as movies and music.

The legislation has been a priority for entertainment companies, publishers, pharmaceutical companies and other industry groups who say it is critical to curbing online piracy, which they believe costs them billions of dollars a year.

But technology companies are concerned the laws would undermine Internet freedoms, be difficult to enforce and encourage frivolous lawsuits.

Public sentiment on the bills shifted in recent weeks after Internet players ramped up their lobbying.

White House officials weighed in on Saturday, saying in a blog post that they had concerns about legislation that could make businesses on the Internet vulnerable to litigation and harm legal activity and free speech.

Then on Wednesday, protests blanketed the Internet, turning Wikipedia and other popular websites dark for 24 hours. Google, Facebook, Twitter and others protested the proposed legislation but did not shut down.

The protest had quick results: several sponsors of the legislation, including senators Roy Blunt, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, John Boozman and Marco Rubio, have withdrawn their support.

In a brief statement on Friday, Reid said there was no reason why concerns about the legislation cannot be resolved. He offered no new date for the vote.

Reid's action comes a day after a senior Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the measure lacked the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle in the 100-member Senate.

SWIFT REACTION

The indefinite postponement of the bills drew quick praise from the Internet community, and ire from Hollywood.

"We appreciate that lawmakers have listened to our community's concerns, and we stand ready to work with them on solutions to piracy and copyright infringement that will not chill free expression or threaten the economic growth and innovation the Internet provides," a Facebook spokesman said.

Chris Dodd, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America and a former Democratic senator, said the stalling of legislation is a boost for criminals.

"As a consequence of failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves," Dodd said.

WAY FORWARD?

Lawmakers, technology companies and the entertainment industry pledged to find a way to combat online piracy and copyright infringement.

Reddit.com, a vocal leader in the protests and among the sites to go dark on Wednesday, said it was pleased the protests were able to slow things down, but said piracy needs to be addressed.

"We really need people at the table who have the technical expertise about these issues who can ensure that whatever bills are drafted have airtight, technically sound language, definitions and frameworks," the company's general manager Erik Martin told Reuters.

Reid expressed hope on Friday that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who has been shepherding the bill through Congress, could help resolve differences in the legislation.

"I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks," Reid said.

Leahy slammed the Senate derailment of the anti-piracy legislation as a "knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem" but said he is committed to getting a bill signed into law this year.

There are already alternatives in the works.

Senator Ron Wyden introduced a bill last month that he said "meets the same publicly stated goals as SOPA or Protect IP without causing massive damage to the Internet."

Representative Darrel Issa on Wednesday introduced a companion bill in the House.

Issa said SOPA and PIPA lacked a fundamental understanding of how Internet technologies work. The technology sector has shown more optimism about prospects for Issa and Wyden's alternative bill, called the OPEN Act.

"It's a great starting point for discussion, and we're definitely very open to that," said Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit that helped organize the Internet protests against SOPA and PIPA.

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Jasmin Melvin; editing by Bill Trott, Dave Zimmerman and Andre Grenon.)

Amazon setting up first "fulfillment center" in India (Reuters)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 03:28 PM PST

By Alistair Barr Alistair Barr – Fri Jan 20, 6:28 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc is setting up its first "fulfillment center" in India as the world's largest Internet retailer tries to break into the world's second most-populous nation.

Fulfillment centers are giant warehouses that help Amazon and other online retailers store many products, ship them and handle returns quickly.

The fulfillment center is based in Mumbai, the biggest city in the country, according to job listings on Amazon's India careers website.

Amazon "has an immediate opening for an IT Manager in our first Fulfillment Center based out in Mumbai, India," one recent listing said.

Another recent Amazon job posting sought a "Stations Operations Manager" to work for the fulfillment center team in Mumbai.

Amazon was also recently looking for a financial analyst in Mumbai to report to a general manager and controller and help the fulfillment center operate more efficiently and predictably.

Amazon spent heavily last year setting up more than 10 new fulfillment centers in the United States. The company also lists fulfillment centers in China, Germany, Japan and the U.K. on its website, but currently lists none in India.

Fulfillment centers cost a lot to set up, so Amazon's efforts to start one in India signals the company is serious about getting into the country's $550 billion retail market.

"While it has been speculated that Amazon would be expanding internationally, it seems that the international expansion plans have been accelerating," said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. "Last year, they launched a country-specific site in Spain and now it looks like India could be next."

An Amazon spokeswoman did not respond to emails seeking comment on the company's plans for India.

Amazon has software development centers in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad and a customer-service center in Hyderabad.

Shoppers in India can also buy products from Amazon websites in other countries and have the items shipped to them. But the company does not have a dedicated online retail business in India yet.

That has allowed e-commerce start-ups, led by Flipkart, to expand quickly in India.

"India is a tremendously large potential market for Amazon," said Mahesh Murthy, a venture capital investor in India and founder of digital marketing start-up Pinstorm.

"In fact, from the metrics we see, Amazon currently gets more traffic from India than Flipkart does, even though the former has no formal presence in India," he added.

Amazon already does a lot of business in India through its U.K. website, amazon.co.uk, because the company offers free shipping and handles customs for all books, music and DVDs bought from that site and shipped to India, Murthy said.

"But this would be significantly smaller than what Amazon could do if it came with a full offering into India," he added.

(Reporting By Alistair Barr; editing by Andre Grenon)

One of world's smallest premature babies released from hospital (Reuters)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 04:53 PM PST

By R.T. Watson R.t. Watson – Fri Jan 20, 7:53 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An infant ranked as one of world's smallest ever born was released to her joyful parents on Friday after nearly five months in a hospital, as doctors expressed hope for the baby who began life weighing the equivalent of two cell phones.

Melinda Star Guido weighed just 9.5 ounces at birth on August 30 in Los Angeles, 16 weeks premature, which based on a University of Iowa registry made her the third-lightest baby ever born in any country. She measured 8 and three-quarter inches long.

Mother Haydee Ibarra, from the Los Angeles suburb of Granada Hills, cradled her daughter as the family appeared before reporters outside Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. The child wore a white bonnet and a jumper with dots, and had an oxygen tube under her nose.

The parents were joined by Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan, chief of the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital, and members of the physician's team.

"In my 30 years here this is the first time this ever happened that we were able to discharge a baby that weighed less than 400 grams, or 300 grams," Ramanathan told reporters. "Don't expect miracles every day."

The doctor estimated that the cost of medical care for the infant has run between $500,000 and $700,000. He did not say how those costs would be paid.

The doctor added that the baby now weighs 4 pounds, 11 ounces and "is doing what it's supposed to do" by eating, looking around and sleeping.

Results of a brain scan on Melinda two weeks ago looked normal, and Ramanathan said his team was "cautiously optimistic about how the baby is going to do" over time.

The main concern is the baby's neurological development and whether she will have any trouble walking and talking, he said.

Ibarra and Melinda's father, Yovani Guido, said they were thrilled at being able to take their child home.

"I'm just happy she's doing well, and she's doing better than she was before. I'm happy I finally get to take her home after four and a half months being here," Ibarra said.

"I've been coming every night to feed her, put her to sleep and bond with her," she said.

The smallest surviving baby ever born is listed as Rumaisa Rahman, who in 2004 was born in Illinois weighing only 9.2 ounces, according to the University of Iowa Children's Hospital Tiniest Babies Registry.

Rumaisa is attending school and doing well, Dr. Edward Bell, who started and maintains the registry, said in an email. The second-smallest baby was born in Japan, he said.

He said that the most likely outcome for Melinda is she "will have no major problems with health or development, but she will probably remain smaller than average."

An iPhone 4S weighs 4.9 ounces, according to the Apple Inc website, so two of the devices together are heavier than Melinda was when she was born.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis)

German court knocks down one Samsung patent claim against Apple (Digital Trends)

Posted: 20 Jan 2012 12:57 PM PST

Geoff Duncan Geoff Duncan – Fri Jan 20, 3:57 pm ET

The long-running tit-for-tat legal battle between Samsung and Apple logged another entry today, with Judge Andreas Voss of the Mannheim Regional Court in Germany ruling that Apple does not infringe on a Samsung patent involving 3G/UMTS technology. The judge did not offer any detailed reasoning, but overall the ruling likely represents only a small setback in Samsung's ongoing battle with Apple in Germany: It still has four more lawsuits pending there, spanning a total of six patent infringement claims against Apple.

Apple is also suing Samsung in Germany over six patents.

Apple and Samsung are suing and counter-suing each other over Android and iOS on a worldwide basis, with cases ongoing in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Although neither company has chalked up a distinct victory in the litigation, the German cases have been among the most high-profile for Samsung, since Apple managed to get Samsung devices removed from the IFA trade show last September. However, even where Apple has managed to gain injunctions on Samsung products, they've been hollow victories, with the injunctions being overturned on appeal or side-stepped with product modification.

The reasons for Judge Voss's ruling that Samsung's 3G/UMTS patent is invalid could become significant later. As noted by Florian Mueller in his FOSS Patents blog, if the judge's reasoning was that Samsung had exhausted its rights to assert the patent, the rationale could effect three of Samsung's four remaining lawsuits against Apple in Germany. In effect, Apple would have a license to use the technology. However, if the judge found that Apple didn't infringe on Samsung's patent on technical grounds, it likely won't have any impact on Samsung's remaining suits.

Earlier this week, Apple filed a new lawsuit against Samsung in Germany seeking to have sales of ten Samsung smartphones banned. Apple and Samsung are also back in German court today, where Apple is arguing Samsung products violate a German utility model Apple applied for regarding iOS's slide-to-unlock mechanism. (In Germany, a "utility model" is somewhat less than a patent. It's quick to apply for, but has a number of limitations.) Apple also applied for a German patent on slide-to-unlock, which it also claims Samsung (and Motorola) infringe upon. Those accusations are being handled separately). Does this sound like minutia? Recall that these actions follow on Samsung suing Apple over how the iPhone displays emoticons.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

Technet

Friday, January 20, 2012

After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill (AP) : Technet

After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill (AP) : Technet

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