Friday felicities

Ever vigilant for the latest legal developments, the IPKat spotted the publication in the European Commission's Official Journal of Commission Regulation 239/2007 of 6 March 2007 laying down detailed rules for the application of Regulation 404/93 as regards the requirements for communications in the banana sector.

Sadly, this Regulation had nothing to do with talking bananas or with the use of bananas for the purpose of communication, but with altogether more boring issues concerning information within the banana industry itself. The IPKat started reading Regulation 239/2007, but it soon lost its "ap-peel" ...

Right: Cat with bananas, poster by Jamie Edwards (Artfiles)

Is a banana a fruit or a herb? Click here to find out


Once upon a time the Confederation of European Business was called UNICE. Occasionally one of the IPKat team would mis-spell this as EUNICE, which is a now fairly unpopular forename for a girl, not to mention Loiusiana's self-declared Cajun Capital.

Well, Eunice has gone and changed her name, quite without the IPKat noticing, to the less endearing and rather clumsy BUSINESSEUROPE. At least those people who spell it BUSSINESSEUROPE (this is the preferred spelling of the CIPA Journal: see p.63 of the February issue) can remedy their error by clicking the Google prompt "Do you mean EUROPE BUSINESS?" and scrolling down, past www.hoovers.co.uk and various other URLs until they find the object of their quest.


This week's IPKat Poll asks "Should television, film and radio programme formats be given explicit protection as intellectual property?" You've got until next Thursday to cast your vote, so there's need to rush. Meanwhile, the results of the IPKat's previous poll, on the question "Should inventions implemented in software be patentable?", reflect the three-way split that has so far bedevilled any attempts to achieve consensus.
Just over one third of the 135 respondents are in the "all depends" camp, with almost all the rest being closely divided between those who support software patents and the slightly smaller group of those who oppose them. The IPKat proposes to repeat this poll from time to time and monitor any shifts in opinion that may become apparent.


What would any of the military experts of fifty years ago have made of the headine "Enemy Territory has already been leaked online", from the BBC News piece forwarded to the IPKat by Simon Haslam. The feature quotes Todd Hollenshead as saying:

"There is a serious attitude problem we have about games and game fans especially amongst the PC community who look to hackers as icons. It's seen as a cool thing to be part of the warez (hacker) community and share copies of games. Hopefully through education and understanding the community who love PC games needs to recognise they are poisoning the well we all drink from".

Attitude is a problem, not just with computer games but throughout the wider community too. As the Gowers Review observed, many people don't actually see anything wrong with infringing, which is often perceived as a victimless crime. You won't change the attitude of the warez community, says the IPKat, if it's just an active microcosm of a larger community that shares the same values.