1.
Contract
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A contract is a voluntary arrangement between two or more parties that is enforceable by law as a binding legal agreement. Contract is a branch of the law of obligations in jurisdictions of the civil law tradition, Contract law concerns the rights and duties that arise from agreements. A contract arises when the parties agree that there is an agreement, formation of a contract generally requires an offer, acceptance, consideration, and a mutual intent to be bound. Each party to a contract must have capacity to enter the agreement, minors, intoxicated persons, and those under a mental affliction may have insufficient capacity to enter a contract. Some types of contracts may require formalities, such as a memorialization in writing, at common law, the elements of a contract are offer, acceptance, intention to create legal relations, and consideration. Not all agreements are necessarily contractual, as the parties generally must be deemed to have an intention to be legally bound, a so-called gentlemens agreement is one which is not intended to be legally enforceable, and which is binding in honour only. In order for a contract to be formed, the parties must reach mutual assent and this is typically reached through offer and an acceptance which does not vary the offers terms, which is known as the mirror image rule. An offer is a statement of the offerors willingness to be bound should certain conditions be met. If a purported acceptance does vary the terms of an offer, it is not an acceptance but a counteroffer and, therefore, the Uniform Commercial Code disposes of the mirror image rule in §2-207, although the UCC only governs transactions in goods in the USA. As a court cannot read minds, the intent of the parties is interpreted objectively from the perspective of a reasonable person and it is important to note that where an offer specifies a particular mode of acceptance, only an acceptance communicated via that method will be valid. Contracts may be bilateral or unilateral, a bilateral contract is an agreement in which each of the parties to the contract makes a promise or set of promises to each other. For example, in a contract for the sale of a home, less common are unilateral contracts in which one party makes a promise, but the other side does not promise anything. In these cases, those accepting the offer are not required to communicate their acceptance to the offeror, in a reward contract, for example, a person who has lost a dog could promise a reward if the dog is found, through publication or orally. The payment could be conditioned on the dog being returned alive. Those who learn of the reward are not required to search for the dog, but if someone finds the dog and delivers it, the High Court of Australia stated that the term unilateral contract is unscientific and misleading. In certain circumstances, a contract may be created. A contract is implied in fact if the circumstances imply that parties have reached an agreement even though they have not done so expressly, quantum meruit claims are an example. Carbolic, a firm, advertised a smoke ball marketed as a wonder drug that would, according to the instructions
2.
Copyright law of the United States
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The Copyright Law of the United States tries to encourage the creation of art and culture by rewarding authors and artists with a set of exclusive rights. Copyright law grants authors and artists the right to make and sell copies of their works, the right to create derivative works. These exclusive rights are subject to a limit, and generally expire 70 years after the authors death. In the United States, any music composed before January 1,1923, is considered public domain. United States copyright law is governed by the Copyright Act of 1976, the United States Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to create copyright law under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, known as the Copyright Clause. The United States Copyright Office handles copyright registration, recording of copyright transfers, US copyright law traces its lineage back to the British Statute of Anne, which influenced the first US federal copyright law, the Copyright Act of 1790. The Copyright Act has been updated several times, including, notably, the Copyright Act of 1976 and this includes incentivizing the creation of art, literature, architecture, music, and other works of authorship. As with many legal doctrines, the effectiveness of law in achieving its stated purpose is a matter of debate. The United States copyright law protects original works of authorship, fixed in a tangible medium including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and this protection is available to both published and unpublished works. This distinction is called the idea–expression dichotomy, the distinction between idea and expression is fundamental to copyright law. For example, a paper describing a theory is copyrightable. The paper is the expression of the ideas about the political theory. But the theory itself is just an idea, and is not copyrightable, another author is free to describe the same theory in their own words without infringing on the original authors copyright. Although fundamental, the dichotomy is often difficult to put into practice. Reasonable people can disagree about where the unprotectable idea ends and the expression begins. Peter Pan Fabrics, Inc. v. Martin Weiner Corp.274 F. 2d 487, however, compilations of facts are treated differently, and may be copyrightable material. Copyright protection in compilations is limited to the selection and arrangement of facts, the Supreme Court decision in Feist v. Rural clarified the requirements for copyright in compilations. The Feist case denied copyright protection to a white pages phone book, in making this ruling, the Supreme Court rejected the sweat of the brow doctrine
3.
Digital rights management
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Digital rights management schemes are various access control technologies that are used to restrict usage of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies try to control the use, modification, and distribution of copyrighted works, the use of digital rights management is not universally accepted. Furthermore, works can become permanently inaccessible if the DRM scheme changes or if the service is discontinued, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Free Software Foundation consider the use of DRM systems to be an anti-competitive practice. Worldwide, many laws have been created which criminalize the circumvention of DRM, communication about such circumvention, such laws are part of the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the European Unions Copyright Directive. The term DRM is also referred to as copy protection, technical protection measures, copy prevention, or copy control. The advent of digital media and analog-to-digital conversion technologies has vastly increased the concerns of copyright-owning individuals and these concerns are particularly prevalent within the music and movie industries, because these sectors are partly or wholly dependent on the revenue generated from such works. This, combined with the Internet and popular file-sharing tools, has made unauthorized distribution of copies of copyrighted digital media much easier, DRM technologies enable content publishers to enforce their own access policies on content, such as restrictions on copying or viewing. These technologies have been criticized for restricting individuals from copying or using the content legally, DRM is in common use by the entertainment industry. However, Apple dropped DRM from all iTunes music files around 2009, for instance, tractor companies try to prevent the DIY repairing by the owning farmers under usage of DRM-laws as DMCA. Digital Rights Management Techniques include, Restrictive Licensing Agreements, The access to materials, copyright. Some restrictive licenses are imposed on consumers as a condition of entering a website or when downloading software, encryption, Scrambling of expressive material and embedding of a tag, This technology is designed to control access and reproduction of information. This includes backup copies for personal use, computer games sometimes use DRM technologies to limit the number of systems the game can be installed on by requiring authentication with an online server. Most games with this restriction allow three or five installs, although some allow an installation to be recovered when the game is uninstalled. In mid-2008, the publication of Mass Effect marked the start of a wave of titles primarily making use of SecuROM for DRM, the use of the DRM scheme in 2008s Spore backfired and there were protests, resulting in a considerable number of users seeking an unlicensed version instead. This backlash against the limit was a significant factor in Spore becoming the most pirated game in 2008. Additionally, other games that use intrusive DRM such as BioShock, Crysis Warhead. Although Ubisoft has not commented on the results of the experiment, Ubisoft formally announced a return to online authentication on 9 February 2010, through its Uplay online gaming platform, starting with Silent Hunter 5, The Settlers 7, and Assassins Creed II. Silent Hunter 5 was first reported to have been compromised within 24 hours of release, the Uplay system works by having the installed game on the local PCs incomplete and then continuously downloading parts of the game-code from Ubisofts servers as the game progresses
4.
Supreme Court of the United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
5.
Free software
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The right to study and modify software entails availability of the software source code to its users. This right is conditional on the person actually having a copy of the software. Richard Stallman used the existing term free software when he launched the GNU Project—a collaborative effort to create a freedom-respecting operating system—and the Free Software Foundation. The FSFs Free Software Definition states that users of software are free because they do not need to ask for permission to use the software. Free software thus differs from proprietary software, such as Microsoft Office, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides or iWork from Apple, which users cannot study, change, freeware, which is a category of freedom-restricting proprietary software that does not require payment for use. For computer programs that are covered by law, software freedom is achieved with a software license. Software that is not covered by law, such as software in the public domain, is free if the source code is in the public domain. Proprietary software, including freeware, use restrictive software licences or EULAs, Users are thus prevented from changing the software, and this results in the user relying on the publisher to provide updates, help, and support. This situation is called vendor lock-in, Users often may not reverse engineer, modify, or redistribute proprietary software. Other legal and technical aspects, such as patents and digital rights management may restrict users in exercising their rights. Free software may be developed collaboratively by volunteer computer programmers or by corporations, as part of a commercial, from the 1950s up until the early 1970s, it was normal for computer users to have the software freedoms associated with free software, which was typically public domain software. Software was commonly shared by individuals who used computers and by manufacturers who welcomed the fact that people were making software that made their hardware useful. Organizations of users and suppliers, for example, SHARE, were formed to exchange of software. As software was written in an interpreted language such as BASIC. Software was also shared and distributed as printed source code in computer magazines and books, in United States vs. IBM, filed January 17,1969, the government charged that bundled software was anti-competitive. While some software might always be free, there would henceforth be an amount of software produced primarily for sale. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the industry began using technical measures to prevent computer users from being able to study or adapt the software as they saw fit. In 1980, copyright law was extended to computer programs, Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1984, and the Free Software Foundation was founded in October 1985
6.
Copyleft
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Copyleft software licenses are considered protective or reciprocal, as contrasted with permissive free software licenses. Copyleft is a form of licensing, and can be used to maintain copyright conditions for works ranging from software, to documents. In general, copyright law is used by an author to prohibit recipients from reproducing, adapting, Copyleft licenses for software require that information necessary for reproducing and modifying the work must be made available to recipients of the binaries. The source code files will usually contain a copy of the license terms, Copyleft type licenses are a novel use of existing copyright law to ensure a work remains freely available. The GNU General Public License, originally written by Richard Stallman, was the first software license to see extensive use. Creative Commons, an organization founded by Lawrence Lessig, provides a similar license provision condition called share-alike. Copyleft is a licensing scheme in which an author surrenders some. Under copyleft, derived works may be produced provided they are released under the compatible copyleft scheme, the underlying principle is that one benefits freely from the work of others, but any modifications one makes public must be released under similar terms. For this reason some copyleft licenses are also known as reciprocal licenses, under fair use, however, the copyleft license may be superseded, just like regular copyrights. Therefore, any person utilizing a copyleft-licensed source for their own work is free to any other license provided they meet the fair use standard. According to Free Software Foundation compliance engineer David Turner, the term viral license creates a misunderstanding and a fear of using copylefted free software. If the firm actually copied code from a GPLd program, such a suit would be a perfectly ordinary assertion of copyright, which most private firms would defend if the shoe were on the other foot. Richard Stallman has described this view with an analogy, saying, The GPLs domain does not spread by proximity or contact and it spreads like a spider plant, not like a virus. In particular, permissive free licenses such as BSD allow re-distributors to remove some or all these rights. Reuses of open source software which subvert the freedom of the software by adding extra restrictions are called open source hijacking, other forms of open source licensing are susceptible to hijacking, so creators who desire that their work remain free may choose to use copyleft. The Open Directory Project, which is created and maintained entirely by volunteer editors, since all of the top search engines use DMOZ, it is an extremely important public commodity which is entirely built by volunteer contributions. Despite this, the DMOZ has remained a product for its entire existence. The economic incentives to work on copyleft content can vary, traditional copyright law is designed to promote progress by providing economic benefits to creators
7.
ProCD v. Zeidenberg
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ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg,86 F. 3d 1447, is a United States contract case involving a shrink wrap license. One issue presented to the court was whether a shrink wrap license was valid, judge Easterbrook wrote the opinion for the court and found such a license was valid and enforceable. The Seventh Circuits decision overturned a lower court decision, the case involved a graduate student, Matthew Zeidenberg, who purchased a telephone directory database, SelectPhone, on CD-ROM produced by ProCD. ProCD had compiled the information from over 3,000 telephone directories, to recoup its costs, ProCD discriminated based on price by charging commercial users a higher price than it did to everyday, non-commercial users. At the time of purchase, Zeidenberg may not have been aware of any prohibited use, however, the license was contained, in full, on the CD. The court first held that law did not preempt contract law. Under the 1991 Supreme Court case Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service, in this case, the court assumes that a database of a telephone directory was equally not protectable. However, the court held that a contract could confer among the parties similar rights since those rights are not equivalent to any of the rights within the general scope of copyright. The court then held the license valid and enforceable as a contract, the court relied primarily on the Uniform Commercial Code sections 2-204 and 2-206. There was little doubt that ProCD, in fact, offered use of the software as described by UCC section 2-606, the court examined more closely the question of acceptance. The court held that Zeidenberg did accept the offer by clicking through, the court noted that he had no choice, because the software splashed the license on the screen and would not let him proceed without indicating acceptance. The court stated that Zeidenberg could have rejected the terms of the contract, the court, in addition, noted the ability and the opportunity to return goods can be important under the Uniform Commercial Code. Boilerplate contract Text of ProCD v. Zeidenberg Lower Court Decision Legal Discussion of the legacy of ProCD v. Zeidenberg, published in February 2004 by Jones Day Matthew Zeidenbergs Home Page
8.
Specht v. Netscape Communications Corp.
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Specht v. Netscape,306 F. 3d 17, is a case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit regarding the enforceability of browse-wrap software licenses. Netscape moved to compel arbitration and to court proceedings, arguing that the plaintiffs agreed to arbitration in the End User License Agreement. This means that any disputes, such as an invasion of privacy, the plaintiffs allegedly accepted this EULA when they downloaded the plug-in. The U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Netscapes motion, the plaintiffs allege that SmartDownload transmitted to Netscape the URL of the file being downloaded along with a HTTP cookie and a key that would identify the user of the computer. This is not to be confused with accepting the agreement for SmartDownload. When downloading SmartDownload, there was no click-wrap presentation, after downloading the software, there was no further information about the plug-in or the existence of license terms. The reference to license terms was only if the plaintiffs scrolled down beyond the Download button. The SmartDownload license contained a provision requiring disputes related to the agreement to be submitted to arbitration, plaintiff Christopher Specht never downloaded or used SmartDownload. He operated a website that provided files for download and he alleged that the defendants intercepted information every time users downloaded files from him using SmartDownload. The defendants alleged that Specht received a benefit under the SmartDownload license agreement—enough such that he should have to arbitrate his claims pursuant to the license terms. Specht claims that he never received any commission for providing files for download, claims related to SmartDownload are not covered by the license agreement for Netscape Communicator, despite the fact that SmartDownload is meant to enhance the functioning of Communicator. This means that when the plaintiffs clicked through Communicators license agreement, the parties settled the case in a fortuitous manner for Netscape, which was required to stop collecting data and to delete existing data. However, the settlement explicitly denies any violation by Netscape, because of this, the plaintiffs were unable to collect damages under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Minnesota Law Review, Vol.91,2006, aOL/Netscape hit with privacy lawsuit, ZDNet, October 13,2000. Lawsuit Accuses Netscape of Eavesdropping, July 7,2000
9.
Software patent
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According to the European Patent Office, there is no legal or conclusive definition for a software patent. According to the FFII, software patents should not exist under European law, globally the situation is more complex and reflects varying cultural views of invention itself. Most countries place some limits on the patenting of inventions involving software, for example, U. S. patent law excludes abstract ideas, and this has been used to refuse some patents involving software. There is a debate over the extent to which software patents should be granted, a patent is a set of exclusionary rights granted by a state to a patent holder for a limited period of time, usually 20 years. These rights are granted to patent applicants in exchange for their disclosure of the inventions, once a patent is granted in a given country, no person may make, use, sell or import/export the claimed invention in that country without the permission of the patent holder. Permission, where granted, is typically in the form of a license which conditions are set by the patent owner, to obtain a patent, inventors must file patent applications in each and every country in which they want a patent. For example, separate applications must be filed in Japan, China and these different countries and regional offices have different standards for granting patents. This is particularly true of software or computer-implemented inventions, especially where the software is implementing a business method, on 21 May 1962, a British patent application entitled A Computer Arranged for the Automatic Solution of Linear Programming Problems was filed. The invention was concerned with efficient memory management for the simplex algorithm, the patent was granted on August 17,1966 and seems to be one of the first software patents. Substantive law regarding the patentability of software and computer-implemented inventions, in Canada, courts have held that the use of a computer alone neither lends, nor reduces patentability of an invention. However, it is the position of the Canadian Patent Office that where a computer is an element of a patents claims. Article 52 EPC excludes programs for computers from patentability to the extent that a patent application relates to a program as such. Computer-implemented inventions that only solve a problem using a computer, rather than a technical problem, are considered unpatentable as lacking an inventive step. Nevertheless, the fact that an invention is useful in business does not mean it is not patentable if it solves a technical problem. Concerns have been raised that the new Unified Patent Court will be more open to patents generally. In April 2013, the German Parliament adopted a joint motion against the trend of patent offices to grant patents on software programs. Current case law in the UK states that an invention will only be regarded as an if it provides a contribution that is not excluded. A computer program implementing a process is therefore not an invention
10.
Bowers v. Baystate Technologies
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This case is notable for establishing that license agreements can preempt fair use rights as well as expand the rights of copyright holders beyond those codified in US federal law. Baystate Technologies, Inc and HLB Technology were competing companies which created add-ons that interacted with a computer aided design program known as CADKEY, Bowers was the patent holder of a system called Cadjet that simplified interfacing with CAD software, which he began to license commercially in 1989. Bowers initial software offering was later combined with a product called Geodraft that was produced by George W. Ford III that inserted tolerances compliant with ANSI for features in a CAD design, together, these products were marketed as Designers Toolkit. The Designers Toolkit was sold with a shrink wrap license that prohibited reverse engineering, Baystate sold competing CADKEY tools including Draft-Pak version 1 and 2. In 1991, Baystate sued Bowers seeking declaratory judgement that 1) Baystates products do not infringe on Bowers patent 2) the patent is invalid, Bowers filed counter claims for copyright infringement, patent infringement, and breach of contract, contending that Baystate had reverse engineered Designers Toolkit. Baystate appealed the courts decision. Specifically, the court stated that beyond mere copying, that state law claim required proof of a trade secret. These additional terms result in a requirement that is not covered by copyright law. As contracts affect only the parties, no new exclusive rights are created for the copyright holder. Although Atari v. Nintendo established reverse engineering was a fair use exception to copyright infringement, in the federal courts own interpretation, while Vault v. Quaid found that state law was preempted by copyright law, this does not apply to private contractual agreement. A dissenting opinion was entered by Judge Dyk agreeing with all decisions except the decision that a law does not preempt a state contract. Dyk formed his argument using patent and copyright law cases, Cases establishing the rights of patent law were viewed as applicable toward copyright law, bonito Boats v. Thunder Craft Boats defined that state law does not preempt patent rights. Data General v. Grumman and ProCD v. Zeidenberg both focused on “extra elements” added by state law which were not covered by copyright law. Atari v. Nintendo demonstrates the importance of the fair use defense in copyright law ensuring that copyright law did not inhibit understanding of an idea, process, Vault v. Quaid established that state law could not be used to preempt copyright law. Dyk created an analogy of a law where software disallowing reverse engineering must have a black dot on the packaging. This analogy demonstrated a law that would give broader protections than normally given in law which impedes publicly given rights. By allowing preemption of copyright law, Dyk questions other limitations that could be applied to federal law and he also warned that this could undermine the protections originally given in the Copyright Act. Critics further argued this precedent is unrealistic for the software industry, Reverse engineering is not only considered necessary to keep up with feature wars, which Bowers v. Baystate is an example of, but is essential for interoperability and security purposes
11.
Uniform Commercial Code
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Also, adoption of the UCC often varies, although to different degrees, from one U. S. jurisdiction to another. Sometimes this variation is due to alternative language found in the official UCC itself, at other times, adoption of different revisions to the official UCC contributes to further variation. Additionally, some jurisdictions deviate from the official UCC by tailoring the language to meet their unique needs, lastly, even identical language adopted by any two U. S. jurisdictions may nonetheless be subject to different statutory interpretation by each jurisdictions courts. The goal of harmonizing state law is important because of the prevalence of commercial transactions that extend beyond one state, for example, goods may be manufactured in State A, warehoused in State B, sold from State C and delivered in State D. The UCC deals primarily with transactions involving personal property, not real property, other goals of the UCC were to modernize contract law and to allow for exceptions from the common law in contracts between merchants. The UCC is the longest and most elaborate of the uniform acts, the Code has been a long-term, joint project of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and the American Law Institute, who began drafting its first version in 1942. The Code, as the product of private organizations, is not itself the law, once enacted by a state, the UCC is codified into the state’s code of statutes. A state may adopt the UCC verbatim as written by ALI and NCCUSL, unless such changes are minor, they can seriously obstruct the Codes express objective of promoting uniformity of law among the various states. Thus persons doing business in different states must check local law, the ALI and NCCUSL have established a permanent editorial board for the Code. This board has issued a number of comments and other published papers. Although these commentaries do not have the force of law, courts interpreting the Code often cite them as authority in determining the effect of one or more provisions. Courts interpreting the Code generally seek to harmonize their interpretations with those of states that have adopted the same or a similar provision. S. Also, some Native American tribes have adopted portions of the UCC, including the Navajo Nation that adopted Articles 1,2,3, although the substantive content is largely similar, some states have made structural modifications to conform to local customs. Arkansas has an arrangement as the term “article” in that states law generally refers to a subdivision of the Arkansas Constitution. The 1952 Uniform Commercial Code was released ten years of development. The Uniform Commercial Code deals with the subjects under consecutively numbered Articles, In 2003, amendments to Article 2 modernizing many aspects were proposed by the NCCUSL. Because no states adopted the amendments and, due to opposition, none were likely to. As a result, the text of the UCC now corresponds to the law that most states have enacted
12.
Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd.
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Vault Corporation v Quaid Software Ltd.847 F. 2d 255 is a case heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that tested the extent of software copyright. It held that Quaids software was not a work of Vaults software. Vault Corporation created and held the copyright for a program called PROLOK, Software companies purchased PROLOK from Vault in order to protect their software from end users making unauthorized copies. PROLOK worked by having an indelible fingerprint on each PROLOK protected disk in addition to the PROLOK software, the PROLOK protected program allowed the software to function only if the fingerprint was present on the disk. Quaid Software Ltd. created a program called RAMKEY, which allowed copies of Vaults clients software to function without the original program disks, RAMKEY made PROLOK think that the necessary fingerprint was present even though it was not. Vault sought preliminary and permanent injunctions against Quaid to prevent them from advertising and selling RAMKEY and they also sought an order to impound all of Quaids copies of RAMKEY, as well as $100,000,000 in monetary damages. On remand, the court denied Vaults motion for a preliminary injunction. After agreement by both parties to submit the case for decision, the district court entered a final judgment based on its decision on the preliminary injunction. The district court held that Quaids copying of the software into RAM was permissible under 17 U. S. C, §117, which permits copies created as an essential step. Vault argued that the exemption does not apply when the program is used in a manner not intended by the copyright holder. The circuit court disagreed with this argument, writing that the statute does not contain language to suggest that the copy it permits must be employed for a use intended by the copyright owner. Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. established the substantial non-infringing use test for contributory infringement, Quaid argued that RAMKEY passes this test because it can be used to create archival copies that are exempt under 17 U. S. C. Vault argued that RAMKEY did not have any non-infringing use because one could create a sufficient archival copy without the use of RAMKEY, one version of RAMKEY contained approximately 30 characters of source code from PROLOK. Vault alleged that this constituted an infringing derivative work, the district court focused on the size of the copied code, arguing that it was not significant. Vault argued that the court should focus on the qualitative aspect of the copied code because the 30 characters were important to the correct operation of PROLOK. The circuit court rejected the argument that the copying was qualitatively significant on the basis that PROLOK, the license agreement for PROLOK depended on the Louisiana Software License Enforcement Act to give it the authority to prohibit users from decompiling or disassembling the software. Vault had included such a provision in its agreement and claimed that Quaid violated this provision when it reverse engineered PROLOK. The district court held that the Louisiana License Act was unenforceable because it was preempted by the Copyright Act
13.
ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg
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ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg,86 F. 3d 1447, is a United States contract case involving a shrink wrap license. One issue presented to the court was whether a shrink wrap license was valid, judge Easterbrook wrote the opinion for the court and found such a license was valid and enforceable. The Seventh Circuits decision overturned a lower court decision, the case involved a graduate student, Matthew Zeidenberg, who purchased a telephone directory database, SelectPhone, on CD-ROM produced by ProCD. ProCD had compiled the information from over 3,000 telephone directories, to recoup its costs, ProCD discriminated based on price by charging commercial users a higher price than it did to everyday, non-commercial users. At the time of purchase, Zeidenberg may not have been aware of any prohibited use, however, the license was contained, in full, on the CD. The court first held that law did not preempt contract law. Under the 1991 Supreme Court case Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service, in this case, the court assumes that a database of a telephone directory was equally not protectable. However, the court held that a contract could confer among the parties similar rights since those rights are not equivalent to any of the rights within the general scope of copyright. The court then held the license valid and enforceable as a contract, the court relied primarily on the Uniform Commercial Code sections 2-204 and 2-206. There was little doubt that ProCD, in fact, offered use of the software as described by UCC section 2-606, the court examined more closely the question of acceptance. The court held that Zeidenberg did accept the offer by clicking through, the court noted that he had no choice, because the software splashed the license on the screen and would not let him proceed without indicating acceptance. The court stated that Zeidenberg could have rejected the terms of the contract, the court, in addition, noted the ability and the opportunity to return goods can be important under the Uniform Commercial Code. Boilerplate contract Text of ProCD v. Zeidenberg Lower Court Decision Legal Discussion of the legacy of ProCD v. Zeidenberg, published in February 2004 by Jones Day Matthew Zeidenbergs Home Page
14.
Encryption
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In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding a message or information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it. Encryption does not of itself prevent interference, but denies the intelligible content to a would-be interceptor, in an encryption scheme, the intended information or message, referred to as plaintext, is encrypted using an encryption algorithm, generating ciphertext that can only be read if decrypted. For technical reasons, an encryption scheme usually uses an encryption key generated by an algorithm. It is in possible to decrypt the message without possessing the key. An authorized recipient can decrypt the message with the key provided by the originator to recipients. In symmetric-key schemes, the encryption and decryption keys are the same, communicating parties must have the same key before they can achieve secure communication. In public-key encryption schemes, the key is published for anyone to use. However, only the party has access to the decryption key that enables messages to be read. Public-key encryption was first described in a document in 1973. Encryption has long used by militaries and governments to facilitate secret communication. It is now used in protecting information within many kinds of civilian systems. Encryption can be used to protect data at rest, such as stored on computers. In recent years, there have been reports of confidential data, such as customers personal records. Encrypting such files at rest helps protect them should physical security measures fail, in response to encryption of data at rest, cyber-adversaries have developed new types of attacks. There have been reports of data in transit being intercepted in recent years. Data should also be encrypted when transmitted across networks in order to protect against eavesdropping of network traffic by unauthorized users, standards for cryptographic software and hardware to perform encryption are widely available, but successfully using encryption to ensure security may be a challenging problem. A single error in design or execution can allow successful attacks. Sometimes an adversary can obtain unencrypted information without directly undoing the encryption, see, e. g. traffic analysis, TEMPEST, or Trojan horse
15.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization. It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works and it also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself. In addition, the DMCA heightens the penalties for infringement on the Internet. The DMCAs principal innovation in the field of copyright is the exemption from direct and indirect liability of Internet service providers and this exemption was adopted by the European Union in the Electronic Commerce Directive 2000. The Copyright Directive 2001 implemented the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty in the EU, the treaties have two major portions. One portion includes works covered by treaties in U. S. copy prevention laws. For further analysis of this portion of the Act and of cases under it, see WIPO Copyright and Performances, the second portion is often known as the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions. The section contains a number of limitations and exemptions, for such things as government research. The section does not include a fair use exemption from criminality nor a scienter requirement, OCILLA also includes a counternotification provision that offers OSPs a safe harbor from liability to their users when users claim that the material in question is not, in fact, infringing. OCILLA also facilitates issuing of subpoenas against OSPs to provide their users identity, DMCA Title III modified section 117 of the copyright title so that those repairing computers could make certain temporary, limited copies while working on a computer. It reversed the precedent set in MAI Systems Corp. v. Peak Computer, DMCA Title IV contains an assortment of provisions, Clarified and added to the duties of the Copyright Office. Added ephemeral copy for broadcasters provisions, including certain statutory licenses, added provisions to facilitate distance education. Added provisions to assist libraries with keeping phonorecords of sound recordings, added provisions relating to collective bargaining and the transfer of movie rights. DMCA Title V added sections 1301 through 1332 to add a sui generis protection for boat hull designs, boat hull designs were not considered covered under copyright law because boats are useful articles whose form cannot be cleanly separated from their function. Exemptions are granted when it is shown that access-control technology has had an adverse effect on the ability of people to make non-infringing uses of copyrighted works. The exemption rules are revised every three years, Exemptions expire after three years and must be resubmitted for the next rulemaking cycle. Consequently, the issued in the prior rulemakings in 2000,2003,2006,2010 and 2013 are no longer valid. After much criticism, on December 29,2015, the Copyright Office initiated a study to assess the operation of section 1201 and this is different from usual public comments on exemption proposals
16.
Jerry Pournelle
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Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist, and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte. Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973, Pournelle was born in Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish in northwestern Louisiana, and educated in Capleville, Tennessee. He served in the U. S. Army during the Korean War. Afterwards, he studied at the University of Washington and received a BSc in psychology on June 11,1955, an M. S. in psychology on March 21,1958, and a PhD in political science in March 1964. The thesis for his M. S. is titled Behavioural observations of the effects of personality needs and leadership in small discussion groups, Pournelle served as campaign research director for the mayoral campaign of 1969 for Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, working under campaign director Henry Salvatori. The election took place on May 27,1969, Pournelle was later named Executive Assistant to the Mayor in charge of research in September 1969, but resigned from the position after two weeks. After leaving Yortys office, in 1970 he was a consultant to the Professional Educators of Los Angeles, Pournelle was an intellectual protégé of Russell Kirk and Stefan T. Possony. Pournelle wrote numerous publications with Possony, including The Strategy of Technology, the Strategy has been used as a textbook at the United States Military Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, the Air War College, and the National War College. Pournelles work in the industry includes time he worked at Boeing in the late-1950s. While there, he worked on Project Thor, conceiving of hypervelocity rod bundles and he edited Project 75, a 1964 study of 1975 defense requirements. He worked in research at The Aerospace Corporation, and North American Rockwell Space Division. In 1989, Pournelle, Max Hunter, and retired Army Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham made a presentation to then Vice President Dan Quayle promoting development of the DC-X rocket. During the 1970s and 1980s, he published articles on military tactics. He had previously won first prize in a late 1960s essay contest run by the magazine on how to end the Vietnam war and that led him into correspondences with some of the early figures in Dungeons and Dragons and other fantasy role-playing games. In 1985, Footfall, in which Robert A. Heinlein was a thinly veiled minor character, another bestseller, Lucifers Hammer, reached number two. Both novels were written with Larry Niven, in 1994, Pournelles friendly relationship with Newt Gingrich led to Gingrich securing a government job for Pournelles son, Richard. At the time, Pournelle and Gingrich were reported to be collaborating on a science fiction political thriller, Pournelles relationship with Gingrich was long established even then, as Pournelle had written the preface to Gingrichs book, Window of Opportunity. In 2008, Pournelle battled a brain tumor, which appeared to respond favorably to radiation treatment, an August 28,2008 report on his weblog claimed he was now cancer-free
17.
PayPal
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PayPal is one of the worlds largest Internet payment companies. The company operates as a payment processor for online vendors, auction sites and other commercial users, established in 1998, PayPal had its IPO in 2002, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay later that year. In 2014, PayPal moved $228 billion in 30 currencies across more than 190 nations, the same year, eBay announced plans to spin-off PayPal into an independent company by mid-2015 and this was completed on July 18,2015. On July 20,2015, PayPal had its second IPO, PayPal was established in December 1998 as Confinity, a company that developed security software for handheld devices founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery. PayPal was developed and launched as a transfer service at Confinity in 1999. In March 2000, Confinity merged with X. com, a banking company founded by Elon Musk. Musk was optimistic about the success of the money transfer business Confinity was developing. Musk and then-president and CEO of X. com, Bill Harris, disagreed on this point, in October of that year, Musk made the decision that X. com would terminate its other Internet banking operations and focus on the PayPal money service. The X. com company was then renamed PayPal in 2001, Paypals IPO listed under the ticker PYPL at $13 per share and ended up generating over $61 million. Shortly after PayPals IPO, the company was acquired by eBay in July 2002 for $1.5 billion, more than 70 percent of all eBay auctions accepted PayPal payments, and roughly 1 in 4 closed auction listings were transacted via PayPal. PayPal acquired the VeriSign payment solution in 2005 to expand its e-commerce business, by the end of 2007, the company generated $1.8 billion in revenue. In November 2008, the company acquired Bill Me Later, a payments company offering transactional credit at over 9000 online merchants in the US. PayPal revenues for Q12009 were $643 million, up 11 percent year over year,42 percent of revenues in Q12009 were from international markets. PayPals Total Payment Volume, the value of transactions in Q12009 was nearly $16 billion. By 2010, PayPal had over 100 million active user accounts in 190 markets through 25 different currencies, in July 2011, fourteen alleged members of the Anonymous hacktivist group were charged with attempting to disrupt PayPals operations. The denial of service attacks occurred in December 2010, after PayPal stopped processing donations to Wikileaks, on December 5,2013,13 of the PayPal 14 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges related to the attacks. The company continued to focus on growth and growth of its Merchant Services division. In 2011, PayPal announced that it would begin moving its business offline so that customers can make payments via PayPal in stores
18.
ITunes
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ITunes is a media player, media library, online radio broadcaster, and mobile device management application developed by Apple Inc. It is used to play, download, and organize digital downloads of music and video on personal computers running the macOS, the iTunes Store is also available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Application software for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch can be downloaded from the App Store. ITunes 12.5 is the most recent major version of iTunes, available for Mac OS X v10.9.5 or later and Windows 7 or later, it was released on September 13,2016. ITunes 12.2 added Apple Music to the application, along with the Beats 1 radio station, soundJam MP, developed by Bill Kincaid and released by Casady & Greene in 1998, was renamed iTunes when Apple purchased it in 2000. Jeff Robbin, Kincaid, and Dave Heller moved to Apple as part of the acquisition and they simplified SoundJams user interface, added the ability to burn CDs, and removed its recording feature and skin support. On January 9,2001, iTunes 1.0 was released at Macworld San Francisco, originally a Mac OS 9-only application, iTunes began to support Mac OS X when version 2.0 was released nine months later, which also added support for the original iPod. Version 3 dropped Mac OS9 support but added smart playlists, in April 2003, version 4.0 introduced the iTunes Store, in October, version 4.1 added support for Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Introduced at Macworld 2005 with the new iPod Shuffle, Version 4.7, Version 7.0 introduced gapless playback and Cover Flow in September 2006. In March 2007, iTunes 7.1 added support for Windows Vista, iTunes lacked support for 64-bit versions of Windows until the 7.6 update on January 16,2008. ITunes is supported under any 64-bit version of Windows Vista, although the iTunes executable is still 32-bit, the 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are not supported by Apple, but a workaround has been devised for both operating systems. Version 8.0 added Genius playlists, grid view, iTunes 9 added Homeshare, enabling automatic updating of purchased items across other computers on the same subnet and offers a new iTunes Store UI. Genius Mixes were added, as well as improved app synchronization abilities and it also adds iTunes LPs to the store, which provides additional media with an album. Apple added iTunes Extras as well to the store, which adds content usually reserved for films on DVD, both iTunes LPs and Extras use web-standards HTML, JavaScript and CSS. iTunes acts as a front end for Apples QuickTime media framework. Officially, it is required in order to manage the data of an iPod, iPhone, or iPad. In addition, users are able to add PDF files to their library, the PDFs can be synchronized with and read on several devices except the regular iPod. iTunes 8.0 saw the removal of several options in the Preferences window. For example, iTunes once gave users the option to display arrows beside the selected songs title, artist, album and these arrows are no longer removable, except through the direct editing of a preferences file. ITunes keeps track of songs by creating a library, allowing users to access
19.
April Fools' Day
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April Fools Day is celebrated every year on April 1 by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims are called April fools, people playing April Fool jokes expose their prank by shouting April Fool. Some newspapers, magazines, and other published media report fake stories, although popular since the 19th century, the day is not a public holiday in any country. Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales contains the first recorded association between April 1 and foolishness, the custom of setting aside a day for the playing of harmless pranks upon ones neighbor is recognized widely throughout the world. Some precursors of April Fools Day include the Roman festival of Hilaria, in Chaucers Canterbury Tales, the Nuns Priests Tale is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two. Modern scholars believe there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts. Thus the passage originally meant 32 days after March, i. e.2 May, the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean 32 March, i. e. April 1. In Chaucers tale, the vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox, in 1508, French poet Eloy dAmerval referred to a poisson d’avril, a possible reference to the holiday. In 1539, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1, in 1686, John Aubrey referred to the holiday as Fooles holy day, the first British reference. On April 1,1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to see the Lions washed, in the Middle Ages, New Years Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns. In some areas of France, New Years was a week-long holiday ending on April 1, some writers suggest that April Fools originated because those who celebrated on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates. The use of January 1 as New Years Day was common in France by the century. In the Netherlands, the origin of April Fools Day is often attributed to the Dutch victory at Brielle in 1572, op 1 april verloor Alva zijn bril. is a Dutch proverb, which can be translated to, On the first of April, Alva lost his glasses. In this case, the serve as a metaphor for Brielle. This theory, however, provides no explanation for the celebration of April Fools Day. Although no Biblical scholar or historian are known to have mentioned a relationship, in a 1908 edition of the Harpers Weekly cartoonist newspaper, Bertha R. McDonald wrote, authorities gravely back with it to the time of Noah, in the UK, an April Fool joke is revealed by shouting April fool. At the recipient, who becomes the April fool, a study in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, found that in the UK, and in countries whose traditions derived from the UK, the joking ceased at midday
20.
Gamestation
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In March 2012 the Game Group went into administration and a number of Gamestation stores including the companys flagship store in Birmingham New Street were closed. Game and Gamestation were purchased from the administrators by OpCapita, on 14 September 2012, it was announced that the Gamestation brand will disappear with all stores being rebranded as Game. On 18 November 2012, the Gamestation website closed and redirected to that of Game, Gamestation was founded in 1993 in York and by 2002 it had 64 stores across the UK. In 2001/02 Gamestation was sold during the sales period of PlayStation 2 to American video rental giant Blockbuster who invested heavily in an aggressive store roll out program. This, coupled with competitive pricing subsidised by the buoyant video rental market of the time, elevated the chain to second highest market share in the UK games industry, behind Game. Blockbuster Inc. announced on 2 May 2007 that it had sold Gamestation Ltd. to British-based Game Group Plc for about £75 million,217 Gamestation stores were sold in the deal. Gamestations smaller concession stores, that operated inside of some Blockbuster stores, were not involved in the Game takeover and were owned by Blockbuster exclusively. These stores were re-branded as Blockbuster Games stores and no longer operated under the Gamestation identity, the Gamestation brand was run in parallel with the parent companys Game brand. Gamestation was based at Unity House in Basingstoke from 2009 until its demise, online operations were operated through Gamestation. co. uk, originally managed by Game Groups 2004 acquisition Gameplay GB ltd. Pricing structures were similar to the groups other UK websites, as of May 2012, the websites for both Game and Gamestation are run by Game Retail Ltd. On 29 February 2012 it was announced that both Game and Gamestation would no longer stock new titles from Electronic Arts and this is due to the major games distributor refusing to give the company reduced rates and/or rebates. This affected the pre-orders of Mass Effect 3, due out the following week, as of November 2011, Gamestation had operated 232 stores throughout the UK only, and 277 stores operating under both brands were instantly closed. All the Irish Game stores were closed, on 31 March 2012, OpCapita officially made a deal to purchase the Group, taking on the 334 remaining stores and securing over 3000 jobs. Until they bought Gamestation, Game were considered to be Gamestations primary competitor, Gamestations main method of attracting customers was to put on more special offers than its competitor as well as focusing on pre-owned games and large discounts on older titles. The chain mainly focused on the sixth & seventh generation of consoles, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, as well as the PC, Game accessories for the older consoles were also available. Gamestation advertised their Christmas promotions with Fat Chris which is a parody of Father Christmas and he was used for Christmas 2006 and 2007, and also reappeared in the 2008 Christmas advertising campaign. In 2010 Gamestation relaunched its Christmas campaign with a similar theme, a campaign used to again encourage customers to come and talk to the staff in an attempt to be more personal. This promotion starred the Faces of Gamestation, four staff members from the Gamestation brand were chosen and used in both standard advertising and Christmas themed displays
21.
Deal with the Devil
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A deal with the devil, compact or pact with the devil is a cultural motif, best exemplified by the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, but elemental to many Christian folktales. According to traditional Christian belief about witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or a lesser demon, the person offers his or her soul in exchange for diabolical favours. Those favours vary by the tale, but tend to include youth, knowledge, wealth, fame and it was also believed that some persons made this type of pact just as a sign of recognizing the devil as their master, in exchange for nothing. Nevertheless, the bargain is considered a one, as the price of the Fiends service is the wagerers soul. The tale may have an end, with eternal damnation for the foolhardy venturer. Conversely, it may have a comic twist, in which a wily peasant outwits the devil, the person making the pact sometimes tries to outwit the devil, but loses in the end. The Bargain with the devil motif number M210 and Man sells soul to devil motif number M211 in Stith Thompsons Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. The pact can be oral or written, the mark could be used as a proof to determine that the pact was made. It was also believed that on the spot where the mark was left, a written pact consists in the same forms of attracting the demon, but includes a written act, usually signed with the conjurers blood. Forms of these include contracts or simply signing your name into Satans Red Book, usually the acts included strange characters that were said to be the signature of a demon, and each one had his own signature or seal. Books like The Lesser Key of Solomon give a detailed list of these signs, the Malleus Maleficarum discusses several alleged instances of pacts with the Devil, especially concerning women. It was considered that all witches and warlocks had made a pact with some demon, especially with Satan. According to demonology, there is a month, day of the week. Also, as each demon has a function, a certain demon is invoked depending on what the conjurer is going to ask. In the narrative of the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus is offered a series of bargains by the devil, in which he is promised worldly riches, after Jesus rejects the devils offers, he embarks on his travels as the Messiah. His story appears in a Greek version of the sixth written by a Eutychianus who claims to have been a member of the household in question. As in her model, Theophilus receives back his contract from the devil, displays it to the congregation, notable supposed deals with the devil were struck between the 15th and 18th centuries. The motif lives on among musicians until the 20th century, johann Georg Faust, whose life was the origin of the Faust legend
22.
South Park
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South Park is an American adult animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for the television network, Comedy Central. The show revolves around four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, Parker and Stone developed the show from The Spirit of Christmas, two consecutive animated shorts created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, ultimately leading to South Parks production and it debuted in August 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Comedy Centrals highest rated shows, the pilot episode was produced using cutout animation, leading to all subsequent episodes produced with computer animation that emulated the technique ever since. Parker and Stone perform most of the acting for the shows male characters. Since 2000, each episode is written and produced during the week preceding its broadcast, with Parker serving as the primary writer. There have been a total of 277 episodes over the course of the shows 20 seasons, South Park has received numerous accolades, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and numerous inclusions in various publications lists of greatest television shows. In 2013, TV Guide ranked South Park the tenth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time, the show follows the exploits of four boys, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick. The boys live in the small town of South Park. Stan is portrayed as the everyman of the group, as the website describes him as an average. Kyle is the lone Jew among the group, and his portrayal in this role is often dealt satirically, Stan is modeled after Parker, while Kyle is modeled after Stone. They are best friends, and their friendship, symbolically intended to reflect Parker, Eric Cartman is loud, obnoxious, and amoral, often portrayed as an antagonist. His anti-Semitic attitude has resulted in a rivalry with Kyle. Kenny, who comes from a family, wears his parka hood so tightly that it covers most of his face. During the shows first five seasons, Kenny would die in every episode before returning in the next with little-to-none. He was written out of the sixth season in 2002. Since then, Kennys death has been used by the shows creators. During the shows first 58 episodes, the boys were in the third grade, in the season four episode 4th Grade, they entered the fourth grade, but have remained ever since
23.
HumancentiPad
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HumancentiPad, stylized as HUMANCENTiPAD, is the first episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 210th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 27,2011, in the episode, Kyle is kidnapped after agreeing to an iTunes user agreement, and forced to become part of a revolutionary new product that is about to be launched by Apple. Meanwhile, Cartman, who has not acquired an Apple iPad, pesters his mother on the issue, the episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker, and was rated TV-MA L in the United States. The episodes title, and main plot, refers to the 2010 film The Human Centipede and this episode parodies reports about tracking software built into Apples iPads and iPhones, and also the tediously long end-user license agreements. The making of the episode was the subject of the TV special,6 Days to Air, after Cartman mocks the other students for not having an iPad, it is revealed that he himself does not have one, much to his humiliation. Kyle attempts to flee these men, and is incredulous when his friends inform him that they all read the entire Terms. Kyle seeks refuge at his fathers law office, but the Apple agents kidnap him, as a result of his outburst, she declines to buy him anything and takes him home. Kyle is thrown into a cell with a Japanese man and a woman who also failed to read the Terms. The Japanese man is in front, with an attached to his forehead, Kyle is in the middle. However, Jobs is disappointed when Kyle continues to sign agreements that are put in front of him reading them first. Back in South Park, Gerald goes with Stan, Kenny, meanwhile, Cartman appears on Dr. Phil to publicly accuse Liane of fucking him. The audience takes his side despite Lianes protests, as a consolation gift, Cartman is elated to have a device that not only supports web browsing and email, but allows him to have someone defecate into Kyles mouth. Shortly afterwards, Gerald and the Apple employees arrive to tell Jobs that Kyle must be released, since his agreement to the iTunes terms and conditions is no longer valid. Jobs allows Kyle and the two others to be away to be separated, and Cartman, enraged at having his dream taken away so quickly, shouts at God. He is then struck by a bolt of lightning, the episode ends with a shot of Cartman battered and bruised in a hospital bed, sobbing, while his mother flips through a book indifferently. In its original American broadcast on April 27,2011, HUMANCENTiPAD was watched by 3.108 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Reviewing the episode for EW, Ken Tucker called the episode funny and summed up its message as nowledge really matters, many people are lazy. Ramsey Iser of IGN rated the episode 7.5 out of 10 and he said the episode was a decent opening for the season, but criticized it for overuse of Cartmans accusations against his mother, generic jokes about Apples Geniuses, and poop jokes
24.
Kyle Broflovski
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Kyle Broflovski is a main character in the Comedy Central series South Park. He is voiced by and loosely based on co-creator Matt Stone, Kyle is one of the shows four central characters, along with his friends Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman. Kyle is a third- then fourth-grade student who commonly has extraordinary experiences not typical of conventional life in his fictional hometown of South Park. Kyle is distinctive as one of the few Jewish children on the show and his portrayal in this role is often dealt with satirically, and has elicited both praise and criticism from Jewish viewers. Kyle is animated by computer in a way to emulate the original method of cutout animation. He also appears in the 1999 full-length feature film South Park, Bigger, Longer & Uncut, as well as South Park-related media, Kyle attends South Park Elementary as part of Mr. Garrisons class. During the shows first 58 episodes, Kyle and the students were in the third grade following which they have been in the fourth grade. He lives in South Park with his father Gerald, a lawyer, and his overprotective mother Sheila, Kyle has a younger brother named Ike, who Kyle learns was adopted and originally from Canada in the episode Ikes Wee Wee. Gerald often attempts to teach Kyle important morals, although his mothers outspoken, manipulative nature usually overwhelms Kyle, he tends to show that he truly loves her, and takes offense to any insult Cartman may offer about her. Although he engages in the act of punting Ike like a football. Kyle is modeled after Stone, while Stan is modeled after Parker, Kyle and Stan are best friends, and their relationship, which is supposed to reflect the real-life friendship between Parker and Stone, is a common topic throughout the series. The two do have their disagreements, but always reconcile without any damage to their friendship. The shows official website defines Kyles role amongst his friends as the smart one and he often provides a sober thought to plans or ideas made by the other boys, and explains a moral outlook while drawing upon his vast knowledge and intelligence. He tends to offer reasonable or scientific explanations both to situations most others view as supernatural in nature, and in opposition of propaganda dispensed by Cartman. Several episodes focus on Kyle and his religion, and being the lone Jew has resulted in an enmity with the Antisemitic Cartman that has significantly more pronounced as the series progresses. Parker and Stone have compared the relationship to the one shared by Archie Bunker, Kyle makes cracks at Cartmans weight and is horrified and disgusted with Cartmans immorality, cruelty, bigotry, and greed. Their rivalry often elevates to the point where Kyle becomes so obsessed with beating Cartman at whatever he does, he sometimes neglects Stan and Kenny in the process. He has a tendency to make what he thinks are safe bets with Cartman, Kyle normally has the angrier reaction of yelling, You bastards
25.
Apple Inc.
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Apple is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Apples consumer software includes the macOS and iOS operating systems, the media player, the Safari web browser. Its online services include the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store and Mac App Store, Apple Music, Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in April 1976 to develop and sell personal computers. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. in January 1977, Apple joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average in March 2015. In November 2014, Apple became the first U. S. company to be valued at over US$700 billion in addition to being the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization. The company employs 115,000 full-time employees as of July 2015 and it operates the online Apple Store and iTunes Store, the latter of which is the worlds largest music retailer. Consumers use more than one billion Apple products worldwide as of March 2016, Apples worldwide annual revenue totaled $233 billion for the fiscal year ending in September 2015. This revenue accounts for approximately 1. 25% of the total United States GDP.1 billion, the corporation receives significant criticism regarding the labor practices of its contractors and its environmental and business practices, including the origins of source materials. Apple was founded on April 1,1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, the Apple I kits were computers single-handedly designed and hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard, which was less than what is now considered a personal computer. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66, Apple was incorporated January 3,1977, without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. Multimillionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation of Apple, during the first five years of operations revenues grew exponentially, doubling about every four months. Between September 1977 and September 1980 yearly sales grew from $775,000 to $118m, the Apple II, also invented by Wozniak, was introduced on April 16,1977, at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It differed from its rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, because of its character cell-based color graphics. While early Apple II models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface called the Disk II. The Apple II was chosen to be the platform for the first killer app of the business world, VisiCalc. VisiCalc created a market for the Apple II and gave home users an additional reason to buy an Apple II. Before VisiCalc, Apple had been a distant third place competitor to Commodore, by the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line
