GigaOM:

“In an unusual decision, an appeals court in Washington ruled on Friday that Oracle can copyright application programming interfaces (APIs) for the Java programming language. The ruling is a defeat for Google, which uses the APIs for its Android software, but also has implications for the technology industry as a whole, where APIs — which let computer programs speak to each other — are considered to be a basic building tool and outside the scope of copyright.

In a unanimous three-judge ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a district judge in California erred in 2012 by declaring that the APIs were simply a function or an idea, and not an expression subject to copyright protection.”

Read the rest of the article at
http://gigaom.com/2014/05/09/tech-world-stunned-as-court-rules-oracle-can-own-apis-google-loses-copyright-appeal/

bit.ly,  a popular link shortening service has reported that their account credentials may have been compromised.  If you use bit.ly, read the blog post for more details.

bitly blog — Urgent Security Update Regarding Your Bitly Account.

Vic Gundotra, the father of Google+, today announced that he is leaving Google after eight years with the company. It’s unclear where he is going next or who will take over his position at Google. In his announcement, Gundotra says he is “looking forward to the journey yet to come.”

via Vic Gundotra, The Father Of Google+, Is Leaving Google After 8 Years | TechCrunch.

The Trinidad and Tobago Cybercrime Bill 2014 was introduced in the House of Representatives in March 2014 to provide for the creation of offences related to cybercrime and for other related matters in Trinidad and Tobago including

• child pornography
• using a computer system to set up a meeting with a child for the purpose of abusing the child.
• the offence of violating a person’s  privacy by capturing and sharing pictures or videos of a person’s private area without his consent.
• the offence of harassment through the use of electronic means with the intent to cause emotional distress.
• criminalising the act of sending multiple electronic mail messages that are unsolicited and which causes harm to a person or damage to a computer.

The Bill can be viewed at http://www.ttparliament.org/legislations/b2014h05g.pdf 

The NETmundial conference,  a global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance began in São Paulo, Brazil on April 23 2014, with President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, signing of the Marco Civil da Internet or Brazilian Internet Bill of Rights.

The conference is being attended by over 1200 participants from 97 countries including representatives from Government, civil society, private sector, academia, and technical community with many other participating remotely.

Day 2 continues on April 24 2014 and you can attend and participate remotely via

• Adobe Connect
• Live Scribing (live transcript)
• YouTube 

Other relevant links:

• http://netmundial.br/ – main site with links to agenda, and proposed outcome documents
• Transcripts of April 23 2014 session
• Watch out for the wording: a NETmundial vocabulary – great post of the language being said by participants and what they mean  by DiploFoundation’s Vladimir Radunovic.
• Search Tweets about NETmundial #netmundial2014

Microsoft Trinidad and Tobago is hosting a workshop titled “A deeper understanding of Data Sovereignty and demystifying Data Protection.”  on April 29th, 2014 from 1 to 3pm at their Microsoft Office at #61 Mucurapo Road, St. James, Trinidad.

Workshop Outline:

• Data Protection Issues and regulations (Financial Sector, Governments,  EU model clauses)
• Government access to data. Patriot Act, Law Enforcement requests; Data Sovereignty. Common myths
• Security, Compliance and Privacy with Microsoft.
• Examples of success cases.

To register please email: [email protected] or [email protected]