Oracle seeks new trial against SAP over downloads

San Francisco: Oracle Corp will head to a retrial against SAP AG over copyright infringement allegations after a US judge slashed a previous monetary award against SAP by over $1 billion.

 In a court filing on Monday, Oracle said it would reject a reduced $272 million damages award. A spokesman for SAP could not immediately be reached for comment. 

A Northern California jury had determined in 2010 that Oracle should be paid $1.3 billion over accusations SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow wrongfully downloaded millions of Oracle files. 

However, US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton last year found that Oracle had proven actual damages of only $272 million. Hamilton said Oracle could accept a $272 million award or opt for a new trial against SAP. 

In the filing on Monday, Oracle said it had "no choice" but to seek a new trial, so it could vindicate the jury's verdict. 

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Google celebrates Dickens’ 200th b’day with doodle - indian-enews

London: Charles Dickens’s 200th birthday, which falls on February 7, has been commemorated with a Google doodle.

The Dickens Google doodle went up first in New Zealand and features characters from his novels including Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Pip. 

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be leading celebrations in the United Kingdom and Prince Charles will lay a wreath on Dickens’ grave at Westminster Abbey, where he was buried in 1870, the Telegraph reported. 

Ralph Fiennes, who will next be seen as Magwitch in a new film adaptation of ‘Great Expectations’, will read an extract from ‘Bleak House’ with readings also being given by Mark Dickens, great great grandson of the legendary author. 

Other recent Google doodles have been in tribute to Charles Addams, Mark Twain and Louis Daguerre. 

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Samsung under EU scanner over patents

BRUSSELS: The European Commission opened an investigation into whether Samsung Electronics has distorted competition in the European mobile device market, breaking EU antitrust rules, the EU executive arm said in a statement.

The Commission said that last year Samsung sought injunctions in various EU countries against competitors making mobile devices saying they infringed some of its patent rights, which it has declared essential to implement European mobile telephony standards.

Yet in 1998, when third generation mobile telephony allowing fast mobile internet browsing was being launched in Europe, Samsung promised to licence its patents essential for the implementation of the new mobile telephony standard to others on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, the Commission said.

"The Commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so (seeking injunctions on patent infringements in 2011) Samsung has failed to honour its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms," the statement said.

"The Commission will examine whether such behaviour amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU."

Samsung's main competitors in the mobile device market are Apple of the United States, Finland's Nokia and Canada's Blackberry maker Research in Motion, as well as other makers of phones using Google's Android software.

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Jaipur Literature Festival:Speculation continued over the visit of controversial writer Salman Rushdie

Jaipur: Speculation continued over the visit of controversial writer Salman Rushdie at the Jaipur Literature Festival, with representatives of some Muslim organisations today meeting the organisers and asking them to cancel his appearance at the event.

Sources said that in a meeting suggested by the Rajasthan government, Muslim organisations made it clear that the invitation to the author by the organisers should be withdrawn.

However, organisers said it is up to Rushdie to decide whether he will attend the Jan 20-24 event.

"We will chalk out our strategy of protest tomorrow on Friday," a representative of the minority community delegation told media.

A mystery literary session on the Jan 24 roster of the Jaipur Literature Festival called "Midnight's Child", without naming the participants, kept fuelling the speculation whether Rushdie would descend on the pink city.

"Our stand on Salman Rushdie continues to be the same. He will not attend the festival for the first two days...beyond which we are not sure of his schedule," Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Production, the organisers of the Jaipur festival, told the press here.

Roy said the festival has not rescinded the invitation to the author of "The Satanic Verses". Roy and his teammates, writer Namita Gokhale and Nand Bhardwaj, met representatives of several minority organisations and heard their views.

"We also presented our views," Roy said, adding that the festival was a platform for freedom of expression - "to say, write and paint". He refused to elaborate on the arguments put forth by the Muslim groups.

Roy clarified that "the festival has not received any request from the government to stop Salman Rushdie from coming to India".

"The festival has 208 authors and 150 performers... Salman Rushdie is a non-story that has been made into a story," Roy said.

The festival has a glittering line-up of writers and celebrities like television host Oprah Winfrey and writers Michael Ondaatje, Ben Okri and playwright Tom Stoppard.

However, fans refused to give up hope on Rushdie's visit. "There is a session listed on the last day of the festival, Midnights's Child, which gives no name. Who knows... he might come to the delight of his admirers here," Raj Gupta, a Jaipur-based student of English, told media.

Rushdie's proposed visit to the festival came under cloud after several Islamic groups demanded that he should not be allowed to come to India for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the community in his book "The Satanic Verses" - published in 1988.

The book was banned in 1989 and a fatwa was issued against the author by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.

The clamour to stop his visit forced a rescheduling of Rushdie's visit and his arrival to Jaipur Jan 20 was postponed. Rushdie's name was also taken off the festival schedule.

Abul Qasim Nomani, vice chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, the country's most influential Islamic seminary, said not allowing Rushdie in India was a "welcome" step.

"He should apologise to the entire Muslim ummah (society) for his blasphemous remarks against Islam and the Prophet. Only then we can allow him to travel to India," Nomani had told IANS from Deoband.

The media today quoted intelligence bureau as saying, "Salman Rushdie could be a victim of a homegrown terror attack in case he decides to take part in the Jaipur Literary Festival".

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Rajnikanth website really runs without internet This is not joke | Rajnikanth News - indian-enews

KOLKATA: It may sound like another Rajinikanth joke, but a new website dedicated to the superstar runs 'without an internet connection'!

Visitors to www.allaboutrajni.com are greeted with a warning that "He is no ordinary man, this is no ordinary website. It runs on Rajini Power" and are advised to switch off their internet connection to enter the website.
http://www.desimartini.com/allaboutrajni.htm
Only when the web is disconnected, one is allowed to explore the site.

Netizens can trace the story of the legend from the beginning, read inside scoops from his films and get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes action, while browsing through famous Rajini jokes about impossible feats only he can achieve.

"The unbelievable spectacle of running a website without the internet is a tribute to Rajinikant's larger than life image," claimed Webchutney's creative director Gurbaksh Singh, who developed the site for Desimartini.com.

With a heady mix of foot-tapping music, vibrant splash of colours, quirky quotes and illustrations, and icons in true Rajni style and lingo, the unique website reflects Rajini's signature style.

Singh told PTI that the website is based on a complex algorithm running in the back-end that keeps an eye on the propagation of data packets between two terminals.

Magic kicks in soon as the internet speed is down to zero, which is the basic premise on which the site and the concept has been constructed.

The humour element on the website is accentuated by the error message in typical Rajini style that appears if a visitor attempts to re-connect the internet.

"Aiyyo! That was unexpected. To keep browsing, switch off your internet," reads the message.

"The website has received a phenomenal response and has gone viral with several thousand hits and counting, along with innumerable shares and mentions across the web, especially on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter," Singh said.

"After a few iterations and testing, we cracked the code required to build the world's first website that runs without the internet - a website that runs offline - which is as awesome and unbelievable as miracles and stunts associated or performed by Rajni himself," he said.

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