“People with sick or dying family members should never have to go through this.”
Source: A Comcast billing nightmare affects woman caring for her sick father | Ars Technica UK
Tag: USA
Republican Lawmakers Buy Health Insurance Stocks as Repeal Effort Moves Forward
Just as the House Republican bill to slash much of the Affordable Care Act moved forward, some lawmakers started trading health care stocks.
Source: Republican Lawmakers Buy Health Insurance Stocks as Repeal Effort Moves Forward
It Gets Worse: Ivanka Trump Takes Her Father’s Seat in Meeting of World Leaders
By seating his daughter Ivanka alongside 19 world leaders, Donald Trump made it even more clear that he sees her as his de facto vice president.
Source: It Gets Worse: Ivanka Trump Takes Her Father’s Seat in Meeting of World Leaders
Why Is US Government Giving A Pharma Giant Exclusive Rights To A Zika Vaccine Whose Development Was Paid For By The US Public? | Techdirt
A vaccine that shows great promise against the devastating Zika virus, which can cause microcephaly, blindness, deafness, and calcification of the brain in children whose mothers were infected during their pregnancy. If effective, such a vaccine could be a tremendous boon not just for developing countries, but for Western ones too, since the Zika virus has already begun to spread in the US, and Europe. The vaccine was developed at the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research, and the Department of the Army funded its development. Great news, you might think: the US public paid for it, so it’s only right that it should have low-cost access to it. Moreover, as an act of compassion — and to burnish its international image — the US could allow other countries to produce it cheaply too. But an article in The Nation reports that the US Army has other ideas:
the Army is planning to grant exclusive rights to this potentially groundbreaking medicine — along with as much as $173 million in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services — to the French pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi Pasteur. Sanofi manufactures a number of vaccines, but it’s also faced repeated allegations of overcharges and fraud. Should the vaccine prove effective, Sanofi would be free to charge whatever it wants for it in the United States. Ultimately, the vaccine could end up being unaffordable for those most vulnerable to Zika, and for cash-strapped states.
Stupid Patent of the Month: Using A Computer To Count Calories | Electronic Frontier Foundation
This month’s stupid patent, like many stupid patents before it, simply claims the idea of using a computer for basic calculations. U.S. Patent No. 6,817,863 (the ’863 patent) is titled “Computer program, method, and system for monitoring nutrition content of consumables and for facilitating menu planning.” It claims the process of using a computer to track nutrition information like calorie or vitamin intake. It is difficult to think of a more basic and trivial use for a computer.The ’863 patent is owned by a patent troll called Dynamic Nutrition Information, LLC. Dynamic Nutrition filed a lawsuit this month in the Eastern District of Texas accusing Australian company Fatsecret of infringing the ’863 patent. Dynamic Nutrition had filed four other lawsuits. Consistent with a pattern of nuisance litigation, each of those earlier suits settled very quickly.
Source: Stupid Patent of the Month: Using A Computer To Count Calories | Electronic Frontier Foundation
US Embassy Threatens to Close Domain Registry Over ‘Pirate Bay’ Domain – TorrentFreak
The US Embassy in Costa Rica has threatened to have the country’s domain registry shut down unless it suspends ThePirateBay.cr. The registry says it won’t comply without a court order and has written to the ICANN organization to complain about harassment and personal insults.
Source: US Embassy Threatens to Close Domain Registry Over ‘Pirate Bay’ Domain – TorrentFreak
Court: State Not Justified In Seizing Grandmother’s House After Her Son Sold $140 Of Marijuana | Techdirt
Pennsylvania has some of the worst civil asset forfeiture laws in the country. At the top of list of perverse incentives? 100% of proceeds go to the agency that seized the property. As a result, all sorts of abusive forfeitures occur. In one case, law enforcement seized a couple’s house because of a single $40 drug sale by their son.
Mylan chairman: Drug pricing critics ought to go copulate with themselves | Ars Technica UK
Mr. Coury replied that he was untroubled. He raised both his middle fingers and explained, using colorful language, that anyone criticizing Mylan, including its employees, ought to go copulate with themselves. Critics in Congress and on Wall Street, he said, should do the same. And regulators at the Food and Drug Administration? They, too, deserved a round of anatomically challenging self-fulfillment.
Source: Mylan chairman: Drug pricing critics ought to go copulate with themselves | Ars Technica UK
Stupid Patent of the Month: Ford Patents a Windshield | Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Impression
Source: Stupid Patent of the Month: Ford Patents a Windshield | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Cloudflare goes berserk on next-gen patent troll, vows to utterly destroy it using prior-art bounties • The Register
Web giant wants to invalidate Blackbird Tech’s designs, get them thrown out of profession
