A Polish reader pointed this out to me, if only to offset my earlier posting: Poles push patents off EU agenda

The European Union has again failed to ratify the software patent directive, after a crucial last-minute intervention from Poland.

An EU Council representative confirmed that the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive will not be adopted Tuesday, as had been planned.

According to sources close to the situation, Wlodzimierz Marcinski, Poland’s undersecretary of science and information technology, spoke out at the EU Council meeting and asked that the directive be removed from the agenda.

No one objected to Poland’s request, and the chairman removed the item from the agenda.

GrokLaw’s posting: Poland Comes Through! - Software Patents Off the Agenda This Year; The Register: Poland halts software patent directive

A different construction of online liability: Bail for India auction portal CEO

An Indian court has granted bail to the chief of an auction website who is in jail in connection with the sale of a school sex video clip.

Avinash Bajaj, country manager of Baazee.com which is owned by the US-based eBay Inc, has however been ordered not to leave the country.

The video clip showing a sexual act between a teenage boy and girl from a leading Delhi school has shocked India.

[...] American citizen and the US State Department said the situation was one of concern “at the highest levels of the US government”.

[...] Police arrested Mr Bajaj on Friday under India’s information technology law, which prohibits the use of the internet to distribute obscene or pornographic material.

Earlier: Schoolboy quizzed over sex video

Salon channeling The Guardian [pdf]: More revealing than a wet sari; NYTimes’ EBay Fights India Arrest Over Sale of Sex Video

Later: Sex-case Delhi schoolboy bailed

Do M&Ms Have Substantial Non-Infringing Uses?

The candy-makers at Mars have a nifty service which allows you to order M&Ms with your own custom-printed M&Ms. But look out for the legalese! The list of things you can’t print on your M&Ms is so extensive, it requires a separate page with guidelines in plain English, examples of okay and not okay messages, and full rules in lawyer-speak

Xeni Jardin’s take: Bespoke M&Ms