'The Help' movie release brings new attention to author, lawsuit

The Help is easily the summer's most astounding movie. That's high praise, but according to our critic, it's well-earned.

On the surface The Help seems like your usual white savior movie, but a deeper message for women in general, not just black or minority women, is that they should never be afraid to step outside the box and challenge

But in that flick, Howard's character came from a very different environment and background than Hilly Holbrook in "The Help." She told us that filming the movie in Mississippi helped her get into the right mindset. "I feel like, in the movie,

"The Help," based on the book of the same name, is a racially charged but smartly understated portrait of the relationship between African-American maids and their white employers in Jackson, Miss. in the early 1960s.

The Help has a passionate legion of fans who will be nothing but thrilled with the cinematic take on the adored book. Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard shine in the powerful film that is

View the original article here

Google Wants to Redact Email In Android Lawsuit

Google asks the judge in charge of the lawsuit that Oracle filed against it to redact an email written by one of its employees. The search giant said that it is a confidential document and Oracle should not have revealed it in the court.

Oracle filed the lawsuit last August 2010 and claimed that Google’s Android platform violated several patents that Oracle owned through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. The email in question came from Google engineer Tim Lindholm and was sent in August 2010. In the email he said that they were asked to investigate alternatives to Java for Chrome and Android to which he said that there is none and that Google should negotiate for a Java license.

The contents of the email were disclosed last week during a hearing. Judge William Alsup told Google’s lawyers during the hearing that the company they represent will be at the losing end if the contents were revealed to a jury. He said to Oracle’s side that the email is good evidence against the search giant.

Google doesn’t want the email to be made public, especially not in front of a jury. The company maintained that the document was highly confidential and the protective order says that parties involved should give other parties notice when the proceeding will include protected material.

View the original article here

New Patent Lawsuit Against Hulu Could Derail Efforts to Secure a Buyer

Hulu ‘for sale’ valuation of $2 billion may very well have to be readjusted.

Just last week, Hulu learned that its users will have to start paying for what was previously free content, courtesy of a new pricing policy from Fox. The company now has to contend with a patent lawsuit, filed by interactive programming guide vendor, Rovi. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District court of Delaware, alleges breach of patents related online TV program guides, as well as products dealing with online search. Rovi is asking for unspecified damages as well as legal costs.

According to media analysts, Rovi has penchant for suing over patents, and Hulu can probably not expect much to come from the filing. In the past Rovi has sued Toshiba, Amazon and others over patent infringement. But even if the Rovi lawsuit comes to nothing, Hulu will surely have concerns over its operations.

Much of the ‘asking power’ that Hulu has is based on the perception that the company has all the necessary licensing and patent issues all sorted out. If Hulu now has to start announcing pricing adjustments for content, deal with patent lawsuits, it could easily make potential buyers nervous.

The lists of suitors for Hulu include Yahoo, Google, and even Apple. Clearly these are not the sort of buyers that will part with $2 billion without confidence. It’s now up to the people who run Hulu to make sure their mammoth asking price is justified.

Do you think Hulu is worth $2 billion? Leave your thoughts below in the comments.

View the original article here