Did you know that…

…parents worried about their offspring’s mobile porn surfing may receive an answer to their prayers? Samsung has filed a U.S. patent application for a software that scans a phone’s incoming images for suspicious material. If images depicting large regions of exposed skin are found, the content will be blocked. A notice is then sent to the concerned parents, who are able to decide whether the material is suitable and should be allowed for their little darling.
Samsung’s invention obviously raises questions about privacy rights. Developing truly functioning and adequately sensitive bare skin detection may also turn out to be problematic. Whether the electronics company will actually further develop the application remains to be seen.
The patent application was reported in the New Scientist blog One Per Cent.

…parasitic copying of packaging is a major concern for many popular branded products? According to the IPKat weblog an organization called British Brands Group (BBG) has on March 4th publicised a list of examples of products found on the market that are ”packaged unnecessarily similarly to popular branded products”.
BBG is a ”non-profit-making membership organisation” which states that ”its role is to speak out authoritatively on behalf of brands and to represent them collectively when commercial and regulatory issues threaten both their value and their ability to be a positive force in society.” Their list of examples of similar parasitic packaging is interesting, some cases seem obvious and others not that clear. What do you think?