January 29, 2014 at 8:53 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Software Patents
January 30, 2014 at 12:47 am
Well, that 1-click patent by Amazon really ticks me. I'm a passionate customer of Amazon and I think I'll let them know my opinion on this absurd patent.
Where things have really taken a bad turn is with these patent trolls. Soon they will come up with some patents on the best way to troll around in this world.
And thanks for that link to the PDF describing copyright basics. It's a good read.
January 30, 2014 at 2:04 am
Was there anyone whose heart's cockles were left unwarmed by this story? An oldie but goldie.
January 30, 2014 at 6:02 am
Well you can blame Disney for a lot of the copyright extensions.
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Jim P.
A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
January 30, 2014 at 6:41 am
Laws have to cover a lot of ground. Here is some congressional testimony from Mark Twain on copyright law:
http://www.thecapitol.net/Publications/testifyingbeforecongress_Twain.html
In brief, his arguemnt is that ideas are property like any other and that if you can take ideas, you should be able to take a coal mine after a certain amount of time.
January 30, 2014 at 6:52 am
I suppose Amazon's 1-click technology is more of an idea and cute name than a technology. And maybe Amazon really wants to hold on to that term '1-click' so that it gets exclusively associated with Amazon. Maybe this is more of a copyright issue than a patent issue. In fact the '1-click' button has the classic (R) symbol in it. And so it did a patent as well to cover all the bases. So be it.
January 30, 2014 at 6:55 am
I cannot imagine our world if Codd had a patent on 3rd normal form and blocked others from creating the modern database engine.
January 30, 2014 at 6:58 am
EricEyster (1/30/2014)
I cannot imagine our world if Codd had a patent on 3rd normal form and blocked others from creating the modern database engine.
Uuuhhh, that would be scary!
January 30, 2014 at 7:00 am
Yes there's something seriously wrong with some of the patent applications.
They are anti-competitive / anti-imaginative and it makes me wonder how in the hell they are upheld.
New Planet Money have done a brilliant one about Podcasts.
I would suspect the same issues arise with software patents.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/11/06/243243244/episode-462-when-patents-hit-the-podcast
Check this out - Some years ago Jim Logan considers podcasting on cassette tapes but can't make a success of it so folds the company. 30 years later he thinks he can sue everyone left and right despite not having created any of the technology purely based on the idea that he thought about playlists on cassette tapes (despite every person and his dog making up playlists on tapes). He even went back and recently revised the patent to add protection to his copyright.
New Planet Money is an excellent podcast if you want really interesting economic discussions.
cloudydatablog.net
January 30, 2014 at 7:01 am
Michael Meierruth (1/30/2014)
I suppose Amazon's 1-click technology is more of an idea and cute name than a technology. And maybe Amazon really wants to hold on to that term '1-click' so that it gets exclusively associated with Amazon. Maybe this is more of a copyright issue than a patent issue. In fact the '1-click' button has the classic (R) symbol in it. And so it did a patent as well to cover all the bases. So be it.
I share your sentiments. However, from personal experience, I can tell you there are still plenty of databases out their that look like they were designed by someone that thought the rights to 3NF were owned by someone else! 😉
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January 30, 2014 at 7:10 am
Thomas Abraham (1/30/2014)
I share your sentiments. However, from personal experience, I can tell you there are still plenty of databases out their that look like they were designed by someone that thought the rights to 3NF were owned by someone else! 😉
LOL! I've heard bad DB designs described a lot of ways but to think they were trying to avoid patent infringement...RIOT!
January 30, 2014 at 7:13 am
Another telltale sign that the current implementation and enforcement of patents is wrong is the way companies are buying other companies based solely on their "patent portfolio" in order to not only protect themselves but also to generate income directly i.e. not via monetisation of products utilising the concepts.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
January 30, 2014 at 7:18 am
Steve said in the article, "It almost seems as though digital ideas and software defy analogies and explanations that we can relate to the real world."
Like all of you, I'm in IT and while I can't speak for everyone else, I still find a lot of tech-talk conversations difficult to understand. For example, I live in an MS world and don't relate much to Apple/Linux discussions though I do try to pick through them. Again, it's difficult. I can only imagine what it would be like to be a layman, like a juror that has to sit and muddle through the facts of some court case that contains today's technology lexicon. I imagine patent regulation is much the same.
January 30, 2014 at 7:36 am
"1-click purchasing"; that's nothing; they're already moving way past that.
Amazon Wants to Ship Your Package Before You Buy It:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/01/17/amazon-wants-to-ship-your-package-before-you-buy-it/
http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=08615473&IDKey=2809423B2F61
The Seattle retailer in December gained a patent for what it calls “anticipatory shipping,” a method to start delivering packages even before customers click “buy.”
In deciding what to ship, Amazon said it may consider previous orders, product searches, wish lists, shopping-cart contents, returns and even how long an Internet user’s cursor hovers over an item.
But the patent demonstrates one way Amazon hopes to leverage its vast trove of customer data to edge out rivals.
We all know that many online retailers accumulate huge repositories of click-stream data for the purpose of data mining and predictive modeling; but I'm surprised that Amazon records how much time web browers spend "hovering over a link".
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
January 30, 2014 at 7:39 am
call.copse (1/30/2014)
Was there anyone whose heart's cockles were left unwarmed by this story? An oldie but goldie.
That was an excellent article. Thanks for posting it as I missed it the first time around (1 year ago). LOL, I don't keep up with the times...:hehe:
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