magic-city-news.com — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn a dangerous patent law ruling that could pose a serious threat to Free and Open Source Software projects.
Aug 24, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountAug 25, 2006
This article has nothing to do with open source software, it just happens to be EFF losers whining about the search process for 'prior art'.There's one (grossly exaggerated) line that mentions F/OSS, claiming it's an integral part of the USA's economy.Boohoo, the patent system sucks, but not as much as kids who post lame s**te and pretend it's about their religion.
dotdanAug 25, 2006
I've heard the effect is somewhat similar to putting a bottomless bag into a bottomless bag..
plasmaticAug 25, 2006
Obviously these people don't use computers.
gd007Aug 25, 2006
i am going to patent a for loop.
hsokineesAug 25, 2006
Hmm.. I wonder if the it's possible to patent the download of information from the internet? o.O the internet would really be screwed then :P well.. not the internet, but it's users ;P
Closed AccountAug 25, 2006
USA getting dumb and dumber.
wicked42Aug 25, 2006
Even before I read your comment I decided to patent breathing.Now if you want to use that Oxygen come talk to me?ALSO UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES will I license use of my breathing patent to any lawyers. Sorry.
williamdyerAug 25, 2006
@r2 It's not about prior art, doofus, it's about obviousness. There are way too many patents of the obvious in the system because patent lawyers have gradually pushed the obviousness threshold down to where it is a joke.
Closed AccountAug 25, 2006
Current (software) patent law not only permits patent trolling, but, in a way, imposes it on legitimate enterprise. Knowing that both snakes and all of your competitors are patenting, and filing patent infringmenet lawsuits over, every known software construct, imposes a burden on legitimate organizations to patent all their existing code before the others have a chance to. Having thus patented every hack in your system compels you to protect those patents against infringement, lest your lack of inactivity open your patent claim up for dispute (e.g., IBM's patent for PrintFile() in 2001 can be challenged by SCO's unnoticed patent for SendFileToHardCopyOutputDevice() in 2002). The snowballing effect is entirely predictable, and reduces the authenticity of the system with each new patent filed. Talk about a "chilling effect" on innovation -- would you invest in a company knowing that, as every software construct has already been patented, using different wording, six times, that company is both going to have to sue to protect its patents, as well as be sued for violation of other company's patents? Everyone is currently walking on eggshells, and it's getting exponentially worse every day.
heehawAug 25, 2006
drag,The patent system has problems, but don't mislead the readers. You listed patent *applications*, not patents. You can file a patent application for anything, but it doesn't mean you'll get a patent allowed and issued. All patent applications are examined first. Some examiners do a good job and stop frivolous applications from being issued.