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Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet)
Ed Burnette
covers
the rejection of a wireless email patent in the Blackberry case
in a ZDNet editorial.
"Look at all the harm patents have done to our industry. Look at GIF. JPG. ZIP. FAT32. Linux. MPEG-4. Developing a video compression format is like walking through a minefield. Patent holders fight over future hi-def DVD royalties, resulting in years of delay and increased cost to the consumer. And so forth. Holding companies with no products are the worst as they extort money from real developers just doing their job. And now, we have the so called "defensive patents"."
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Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 4:24 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] "defensive patents" as I understood it only worked against other software companies.
The idea, according to my understanding, is that with defensive patents is a 'you sue me, I sue you' sort of thing.
That it's impossible for a software programmer NOT to violate patents. There are thousands of software patents, you do not need to know that they exist or anything about them, and it's possible to violate them with just a half dozen lines of code in some cases and you can also violate them in how software interacts with other software. Interaction between 'layers' so to say.
With big projects like Mozilla were you literally have millions of lines of code it's likely that they are violating hundreds of patents, even multiple times in multiple different ways.
So since it's practically possible to avoid patents the only solutions that businesses have in the US is to amass as many patents about everything as much as possible.
It goes like this:
Then they settle out of court and do licensing exchange programs and everybody is happy. (except for small companies that can't afford armies of patent lawyser of course).
So this is the current solution to the patent problem. It's kinda like Russia versus US cold war technics with 'defensive' nuclear weapons.
However defensive patents don't work against ip holding companies.
If they own 'IP' and sue you for patent violations then you can't sue them back. Since they don't actually produce anything and don't sell software (and are probably using your software to help them sue you) then it's impossible for you to find patent violations to get back at them.
All you can do is suck it up like Microsoft and chuck up patent litigation to lawyer-tax. It's simply a cost of doing businesss in the U.S.
At least this is my limited understanding of the situation.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 12:38 UTC (Fri) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link] >That it's impossible for a software programmer NOT to violate patents. There are thousands of software patents, you do not need to know that they exist or anything about them, and it's possible to violate them with just a half dozen lines of code in some cases and you can also violate them in how software interacts with other software. Interaction between 'layers' so to say.
What are these patents? Drawings of a sacred figure? We need a planned violation, with a systematic defense, spearheaded by Lessig, to put this vampire in front of the Supreme Court, so they can put a stake in its foul heart.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 25, 2006 2:41 UTC (Sat) by Arker (guest, #14205) [Link] A good idea. I'm not sure how it could be done, but it might be the best way to goif the how can be worked out.
By my reading, software patents are not actually legal. They were created by activist judicial
The worst thing is that, even if you do figure out an effective way to challenge this judge-
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 8:38 UTC (Fri) by LintuxCx (subscriber, #14448) [Link] Slightly off-topic, but most people don't remember that RIM actually used to be called Lawsuits in Motion themselves. Everybody feels sorry for them, but they've been the bastards themselves not that long ago...
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 16:16 UTC (Fri) by AJWM (guest, #15888) [Link] The above link doesn't seem to work, it appears to have some extraneous cruft at the end of it. Try this one.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 25, 2006 13:28 UTC (Sat) by jayorke (guest, #10685) [Link] Breach of contract and those other suits seem to go beyond patent law. Most people against patents would probably have less issue with laws that prevent people from stealing, breaching contracts, etc.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 13:30 UTC (Fri) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link] In other news, some open source/free software/linux fans finally managed to sink to Bill Gates's shameful level of comparing linux developers to communists, when they compared patent holders to terrorists.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 13:34 UTC (Fri) by bk (guest, #25617) [Link] I agree. Such flippant use of the word terrorist is shameful.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 13:55 UTC (Fri) by xav (subscriber, #18536) [Link] Yes. Those spreading that word are information terrorists.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 14:28 UTC (Fri) by sdenlinger (guest, #24239) [Link] When will these terminology terrorists stop? If we can't disseminate information, then the terminology terrorists have won.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 21:13 UTC (Fri) by xorbe (guest, #3165) [Link] Hmm... maybe we can call trolls as forum terrorists...
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 25, 2006 0:30 UTC (Sat) by bk (guest, #25617) [Link] I don't know folks, I hope none of you ever come close to experiencing what real, actual terrorism is like. The jokes won't come so easy then.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 25, 2006 15:05 UTC (Sat) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link] You're right, of course.
But on the other hand, if we can't make jokes about the subject, then the terrorists *have* won.
And that's no joke.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 26, 2006 7:53 UTC (Sun) by xorbe (guest, #3165) [Link] One of my pals missed a bombing in Qatar by 15 minutes or so. It's not a pleasant thought. But you've got to lighten up! Try to enjoy life regardless, eh?
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 27, 2006 15:38 UTC (Mon) by GreyWizard (guest, #1026) [Link] Well said.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 14:17 UTC (Fri) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] I'm not sure if Ed Burnette of ZDNet can be classified as an open source/free software/linux fan. LWN seems to have a strict rule to use article titles unchanged no matter how stupid they are.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 14:30 UTC (Fri) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link] Perhaps LWN ought to signify which titles are quotations of the titles of cited articles, vs. which ones are composed by LWN staff. Just putting quote marks around the former would be a start.
News items Posted Feb 24, 2006 17:06 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] It is very clear to me: items with the source in brackets, like this one, are quotes.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 16:54 UTC (Fri) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link] In other news, some open source/free software/linux fans finally managed to sink to Bill Gates's shameful level of comparing linux developers to communists, when they compared patent holders to terrorists.Yes, it's at least as bad as calling unauthorized software copying piracy. I don't many who have had a friend or family member killed by a terrorist would appreciate the analogy.
Patent terrorists ruin an industry (ZDNet) Posted Feb 24, 2006 17:40 UTC (Fri) by tetromino (subscriber, #33846) [Link] True.
I believe the preferred terminology is "patent troll". In terms of how much harm they do, I would say patent extortionists are closer to a moron with a crapflooding script than to a terrorist who kills people.
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