Smalltalk with James Robertson

This is why I'm starting to think that a system with no patents or copyright would be better than what we have now. Amazon got a patent for... predictive stocking:

So Amazon says it may box and ship products it expects customers in a specific area will want based on previous orders and other factors — but haven’t yet ordered. According to the patent, the packages could wait at the shippers’ hubs or on trucks until an order arrives.

You see that stuff your grocery store does each week? Same thing. But some set of morons at the USPTO couldn't figure it out.

Tags: stupidity, patents

I've now reached a point of extremity with patents and copyright; I think they do more harm than good. That said, at least someone is finally going to go after the obvious patent trolls with a few pointed questions:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted 4-0 to start an investigation of so-called "patent trolls." The first step is to solicit public comment on a long series of questions that the agency plans to submit to about 25 of the most controversial patent-holding companies, which the FTC calls "patent assertion entities" (PAE).

Tags: patent, copyright

New Zealand just banned software patents (as such - there are some loopholes):

The relevant clause of the patent bill actually states that a computer program is "not an invention." Some have suggested that was a way to get around the wording of the TRIPS intellectual property treaty, which requires patents to be "available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology."

Now, if only we could get DC to find this much of a clue....

Tags: patents, software

There should be a special ring of hell set aside for people like Michael Doyle - who seem to exist primarily to make the world a worse place. Thankfully (although it took too long), Eolas has been killed. The smart follow-up would be to kill patents for software entirely, and to limit copyright (for any written work, including software) to 7 years.

Tags: patent trolls

Your kid has probably committed numerous felonies by the time they hit 18, and given the way the Feds went after Aaron Swartz, if your kid is outspoken about things that irritate the wrong federal prosecutor, well....

Seventeen highlights the absurdity of giving terms of service the force of law under the CFAA. It boasts a readership of almost 4.5 million teen readers with an average age of 16 and a half, and yet, until today, the average reader was legally banned from visiting Seventeen.com. That’s right, for a magazine dedicated to teen fashion, the publisher’s terms explicitly restricted online access to readers 18 and older. What’s worse, the Justice Department could choose to bring the might of the government to enforce this contract against a Seventeen reader who may never have even seen the agreement.

Tags: stupidity

It's good that Newegg - unlike so many other companies - fought this battle and shutdown an egregious troll. On the other hand, how many small companies do you think actually have the dollars to fight such battles? Before you go on automatic and keep believing that patents (particularly software patents) are useful, ask yourself - are they actually helping anyone other than the worst lawyers and trolls?

Tags: patents

We have stupid copyright laws, and an absolutely insane ban on internet gambling. So I have to say, I applaud what Antigua is doing.

So here's where we sit in the US now: Aaron Swartz commits suicide, driven at least in part due to the unrelenting federal prosecution for something the injured party didn't want to pursue. Meanwhile, Dick Gregory gets off on a weapons charge for which DC vigorously prosecutes people without connections. I think it's now fair to say that we live under the rule of connections, rather than the rule of law.

Tags: stupidity

It's not the concept of patent law that I object to; it's where things have gotten to. Unless we adopt "loser pays", there's really no way out of the crap sandwich world we now live in. No patents would - absurd as that sounds - be better than what we have now.

Tags: patents

Yes, it's gotten to the point that I now believe patents are - on balance - a bad thing. Check out this stupidity: a patent troll claiming the right to shutdown Mojang based on a client/server license check.

Technorati Tags: stupidity, patents