Slashdot Mirror
Verisign Granted DNS Lookup Patent
mattgick writes "The Register has a story on how verisign was granted the DNS lookup patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,560,634). Scripts which check to see if a domainname has been taken would be in violation with this patent. A discussion on this subject is going on over here."
Atleast they didn't patten DNS lookups. Imagine having to memorize every IP address?
Misleading topic heading.
What do you say to that?
*sigh*
Yes, it may be short and unworthy of a reply, but it isn't really offtopic, is it?
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Now how are they gonna enforce that? Go after every single person hosting such scripts?
whois-listening? Not Taco, it's a dupe :)
Get your own free personal location tracker
.. I believe I shall patent "a method of looking up information". Sound fair?
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
The US Patent system!
HA
HA
HA
Oh god!
That's a good one...
Damn
HEHEHE
HA
HA
HA
Wait a sec, this is real! Doh!
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
Hold on, I've got a surprised look around here somewhere... Sheesh! I know I should keep that handy.
So, does that mean if I have a printout of said list, and just look through it, I'm in violation of the patent as well? Or if I do a search in a spreadsheet version? Or how about a plain text version that I do a search on?
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
A discussion on this subject is going on over here
/. that one right now so we don't have to worry about monitoring TWO discussions on the same topic!
Let's go ahead and
To me it looks like companies are going to stop offering services and just sue the shit of everyone for their IP. Scary thought, looks like the patent office needs to take a closer look at all these tech patents they are giving out these days.
With everyone going out and patenting EVERYTHING, I'm going to take out a patent to patent the patent getting process.
so YEA
--sig fault--
If you want to complain, go here:
http://65.205.249.60
Four years ago I was awarded a patent for human respiration while indoors. Now that humans have gotten used to the luxury, I will start asking for my royalties.
Oh My God! You slashdotted ICANN! You bastards!
Oh, wait, they aren't that cool anyways
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
The patent is for a system "that overcomes the shortcomings of existing domain name searching techniques by performing a multitude of searches simultaneously, transparent to the user."
This is for a specific method of retrieving domain name information and formatting it for the end user. If anybody actually knew how to read at the Register they would see that their simple script would not violate the patent as it is written.
So what exactly is the difference between having a human/monkey/pigeon do something as opposed to writing a script that does it?
When both accomplish the same thing in the end.
Now to start train my legion of patent violating monkeys and pigeons. Accepting applications now.
The whole internet was developed by American taxpayers dollars - the TCP/IP/UDP etc protocols, the everywhere used BSD stack and many more things.
So I don't have a problem when American companies get their IP rights secured by patents such that the invested taxpayers money will give some revenues.
If forgein people don't like this they should invent their own network protocols. The American science community is not a tax financed charity organization.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
What does IE or Netscape do if you just type in 'slashdot' in the address field ?
Now, This article almost sound like a hoax.
It would seem that the corps are well on the way to pushing this society down a path of Doom Spiral. I don't think I exaggerate when I say every one of us is now guilty of some egregious crime against corporations, whether we wrote some patent-infringing code, looked under the hood of the copy-extortion schemes built into our gadgets, or wrote something bad about scientology.
So far as I can tell, we've essentially made being a free thinker illegal in the United States. I'm glad that the UK and Australia are following suit, so that we can have a nice global village under the control of Microsoft, Verisign, and maybe a little Union Carbide and Monsanto for your physical health.
How did things get this bad? Why aren't we meeting on a weekly basis to take action against this annoying destruction of the public domain?
Oh, look! Matrix Reloaded is out! Gotta go.
fifth sigma, inc.
Does anyone out there have a solid explanation why nslookup and/or whois don't count as prior art?
I'm patenting breathing. All you freakin Linux lunatics better start paying me now or I'll pull a SCO and cut off your air. You greedy "free" bastards have been getting free air for long enough.
Hey! I said quit breathing until you pay me!
In further news, I'd like to announce that I am patenting the "ON/OFF" switch, a convenient device that enables safe, secure, and easy-to-use initiation and termination of electric current through a device.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Isn't a freaken' card catalog prior art?
The actual lookup isn't patented, it's just automatic lookups that are patented. This would be prior art if the actual lookup process was patented.
If the courts knew anything about computers, they would see structured programming as prior art for this. But, of course, something can be a new "invention" if a certain subcase is added. So, I should be able to patent "repetitive functions by a computing device used to search a file sharing network" and donate it to the RIAA to keep automated scripts from downloading from Kazaa.
-- "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
I'm sorry, either type in the IP address or deposit 5 cents.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
2) If so, how did they show this? If not, how did they get the patent?
3) How is it an original and inventive solution to a problem?
4) Does it cover any scripts that perform the task, or is it specifically a scripting solution that is patented? In other words, if I were to compile a binary to do the same thing, would this be a distinct solution and could I patent that please?
5) Do american lawyers/judges have as little understanding of how computer systems work as this suggests?
So does that mean every coder who writes a similar program will get canned? Or are they patenting hexdumps? Or is it an algorithm patent? And exactly how strongly does VeriSign plan to force its will on other people? Will they enforce it at all, and if they do, will they be active in seeking out violators? The world worries...
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
The fewer of those scumbags we have left, the better. They're just as bad as spammers, perhaps worse.
I already hold a broader patent for breathing in general which obviously encompasses you paltry attempt to hijack my IP. You better just fork over all your money before I go totally SCO on you and cut off your air.
Until I receive your check, you are here by ordered to cease and desist all repiratory acts!
Ha Ha
He He He
Ho Ho
That was even funnier than the main story!
Like NFL winners calling themselves "Champions of the World" even when no other country plays in that league!
Shut up! You had me at CLIT FP! Seriously, you should make an eBook and sell it on amazon dot com. You could make dozens of dollars.
Does this patent mean absolutely nobody can make a program that searches for domain names, or nobody can sell the software without Verisign's premission?
so the patent protects scripts that make multiple lookups transparent to the user (at least, according to the oh-so-trustworthy register). so just eliminate transparency: "looking up register.com" "looking up register.net" "looking up register.org" instead of not eliminating transparency: "looking up register" ouchies
This may sound like a flammable comment, but can anyone think of a *method* patent that you would deem actually worthy its patentability? Every modern method patent seems to be something that just doesn't pass the "innovative" component of the patent test (The "work" must be new, non-obvious, and innovative to be worthy of a patent, IIRC, though of course "innovative" in particular is a woefully vague term).
Conversely, a great many of these popularly "bad patents" -- e.g. one-click shopping, online auctioning/reverse auctioning, hyperlinking, and now multiple-simultaneous-DNS-lookups -- are process/method patents.
Maybe we should just scrap 'method' patents? How much of the problem would that solve? What sorts of innovation would a lack of method patents fail to protect? This is certainly (IMHO) a shining example of NON-innovation that has been awarded patent protection.
Xentax
You shouldn't verb words.
Honestly, the patent office seems to be issuing patents for anyone who seems to throw money at them. If this isn't a hoax, I can see (literally) a ton of reprecussions. This is almost as bad as the porn master trying to patent the pop-up ad. Give me a break.
That movie was a crock of shit.
I have no doubt that a EU slashbot would swallow Moores tripe hook, line and sinker.
USPTO for 6,560,634
I don't have the time, but could someone answer the above?
Every day I read slashdot I become more convinced that Slashdot is becoming an Internet Tabloid News source. I am becomming doubtfull that the US Patent Office is really as bad as many of the submitter's comments make it out to be. In this case, the submitter's comment that "Scripts which check to see if a domainname has been taken would be in violation with this patent." is very misleading. Oh well, I guess it doesn't make a good story unless it makes the US Patent Office a fiasco.
...interesting if true.
YASP - Yet another stupid patent.
.sig
Any patent that applies to internet technology should be easy to get around.
Just set up a server in a country that doesn't have brain dead patent laws to do the infringing action.
Probably you only have to ship a small part of the task out of the country to not infringe.
Avoiding infringement of patents by locating a server in another country is a method,
and it seems like it's valuable, so I suppose I should get a patent on it.
-- this is not a
Well, then, it's only a matter of time before you have all of these things (apart from the gun laws). You have one vote, the WIPO have billions and theirs have a picture of George Washington on them too.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Perhaps we could get a new moderation category: -1: Joke made everytime topic comes up.
Forget the whales - save the babies.
They're all in Pi, and like a good geek, I've memorized that. All of it.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Not anymore.
For some reason it seems that the patent only covers querying 2 or more servers.
For example, when you type in "foo" in domain name lookup it checks foo.com, foo.net, foo.edu etc.
It is still obvious imo. BTW they relied on a provisional filed aug 97, so finding prior art before that date would be best. An year before that date would be even better.
I think that the only people this will effect are spammers, domian name squatters and terrorists. In other words, criminals and criminals. It's a well-known fact that such scripts are traded in the secret spammer forums (with the original purpose of finding open SMTP ports), and are later modified by domain name 'bounty hunters' to find unused IPs. As much as I hate to say something good could come out of the whole DMCA debacle, if enforcing this patent can stop one piece of spam or one terrorist act, I have a hard time objecting!
That's an awfully large-sized brush you're using to paint us with, Anonymous Eurocoward.
You just made almost a dozen categorical, unconstructive criticisms of the populace of an entire country. Interesting how, if I were to write something similar about "Arabs" or "Chinese people," I'd be accused of intolerance of even racism. But it remains ever-popular and completely OK to say things like "All Americans are nuts." Incredible. This is the attitude that many Americans (myself included) find so off-putting -- that somehow intolerance and prejudice is bad, except when it's directed towards Americans.
I'm not saying the USA doesn't have problems, I'm just saying that your snobbish, prejudiced attitude is not going to help us solve them.
And your comment "and even the colo(u)rful language they've brutally raped"... I can't even begin to understand what you mean by this idiotic statement. English has always been an "open source" language -- evolving, changing, adapting and improving with its times and settings. There is no central committee regulating the English language, unlike, say, French.
the article is a dupe, I mean..
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
Too bad you are heading for the (karma) pit of inequity here pal.
It actually made a lot of objective sense.
Me, I'm all for capitalism, but theres a limit on how powerful organisations and conglomerates should be allowed to get - I mean - just look what coke (cola, not white powder) did to Jackson (Michael, not Jesse).
I tell you, something has to give over there real soon. The distribution of wealth is just so _waaaaay_ disproportionate, its not even funny.
Remember, we are all brothers and sisters, and we all share the same planet, so play nice now.
To stop this crazy patent frenzy...
Who's gonna make the website where we can post _everything_, to make it impossible to patent anything?...
Apple built a platform for their ideas, Google built one for everyone's.
Once long ago... this is exactly how the Roman Empire's neighbours felt about the...er.. Roman Empire. And look where the Roman Empire is. Then the Spanish Empire... then the British Empire...
Now it's America turn at the helm. And as it is with all Empire's (and all human creations), it too will eventually wither away.
And after the age of America has come and gone... DJIBOUTI will rise and conquer all!
I like pr0n!
Sure would like to call up some of these bozos and ask 'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!?!'
> snobbish, prejudiced attitude
Yeah man, yeah, like, and call him an asshole too. Can't believe you missed that one out.
Its good you are admitting that the US has problems. God knows, every country has (insert latest government driven economic policy profiting purely indigenous companies ignoring the rest of the planet) happening too!
So what? Whenever something like this happens, we bitch about it on Slashdot, nobody bothers to do anything about it, a couple of companies get sued, and then we hear nothing more about it because these patents are retarded and unenforceable. No need to worry.
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
Yes, unfortunately, I know. EUCD is already here, although not implemented in my country yet.
And the directive allowing software patents is probably coming, no matter how much we're trying to lobby against it. After it has passed the justice will soon be only for that business who owns the most ridiculous patents (like this DNS thing here), and has most mony to defend them.
But luckily you're right - I can probably still walk safe on the street - at least safe from guns. But may be not from EUCD cops anymore...
In other news:
A poor intern known to the online community as ianjk, has filed a patent for a program, that upon execution, displays the text 'Hello World'.
http://65.205.249.60
Show several IFRAMEs driven by Javascript... Each frame looks up a different extension, one after another. as long as they fire only when the last has completed, you're ok. ( or a script to check and then update..) seems as long as the user SEES the lookups happening in serial, your not breaking the patent.... or you may the user click a button next to each "suggestion"
meh
public class PatentWhore extends DotBomb{
/* 1. */ hireLotsOfLawyers();
/* 2. */ fileSillyPatents("???");
/* 3. */ profit("!!!");
public static void main(String args[]) {
try{
}
catch(OutOfMemoryException oome) {
}
}
public void fileSillyPatents(String wtf){
filePatent();
fileSillyPatents(wtf);
}
}
All your base are belong to us!
DNS look up your hostname ... hey, wait a second!!!
so what if you're going to get modded to a flamebait "-2". if you believe so strongly against the US log yourself in, and them tell me what you think. if you are swayed in your opinions so easily that a movie can change your view of hate to pity, i pity you. and as an american i will respond to your statement.
...and even the colo(u)rful language they've brutally raped.
Fuck...the US.
slow down there son, it's not our fault one of our companies patented this. clam down
Their patent legislation
yes, this is a sad state and something horribly worng with the united states. there are citizens fight this every day and i really am against software patents in particular. it's unfair and unjust, i would like it changed as well
Their DMCA + enforcements
Their RIAA, MPAA, etc.
Again, i wish i could argue with you, but i feel strongly against these as well
Their Microsoft-style arrogant worldwide trusts and other übergreed corporations
now what does this mean? just because you use the word "microsoft" in a sentence doesn't mean whatever you are describing is bad or evil. our "ubergreed" corporations? the ones that made it possible for you to be on that box you are typing on today? if they are so bad, why do you use their technology?
Their "justice" system, giving justice just for rich white men
I honestly don't find the justice that the rich white men recieve as justice. the ones stealing from other americans by lying on quarterly reports just so they can sell their stocks high and not tried fairly. an uber-rich black man got away with urdering his ex wife. that's not justice either. our justice system does deliver justice, but your example makes it appear as if stealing and getting away with it is just. how?
Their gun laws
what about them? we are allowed to own them? what is so unappealing about our right to bear arms? sure criminals can get thier hands on them, but i'd rather live free with less security then all the security in the world being governed closely.
Their violency and their wars
our violency? we learned that from menbers of the EU. france and germany have fought for hundreds of years. we even help the french out a couple times. we didn't create violence, but we are not the only ones using it.
Their presidents and other politicians
how... HOW do you find this an argument to "Fuck" the us? what about our presidents and politicians? we have known for years politicians are sneaky and lie. most of our horrible joke float around this concept.
Their constitution
if you for one second are going against the constitution of the united states, you are a utter moron. what is wrong with our constitution? it guarantees liberty, freedom, justice. it's not our consitution that is wrong it's how it's being used, or the lack thereof. have you even read it? it's a pretty good deal that enables me to live my life the way i wnat it. The constitution is what makes america great. not our money, not our military, not our horrible rock music. it's the constitution. i stand by the constitution my forefathers wrote before i stand behind my current leader.
Their culture
our culture? which one? american is a place of many cultures of many people. it's not just one "pop" mtv culture -- there are many other way s to experience life aside from the glitz of music tlevision.
Their hypocrisy and their stupidity
how for one second do you find english colo(u)rful? it's an ugly germanic language. latin languages make so much more sence and have a beauty and a flow that feels like water coming off your tounge. as for our hipocrisy -- there are 300,000,000 of us. it's easy for half to say one thing and the other half to do another.
They're all just nuts.
can't argue. we are a little coo c
WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
Isn't there any efforts going into making an alternative to the soon to be completly propritary web, root-nameservers etc.?
Why don't we just reinvet the wheel and make it completly GPL?
Please point me to any group/individual interested in starting such an effort, besides myself:)
You lack dude. Your post pales in comparison with the previous pr0n text, which also beat you to the FP. You have been defeated.
Next time, summon your war chinchilla pirate child amigo.
AHAR ME HEARTIES!
: We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of
: doing, while others judge us by what we have
: already done.
:
: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)
You yanks (well not you personally, your government and internation policy making) got a lot of 'earning trust' to be done with the world community before those problems you mentioned can begin to be resolved.
English has always been an "open source" language -- evolving, changing, adapting and improving with its times and settings. There is no central committee regulating the English language, unlike, say, French.
Good Idea! I'll open source French! Can't let those stinky french committees have control over use of our favorite word 'libre'
Patent lawyers often ask why software systems should be different than mechanical systems. Why should such software patents not be allowed? Why is software special?
Suppose that someone had obtained a patent on "drilling a hole in brass" 100 years ago. Perhaps not just "drilling a hole", but drilling a hole with a power assisted device of any sort; steam, oil, coal, horse... This is a mechanical analog of this software patent that was granted.
Obviously, the mechanical patent could have been pursued and granted, but it was not. If it had been, innovation in mechanical fabrication would have been destroyed. Progress would have been postponed for 20 years.
This is what is currently being done to software systems, and, unfortunately, mathematics itself. The question should not be "why is software different", but "why is the patent process different?"
Originallly, the patent (and trademark) office patented implementations of ideas *usually* in the context of medium-to-large industry activities. (Think back... Anyone patented common daily processes? I cannot think of any right off.)
Software is unique in being practiced *everywhere* by many people, all studying similar concepts and processes. It's become a race among huge numbers of people doing very similar work to "be the first to register". Many developers don't have stables of lawyers *dying* to prove their value to their bosses, which puts us at a big disadvantage relative to the big corporate interests.
In my opinion, the fact that we're all doing similar work (we're all in a really big race, and which of many front-runners actually "get there first" becomes a matter of probability), and that only a few entities have the capacity/will to register these ideas lead inevitably to apparent capricious granting of patents by the USPTO and huge advantage to the corporate interests. This is why I feel totally left out of the process.
Oh and by the way for those in the EU: This is almost certainly a fault of big governments dissociated from their stakeholders and you're next :-( :-( sorry about that, I'm just a messenger, don't shoot me... And remember that in America, the privileges granted by the first amendment are effectively available only to those who can afford to purchase the ability to outshout others.
1. Find something that's been done for many years...make sure it's something so obvious and full of prior art that no one's bothered to ever try and patent it. 2. File a patent application for it. The incompetant bozos in the Patent Office will rubber stamp it. 3. Once you have the patent, hire David Boies and sue everyone in sight. Make sure the suits are just under what might be called the 'settlement threshold'. 4. Cash the checks.
Paul Mockapetris is going to have hell to pay!
> our culture? which one? american is a place of
> many cultures of many people. it's not just
> one "pop" mtv culture -- there are many other
> way s to experience life aside from the glitz
> of music tlevision.
If you truly believe that, then that just shows how far removed from the real world you are boy.
This planet is soooo diverse. And I don't just mean civilised cultures either.
When the terrorists sneak a back pack nuke onto homeland US (and it could happen man, its scary to me too) - will you guys stop pimping your business and social interests around the world? No.
Capitalism doesn't measure human loss, only human gain.
About two years ago I got into the "game" of buying up expired domain names, simply for fun. THere was an expired name I wanted and I got hooked on watching http://www.namewinner.com/ and other such ebay-style domain name bidding services. Over the last two years the big stink seems to be Verisign was pouty because namewinner and other such services (enom, snapnames, etc.) were making some big $$$ of of expired names. AFAIK, it was something like a grand to get into enoms "expired domain name club" just to be able to bid on names. I think playgirl.com went for something like 25k on namewinner.com.
Another thing verisign was pissed off about was that these clubs knew when domain names would be released, so you'd have a few servers *pounding* verisign for a certain amount of time, trying to get the domain names. Also, the various individual attempts by doing a who query every 5-10 minutes to see if it expired couldn't have helped either.
On one hand, I don't blame them, for the good of everyone. On the other hand, Verisign owns snapnames (or is affiliated with), and signed some of the bigger domain name contracts (ultsearch.com transferred his names over if i recall correctly) for what I'm sure amounted to special privilieges when registering domain names.
I stay away from Verisign. Them being a "trust provider" is a joke. I don't trust them enough to do my whois lookups on their site just because I'm not 100% certain they're not monitoring all the domain names that people search for (and that they won't sell that list to the highest bidder).
jay
Their "justice" system, giving justice just for rich white men
...and even the colo(u)rful language they've brutally raped.
The source of your information is... oh yes i forgot you saw the movie.
Their violency and their wars
They do teach history in the EU don't they? Or has it been "revised".
Their constitution
and your point is...
Their hypocrisy and their stupidity
So you must be French. If so please remember we have a few thousand Americans buried in French soil defending the land you could not.
(Disclaimer: No - I'm neither British nor Canadian. I do live in the EU, though)
You sound envious...
I didn't really mean ALL AMERICANS! The Canadians and the Mexicans aren't all that bad!
There, do you feel better now?
Your attitude. Capone was highly amused and derisive about the tax laws that they finally managed to arrest him for, that's pretty well documented.
It's not the criminals who should give a damn; it's the officer who now has one more tool in his belt to use in the war on terror; and it's god fearing citizens such as you and I who get to feel a bit safe. quite a bit safer, in my opinion.
Hahahahaha.
No. Really.
Come on, you _did_, didn't you. I mean, those greasy smelly taco eating burritos? And as for the fucking framericans - well what a bunch of branleurs.
Congrats. You're the first American online to ever admit that the US are having problems.
Now, if we could get only one of you to admit that your country isn't the "best in the world" in each and every aspect, then hell would indeed freeze over.
Yeah.. I know, fat chance of that happening. Reflective thought yields pretty fast to years and years of patriotic conditioning.
The fact that you pledge allegiance to the flag in schools, should scare you shitless, but it doesn't.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
John Kizon and Michael Rippingale MURDERED Andrew Petrelis.
Due to the extensive information pertaining to the whereabouts and habits of Kizon, he is not expected to survive the forthcoming year, either financially, or physically.
errr... ok, you can forcefully restrain him and have him involuntarily committed if you can catch him, though.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Wow...what kind of person develops their entire opinion of a country based on one fucking movie?
Not even a great movie at that. Michael Moore set out on a mission when he made that movie...and you watch that movie and decide that it's all there is to the US???
You have been discounted as a valid opinion Mr. Coward.
-- A cat is no trade for integrity!
The source of your information is... oh yes i forgot you saw the movie.
And you seem to be forgetting what you read on slashdot everyday....
They do teach history in the EU don't they? Or has it been "revised".
We get taught 'history' - as in, the history of our country, as our country grew up. Like when it was young. Like in 1000, like earlier. What were you yankies doing back then?
Their constitution
and your point is...
I've seen the stools you guys leave in bathrooms.. Size of an ox, stink of an ox....
So you must be French. If so please remember we have a few thousand Americans buried in French soil defending the land you could not.
Hahahahaha, too funny my ronald mcdonald. But thanks for Vietnam, we really needed that.
You sound envious...
I _am_ envious, of your massively swollen stomachs, and your outrageously large vehicles. What a life it must be to create your own gravitational field! No wonder so much science can be done with all that _mass_.
Actually it'll probably be the end of the current phase of modern civilization.
The death throes of a mighty empire are pretty destructive. Look at Western Europe after the dissolution of the Western Empire. Pretty bleak.
Couple that with nuclear weapons...
Let's hope we skip the wither stage.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Obligatory duke nukem forever reference
I just don't get the idea of software patents. Sure, if I write some nifty little app that someone copies/steals and sells as their own, I can see a problem there. But I'm having a hard time saying that if I write that nifty app and patent it, then no one else can write an app like mine, regardless of whether they come up with the code by themselves.
I guess somebody should have patented 'a program for creating and modifying documents which can then be electronically saved, printed or emailed to other people' or maybe patent 'a game where the player runs around in a 3d world with a first person perspective shooting everything in sight'.
Maybe that's why it's 2003 and I still don't have my flying car.. someone patented it so the big companies like GM and Ford can't mass produce them and make them affordable.
US Patent 6,368,227: Method of Swinging on a Swing I truly don't know how they didn't get busted for prior art on this, or obvousness. According to patent lawyers I know, the guy got away with it because it's an exceptionally well-written patent.
and US Patent 3,216,423: APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE BIRTH OF A CHILD BY CENTRIGUGAL FORCE, which I think is actually very non-obvious, and I doubt there's much prior art on it. But I'm not surprised it was never productized.
blah blah blah
*ANOTHER* company just patented the interweb. LOL.
That's true. To measure human loss you need to use communism. 100 million murdered by communism so far.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Judge me not by the words I speak, but by the amazing fark and burp tricks I can do after a hot curry.
I think you've been reading one too many ESR rants^H^H^H^H^Harticles, friend. ;)
The key word in that quote is "essential liberty". Life is an essential liberty and it's one that I am not willing to give up.
Especially not so that a few would-be script kiddies can ping-flood some hapless b0xen.
Having a few more laws in place to manage the out of control scripting activities in place on the www is a long way from violating our countries ideals. Indeed, since this country was founded by christians for christians, I think that by taking any steps to eliminate the threat of muslim terror, we're acting fully in line with our countries ideals and traditions.
lastly, there's the economic factor. Anyone who has watched the yo-yo that is the stock market over the last few quarters knows that stability is prerequisite for a functioning free market. and you cannot provide that stability without both laws, and the necessary (and sometimes necessarily covert) officers in place to enforce them.
I do agree with you, however. Homeland Security IS a joke; one that has the enemies of America in stitches...at your expense, and mine.
Without more resources (such as funding, equipment and legislation), we may find that homeland security has gone from being a joke to become a useless token gesture.
Quite likely we'll find that out by watching the muslim flag fly over the whitehouse!
Excellent retort. Our Constitution is one of the greatest documents written in the history of mankind. It's too bad fucktards like Ashcroft forget their job is to uphold and defend it, not rape it in a zealous fit of witch-hunting.
That's pretty much how I explained it to my wife when she moved to this country. At first she thought I was a bit to "religious" about the Constitution, but then she read it and understood why I love the Constitution.Go ahead and insult our politicians. Hell, we do. Burn our flag, it doesn't bother me one bit. Hate the influence our movies have on your culture (so stop watching them!), but don't be dis-ing the Constitution!
-- Will program for bandwidth
What next, patenting the use of ICMP packets to verify the existence of machines with a DNS entry?
Would that be the same constitution that guarantees a set of basic rights for the citizens of the country and specifically limits the scope of government, and which came about while most of Europe was still under the control of monarchs, kings, and dictators? That constitution?
By no stretch of the imagination is America perfect, but your universal condemnation of the US is uncalled for. Read the damn posts on Slashdot and you'll see that most of us abhor it when things happen like this that we feel are contrary to free expression.
Karma: Frotzed (mostly due to the Frobozz Magic Karma Company)
It was a good read. I think I'm going to read it again, and again, and again,and again,and again,and again,and again,and again,and and again,and again,again, and ......
In further news, I'd like to announce that I am patenting the "ON/OFF" switch, a convenient device that enables safe, secure, and easy-to-use initiation and termination of electric current through a device.
pThat's the ultimate M$ internet security device, and is a vital part of their patented "secure OS".
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
That's an awfully large-sized brush you're using to paint us with, Anonymous Eurocoward.
:)
:) And to make things clear, I have never liked any kind of fundamentalism.
:) Of course an average /. guy got pretty upset, if he happens to be from the States. It's was just an innocent hit to that direction, that the average yankees are so slow-minded, that they could't do without simplifying some obviouly complex words by dropping certain wovels off...(and now finally end of sarcasm)
I agree, it was.
You just made almost a dozen categorical, unconstructive criticisms of the populace of an entire country.
Agree on that too. And deliberately!
Interesting how, if I were to write something similar about "Arabs" or "Chinese people," I'd be accused of intolerance of even racism.
Yes, probably somebody would already be declaring jihad over me.
But it remains ever-popular and completely OK to say things like "All Americans are nuts." Incredible. This is the attitude that many Americans (myself included) find so off-putting -- that somehow intolerance and prejudice is bad, except when it's directed towards Americans.
Well, I admit, that, may be I didn't think your possible feelings carefully enough, when I wrote that post.
But too often I do, in fact, have the feeling that there are much more nuts in USA than in an average western country - or in any country with truly democratic government (it's difficult to get real public opinions in nondemocracies).
I also have too often had feelings, that that country is run by shareholder value only, and vast majority of its politicians - like Bush or Cheney or even the democrates like Clinton - are either nuts, or just corporate puppets, or even both.
And when U.S. is anyway world's largest economy, it could often lead to many situations, in which the decisions made by those nuts could have significant effect to my - despite the fact that I still can't give even that single vote against them.
I could point it like this: Your president is only responsible to you, although he has power to do many things, of which he should be responsible for the whole world.
I'm not saying the USA doesn't have problems, I'm just saying that your snobbish, prejudiced attitude is not going to help us solve them.
I know, all to well. Unfortunately, only U.S. voters can help to solve them. But it just seems, that that will never happen. *sigh*
Besides, many U.S. people are hypocrates. Unfortunately I do not have time to give many examples, but here are few:
U.S. is a nation, which swears to the name of christian god, but has no idea of forgiving (personally, I'm an atheist, but i still like the christian idea of forgiving). Instead, your god-trusting fellow citizens are always speaking of revenge, security brought to you by weapons and WMDs (which you are of course perfectly allowed to have, although others are not).
And oh so often you are speaking of war crimes and wanting criminals into court, although you yourself have refused to sign the treaty of International Crime Court. You are so often speaking about human rights, although your president has, by ordering death penalties, ended hundreds of lives - and a death penalty is a direct violation of human rights, whatever the crime happens to be.
As said, only to give a few.
And your comment "and even the colo(u)rful language they've brutally raped"... I can't even begin to understand what you mean by this idiotic statement. English has always been an "open source" language -- evolving, changing, adapting and improving with its times and settings. There is no central committee regulating the English language, unlike, say, French.
Oh, I'm terrible sorry - I forgot to use those "sarcasm" tags around here.
To be honest
Well, I have stock in that intellectual IP and will use the DMCA on you for reverse engineering the money that was shoved down his throat in the first place.
It's like a death spiral. The jokes so old, but we still read, and still mod funny. It hurts...
In Soviet Russia, the money coughs up YOU.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
But the guy I hired to put in tile, who admitted he is not tech savvy, was befuddled by it.
To him, 1 and 0 are not obviously on and off.
So maybe I should patent using 1-0 on on/off switches. Betcha no prior art.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
would this cover checking ePhil.com and then ePhil.net? Does GoDaddy violate this patent? They offer other domains with the same 2ld and a different 1ld to buyers.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
I believe i shall patent masterbation
Granted that patents like this shouldn't be recognized in the first place, but what if the government extended eminent domain to intellectual property?
For instance, suppose some company patents some technology and thus stiffles inovation. Then perhaps, the government should claim eminent domain, pay the company for the right to their technology and make it public domain. (Not that this would ever happen.)
http://yetanotherpoliticalrant.blogspot.com
Damn. According to Verisign:
stupidpatents.com is unavailable. Backorder Now
Stupid patent announcements are geting to be like those News of the Weird items that get retired because they happen so often they are no longer weird. The people at the USPO seem to be determined to screw up the rest of the world for the benefit of a few greedy jerks who bother to fill out the proper forms. If anybody has any ideas for replacing or eliminating the patent office, now's the time to start your campaign.
And so the wheel keeps turning........
...in the pocketbook. Move alll domain registrations away from Network Solutions and Verisign. godaddy.com works for us.
Network Solutions is amazingly incompetent and assholish. I've been meaning to do this for months, finally just did.
"that's not encryption - it's a new perl script that I'm working on..." - from some Matrix parody
The right to keep and bare arms was meant to protect the free state (in combination with the militia), instead you use it to shoot thieves and trespassers. By not being explicit enough on this, your 2nd amendment has caused the untimely death of thousands and thousands of your own citizens.
Note this is an observation from a european who can see a need for such an armed militia even today, but not for citizens having shootouts. Try thinking about the purpose of the 2nd amendment objectively yourself sometime.
You seem to think the vaughness was a mistake. You are wrong. It was intentionally worded that way. Something easily realized if you read the various writings of the creators of the Constitution.
We have the right to defend ourselves, something European governments seem to dislike. Your governments would rather see innocent people killed than use force to defend themselves. Take England, for example, not only do they outlaw all guns, but they make it a crime to use force to stop a criminal, even one doing bodily harm to an innocent person. People have been tossed in prison simply for defending themselves. The governments reasoning is weak, that only the government has the right to use force. The result is violent crime in England spiraling out of control. The number of gun crimes in the last few years proves the old saying, "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." I used to think that slogan was a bit reactionary. England has proved me wrong.
I've yet to figure out why you would believe shooting thieves is a bad thing. Are you, perchance, one of those idiot European judges that free criminals for any reason, justifying your actions with, "he was treated badly by society."? We have a few judges like that. They usually don't last very long (except in Berkeley).
-- Will program for bandwidth
Personally I'm glad official dictionnaries (notice the official) only have words of the official language (enough emphasis for you?).
At least make your point whithout hitting on anyone else, it'll be so much more valuable.
The quickest way to become an atheist is to study the Bible thoroughly.
The problem with uncontrolled posession of weapons is that not all groups in the population are going to arm themselves to the same extent. It creates a situation with small welarmed and organized groups at the exteme ends of the social and political spectrum and a large, underarmed, disorganised group in the center. Criminals and political/religious extremists have simply more reason to arm and organize themselves than moderate people.
End of the line is you are destabilizing your society by pumping ever more arms into it; feelings of insecurity will rise, outbreaks of civil unrest will become more frequent and more violent. This in its turn calls for more policing. I don't say this is a quick process, but it is happening.
Because the harm done to the thief is disproportional to the harm done by the thief. The thief might be caught and have to pay for your damages, you can never undo the damage you do by killing someone. (Also, can you onestly say you never stole anything in your life, not even as a kid?)I'm not bothering with any of your other arguments because it is obvious we won't agree. So I'll just respond to this one paragraph.
The availability of guns does not increase the likelihood of civil unrest. Just the opposite. During the "Rodney King" riots of Los Angeles (I was living there at the time, so this is first hand knowlege, not something I "heard about") rioters and looters (almost all unarmed, fyi) ran unchecked through much of South Central Los Angeles. One neighboorhood in the middle of the worse damage, however, remained completely untouched. That was because the shop owners armed themselves and patrolled their own neighborhood. Oddly enough, the police (when they finally did bother to show their cowardly asses) tried to get the shop owners to give up their weapons. Fortunately, the shopowners were smart enough to tell the police to piss off.
These shop owners had created an impromptu militia to protect themselves. But not, as you argue the 2nd Amendment is for, to fight the government. They banded together to defend themselves from thieves and treaspassers because the government had abandoned their responsibility. Shooting thieves and treaspassers is not something you can automatically do, as you presumed we can do. It is done as a last resort. Shooting a trespasser is justified if you have a reasonable belief that the person(s) is planning physical violence or property damage.
Now this point is extremely important. Some people will argue that protecting property is not as important as someone's life. The mistake is in believing the property's value is what is important. It's not. The situation is the same whether the property is valued at a million dollars or a single dollar. It is the person's right to live his life in security that is at stake. That is what is being protected.
You can not put a price on a person's life, but a thief has chosen to take his chances by conducting his activities outside the rules of civil society. Society, therefore, has no reason to extend any curtesy to such a person when he is in the act of violating its rules. We do give such a person a minimal amount of warning, however, because we are not barbarians. If the opportunity allows, we will warn the person that failure to cease their activities will result in the use of deadly force. This is what the shopowners did in South Central Los Angeles. I don't remember if they had to actually shoot anyone (I think they fired warning shots), but I have no doubt they would have shot dead anyone who failed to heed their warnings.
-- Will program for bandwidth
now I don't have to worry about that pesky "whois" command costing me money!
Well, certainly no one is going to accuse you of being a bigot. I would like to take this time to thank you for all of your comments. People like you remind me why I'm proud to be an American. Of course, there is another thing that needs saying. In the words of my more colo(u)rful friends: bring it bitch.
dude, don't call me boy #1. secondly, aren't you just repeating what i am saying? How far removed from america are you? have you even been here to see the diversity amongst cultures. It's one big "melting pot". i've travelled around the world -- i know about other cultures. for instan, the only good place to get sticky rice is in thailand (mmm sticky rice). thirdly.... log in if you are going to argue with me. i mean, cmon
WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
And pretty much every web browser out there..
..
And they have been around MUCH longer than the patent filing date of 1998!
Go download an old version of netscape prior to 1998, or a copy of lynx proir to 1998..
Type in a URL location of say.. "theregister" (example in the article.) the browser searches.. theregister.com, and it it's not found, theregister.org, and theregister.net..
not left patented is breathing oxygen (I'm sure machines breathing is patented, but not carbon based organisms) and taking a shit.
FUCK YOU USPTO
All of us here, including myself, were dissing South Africa because of it's state takeover of the .ZA TLD. Looking at the potential for large international companies to wreak havoc by patenting everything from Links to DNS lookups, perhaps they were right to attempt to withdraw themselves from the possible financial penalties when said comapnies sue for IP infringement.
I bet there is a lot of prior art. So they can probably stick their patent someplace dark.
OK, Im just gonna assume that there is one really old and really senile guy in some sub-basement office somewhere that should have been forced into retirement about 20 years ago. Someone stop this guy from approving any more silly patents? BTW, my patent for "Communication through the manipulation of orally produced sounds." is about to be approved.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
From my recent researches on a project that requires a domain name, I have read many complains and negative feedbacks on Verisign. Generally, I was surprised to see very few, if any, marked verisign as good. Almost everyone recommended something else. Majority of them preferred godaddy.
Reading the crap clients of verisign went through (you don't own the domain name, they do, etc etc), I feel this is just their common practice. Money. Any way possible.
Competition is fierce out there, especially with other more "consumer-oriented" companies out there. THe monopoly is shattered. If you can't beat them, kick them off the market, make them work for you.
I am getting the feeling that the patent office is beginning to grant monopolies instead of patents.....
...Just go turn on my old 486. With DOS 6.22. And Windows 3.11 for workgroups, and fire up Netscape Communicator. Ancient as hell. (I think it finally took the 4.x version, though) Somebody write a simple program to start logging this stuff, I'll let it run for a few days.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
I read the patent and i'm not sure if its really that big of a deal. It might cause a bit of problems, but the patent is pretty specific on how its done.
Search is started
Multiple requests are sent to DNS servers
Information is sent back
Information is formatted for the user (this has to be formatted in hypertext markup language according to the 2nd and 10th claims, probably others)
Add in many other things that I couldn't really understand, but it seems to be pretty specific.
So, its kinda like me patenting a method of searching for a hotel room on the third tuesday of every odd month, but skipping every 7th month.
If I made a page that had 10 buttons on it, with a box at the top for me type a domain name into, and each one of the buttons searched a different DNS server, but I had to hit these buttons manually, would that be part of this patent?
Its just too bad that it takes the patent office 6 years to approve of a patent, especially when it comes to the computer industry, where things can change drastically in much shorter times then 6 years..
Where the fuck has that clause 'non-obvious' gone? Did the patent office forget that one? Or maybe they should perform a fucking 'patentibility clause lookup'...
Man, this just pisses me off; I've refrained from patenting a couple of things because I know they're kinda obvious...now I think that I'd've been granted them (wrong as it is).
Seeing as a non-functional patenting system does more harm than good, I'd say it's really time the patenting system got dissolved.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
AT&T has patented looking up phone numbers in a phone book by "...purposefully opening up the phone book and turning pages with hands, feet, teeth, or any other human appendage or extension thereof..." (US patent no. 44829171710)
This would seem to not include throwing the phone book into the air and allowing it to fall open to a random page.
So, which came first, the patent, or the whois utility?
What are the Patent Examiners for? They do have "scientific" people working there. I think a "hard" science(biology, chemistry, engineering, math, physics, etc.) used to be a requirement to be an examiner. I think they're merely overwhelmed, misinformed, and politically pressured.
Dang, wonder how this will effect the great service provides.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
But I have no faith in anyone ever fixing the system because almost noone knows what the verb love really means. Nobody understands that concept.
If you love someone you could never give them the death penalty or cut off their hand or hurt them physically in any way. Even if they are a terrorist. See, you don't understand what it really means to love your neighbor.
I define human as an intelligent being that loves all other humans, and right now the lot of you look like a bunch of animals to me.
At that leaves you free to hate everyone else, eh?
Let's start with a base case. I assume you think you are human. At this stage, you're the only human, so loving all other humans (none) is easy. You fit your definition.
At this point, the only way for someone else to be considered human is if they love you and you love them. If they don't love you, they aren't human, and if you don't love them, since you are human (by your definition) you'd have to love them if they were human, and you don't, so they can't be human.
By this it seems that you're defining human as a pretty exclusive club, which is free to ignore/hate/mistreat/etc those not in your club. Sounds rather elitist.
I'd prefer to think of everyone as human and try to treat them as such, even if some of them I consider misguided. But there are those who would consider me misguided, and I hope they show me the same forbearance.
Sorry for going so off topic, but your message really struck a nerve - by dehumanizing all of those that don't fit your criteria, all you are doing is giving yourself license to treat others in ways you wouldn't want to be treated yourself.
=Blue(23)
LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? C. MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
When I moved to the U.S. (my wife is an American citizen), I would've been required to make myself available for military duty had I been younger (I don't recall what the cutoff age was, but I was 30). Just to make sure this is clear -- I had an interview at the U.S. Consulate in my home country and was asked to confirm my age, and was specifically informed it was for this purpose.
Please take note -- I'm not complaining about this; I was moving to the U.S., so it's their rules. Fair enough. I'm merely correcting the parent poster. (Conveniently posting as AC, I see.)
That word sounds uncorrect.
So somehow, because our country was founded on certain principles, you got the impression that everyone here holds the exact same ideals? Does that mean everyone in the middle east is a follower of Islam? Is everyone in China a died in the wool communist?
Yes some people here are big on revenge, I'd say (or maybe hope) though that the majority here that do support retaliatory strikes do so as a means to discourage others from doing the same thing. If someone steals, you put them in Jail. Because they broke the law? On the surface, yes. But the greater reason is so that other people see there are consequences to such actions and thus you discourage others from following that path.
And yes, we are allowed to have WMDs that other countries are not. Our country is stable, and has no indicators that might suggest a willingness to use them against another country 'just because'. We came by the technology honestly, and generally have an appreciation for the destruction involved.
Note that this is not a defense of the Iraq situation, which is a recent and unfortunate development, and hardly destroys the great history that is the united states.
And oh so often you are speaking of war crimes and wanting criminals into court, although you yourself have refused to sign the treaty of International Crime Court.
You've got that right. And I rejoiced at that. Though it was muted happiness since that horrible thing already had enough signatures to get moving without us. Heh. They /think/ they're going to try all the citizens of the world there anyway. I sure hope they get the nasty surprise they deserve if they attempt that against an american citizen.
I can't imagine ANY country wanting to be a part of this abomination. It's a walking talking violation of a country's national sovereignty! They can pass any regulation they want and try you based on their laws regardless of what your country happens to feel on a particular situation. Hell, our american military personell can be tried for things they were ordered to do. I'm not talking about orders like "murder those women and children" I'm talking about "move out and capture this military target". Oops, the ICC didn't want you to do that, so now lets try the survivors.
Gee, I can't imagine why americans would be against /that/.
even better, just wait till their laws get really draconion regarding international propertly laws and they start dragging college kids into court. Maybe you people over there (wherever that is) are willing to basically subjugate yourselves to some world government but I'm not.
You are so often speaking about human rights, although your president has, by ordering death penalties, ended hundreds of lives - and a death penalty is a direct violation of human rights, whatever the crime happens to be.
Spend some time reading about our govt before you criticize it. Our president doesn't order executions. Executions are allowed or banned at the state level, and executions are usually ordered by a jury of 12 of the victims peers. Regardless, the order comes from the courts, and has the opportunity to be overturned by the courts, or by the governor of the state.
"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
--James Madison
No. FWIW, I'm not yet eligible for American citizenship. People seem to have all manner of fascinating misconceptions about what it takes to get to the U.S. and become a citizen if you do it the legal route.
I won't be eligible to even apply for citizenship until I've lived here for five years. Then, I'll have apply, wait until I can take a U.S. history exam, and prove I know more about U.S. history than the majority of this year's graduating university students. (Think I'm exaggerating? Check the recent surveys on how much U.S. history is known by this year's crop of graduates.)
However, had I been young enough, I would have been eligible for military service. There've been a number of stories during the Iraq war about legal residents who have not lived here long enough to be eligible for citizenship but are still fighting in Iraq. At least one such individual had citizenship granted posthumously. Many others are having citizenship fast-tracked as a reward for their service.
In the meantime, because I'm not yet eligible for citizenship, that means there are many other benefits for which I'm also ineligible, including those that are paid for in part by my taxes. Yet I still must face all the responsibilities.
Now, despite how this sounds, I'm not complaining. The U.S. was generous enough to allow me to live here, and I play by their rules. I'd expect the same in the reverse situation (where someone immigrated to my county of origin). My only complaint is directed at U.S. citizens who are bitter at me because of my immigrant status and because of their inaccurate assumptions about the privileges I enjoy and the lack of burdensome responsibilities.
Most software patents exist in the public domain before the patent, are not innovative, and are therefore not enforceable.
Using perl's Net::DNS and fork() calls clearly does not call for a patent. If they pursued it, I would let them waste legal dollars while filibustering and self-defending until a judge threw it out of court.
Contact info on me is available via whois.... please sue me.
In other words, the corporations would have to *trust* that the scientists or engineers would continue to work for them after developing the patented technology, or *pay* them appropriately.
They would still have incentive to *inves* in new stuff... but if they tried to play evil legal games, most of the scientists and enginers would probably just walk ove to the corp. next door... who'd actually put the technology to good use.
Fostering a technocracy... what I'm all about yo.