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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."
whois-listening? Not Taco, it's a dupe :)
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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.
Misleading topic heading.
Yes, Slashdot is/has decended to the ranks of the NY Post, no need for accuracy when you can just Troll. Its a shame because the patent is one of those blindingly stupid and obvious things. But I bet there's no prior art because this is the sort of thing a registrara needs to do, and prior to 1998, there weren't any that handled > 1 TLD besides Verisign.
I wonder if this falls under the "abuse of a state granted monopoly"
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
The first two are moot. Patents are not Copyrights. The company that files is the company that gets it. It doesn't matter who created it within a company.
For 3 and 4 I suggest reading the actual patent and making a determination.
I am not sure how number 5 applies to anything in this discussion. Lawyers and judges don't grant patents - patent clerks do. Lawyers and judges can be called upon in a dispute to determine whether a patent is valid or not but otherwise they have no influence.
USPTO for 6,560,634
I don't have the time, but could someone answer the above?
Unregulated campaign finance contributions.
Most Slashdotters agree that beligerant corporate behavior should be stopped by the government. Well it's not the laziness or ignorance of the politicians that's preventing this.
The "hard money" contributions documented at OpenSecrets.org pale in comparison to the enormous "soft money" contributions made to a political party on behalf of a candidate. The power of the DMCA, MPAA, RIAA, MSFT, et al. can be explained by this.
Recent legislation attempted to curb this but has been meeting resistance.
-DD
You are correct in asserting that many technologies fundamental to the Internet were created and are still being created from the sweat of the American worker's brow. Unfortunately, American companies which get "their" IP rights secured have no impetus to return that value to the American worker who generated it. The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 is highly culpable in this regard as it permits publicly funded institutions to make secret, exclusive deals with private corporations to patent technology, and therefore receive the financial benefit of that technology (profit), at the expense of the American worker who generated the capital to develop the technology in the first place.
You correctly point out that the American scientific community is not a tax-financed charity organization for foreign nations, but neither should it be (though it tends to be in practice) a charity organization for U.S. corporations, whose interests (profit) are in direct conflict with the interests of the American worker (wages, freedom, other things that affect the bottom line).
You can't. Try doing multiple DNS lookups from Verisign's DNS servers. If you go past 100 searchs, you're IP address becomes blacklisted and you won't be returned any further DNS entries. The only way to be removed from their blacklist is to call them. They list the phone number to call in the returned info, including a nasty message telling you that you will no longer be serviced until you call. I know, I've been through this. They give you a speil about how this technology is now patented and if you want to use it, you will have to pay a fee.
Until there is a challenge to this patent, I see a steady decline in the Internet environment.
Quit playing Monopoly with Bill.
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