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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."
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?
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.
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?
That is exactly what's happening. I've got a friend who has worked for many years in the patent office, and he tells me that the senior management appointed by the Bush administration has made it known that you can be disciplined and potentially fired for rejecting too many patents (presumably because patents are "good for business."
The person I know told me a tale about having to go to the mat to reject a particularly bad application, but he still got serious grief for it, and was on the road to being disciplined until his supervisor stepped in and supported the rejection on the merits. This was a ridiculously bad application, BTW, but if his supervisor hadn't decided to stick his own neck out, that would have likely been one more bad patent on the books...
Is it any wonder that so many bad patents are showing up?
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
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
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..