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Microsoft Pockets Patent for Encouraging TV Viewing
theodp writes "Through its WebTV unit, Microsoft was awarded a patent Tuesday for a system and method for encouraging viewers to watch television programs, such as offering viewers frequent-flier miles for identifying the name of a sponsor or the color of an announcer's shirt. In other news, Microsoft took a District Court to task for failing to recognize the existence of prior art for the Eolas web plug-in patent, resulting in a $521 million judgment against the software giant."
One more reality show like "Wife Swapping" and I'm going to kill my TV...
Sigs cause cancer.
We actually need to encourage people to sit around and watch television? Come on....
Sedentary life is its own reward.
This space for rent.
We don't need no stinking incentives!
----
Average Bored Teenager
Best Windows Freeware
They are trying to play both sides of the field. To me, Microsoft is like watching the homeless guy down the street have an argument with himself. Very entertaining, but it's advisable to keep your distance.
I remember when good tv shows used to be the incentive to watch tv.
He he, it's about time they try and patent 'Dodgy Business Practices' and 'Being a Monopoly'...
At least they'll be part of the prior art on those points. Plus, If they did ever patent those, then they could sue any other company that misbehaves (almost like an immoral moral guardian).
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
B-E S-U-R-E T-O D-R-I-N-K Y-O-U-R O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E
(please tell me someone get the reference.)
Come on, this kind of encouragement has been going on for DECADES.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
What about contests? There have been plenty of TV show contests where you had to watch an episode,or even several,to find clues or code words or answer questions. Wouldn't that count?
==== Warning:this poster contains subject matter that may be offensive. Flaming discretion is advised.
When was TV anything else besides a barren wasteland of corporate-enforced mediocrity?
From the bedroom Iran's voice came. "I can't stand TV before breakfast."
"Dial 888," Rick said as the set warmed. "The desire to watch TV, no matter what's on it."
"I don't feel like dialing anything at all now," Iran said.
"Then dial 3," he said.
"I can't dial a setting that stimulates my cerebral cortex into wanting to dial! If I don't want to dial, I don't want to dial that most of all, because then I will want to dial, and wanting to dial is right now the most alien drive I can imagine; I just want to sit here on the bed and stare at the floor."
Her voice had become sharp with overtones of bleakness as her soul congealed and she ceased to move, as the instinctive, omnipresent film of great weight, of an almost absolute inertia, settled over her."
Philip K. Dick - Do androids dream of electric sheep ?
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I thought local shows have been doing this for years with contests?
"Just write down the the name of the visitor in today's show and send a postcard to Win a CAR P.O. blah blah..."
I seem to remember these as far back as the 80's.
That and local news pulling similar tricks to get you to watch.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Patents encouraging people to:
Surf the internet
Go to school
Raise children
Listen to the radio
and to leave the toilet seat down when finished!
There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those that understand binary and those that do not.
"ITs getting to a point that Microsoft is going to have a patent on everything."
You think Microsoft has a lot of patents? Check out IBM.
Whether you love or hate Windows, whenever you read an article like this about more Microsoft stupidity, rather than venting your anger on your monitor or even on Slashdot, turn it into something positive & deny Microsoft just a little bit of the power they have over you.
No, I'm not talking about fdisk-ing your hard drive and diving manically for the nearest Linux distro - instead, have a scout round all your Windows applications and spend an hour or two downloading and playing with an Open Source or free equivalent application, just to see what that little bit of your life will be without Microsoft.
Take something simple, like the Notepad text editor. If you're feeling really brave, you could go try out Vim if you want to do vi-type editing in Windows, otherwise, go try Textpad++ for a more traditonal-style editor. (I won't put links here, just Google for them, you'll find them.) Spend a couple of hours just trying to wean yourself off that little piece of Microsoft dependency, you will feel better for it, believe me!
Others you could try are Thunderbird for email, Ethereal for network sniffing, Firefox as a web browser, Filezilla as an FTP client, ExactAudioCopy (with Lameenc) for ripping MP3s... the list is endless.
Just make sure you do something positive with your anger. It may well be that the day you ditch Windows is a long way off (perhaps never) but at least you'll feel a little more confident that if and when that day comes, you'll be just that one step closer to an easy transition.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I know everyone is saying they are amassing patents in a defensive move.. but I cant see them passing up the opportunity to go on the offensive when they have large enough portfolio.
Between that, and their bank account, they could pretty much eliminate everything that stands in their way.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"I killed mine a couple of years ago. I have noticed effects on my social life."
Kinda funny, iddn't it? Watching too much TV == bad, a lot of the content is pretty insulting to the intelligence. Not watching TV == bad, a few things are pretty darned good, but they're being missed.
"Derp de derp."
Tech TV's(R.I.P.) Digital Dig contest has people watch for codes and then enter them on the web.I'm sure a dozen more will pop up in the thread. Looks like they got their head up a small narrow space at the patent office.
Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
Very specific? Here's the end of the patent:
"While the present invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments, variations of these embodiments will be apparent. [...] Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the foregoing description."
Frankly, claim 1 doesn't seem particularly specific or limited to me.
This has been done, but what's more important for USPTO is that it's been done using a computer
On digital TV in the UK, they're always asking viwers to 'press the red button' and be up for a chance to win 'something crap'.
What's more competitions also run, like on Discovery Home & Leisure, where viewers watch the channel for an entire week and when they see a fish float across the screen then they press the red button to be up for a chance to win prizes.
If this isn't exactly what the MS patent is going on about, I don't know what is.
May the Maths Be with you!