Slashdot Mirror
Small Firm Claims Patents On e-Banking Processes
bth writes "The New York Times has a
report that DataTreasury Corp is suing banks over 2 patents that 'describe a way to store and retrieve transaction records electronically.' A patent search reveals US6032137 and US5910988, each having the title: 'Remote image capture with centralized processing and storage -- System for central management, storage and report generation of remotely captured paper transactions from documents and receipts.' From one of the abstracts: 'The system retrieves transaction data such as credit card receipts checks in either electronic or paper form at one or more remote locations, encrypts the data, transmits the encrypted data to a central location, transforms the data to a usable form, performs identification verification using signature data and biometric data, generates informative reports from the data and transmits the informative reports to the remote location(s).' It is good to know that someone has managed to finally invent a system that can store, retrieve, and securely transmit financial transactions."
--the banks will just up fees and/or interest rates to cover any additional expenses. There's no way the bosses and sharholders will lose a penny on the deal, even if they have to pay royalties on these patents eventually. Banks are the primary reason this particular style, the western central banking and fiat currency economic system, with the patents, exist, they could care less what it costs you as joe consumer, because taken as a whole, they control the money supply and you don't. If the patents affect all banks, then it affects all the people, they just pass the costs on as part of doing business.
Want a change? Use cash and barter as much as possible and stopping buying into high tech just because it exists and is new and shiny. Geeks are the worst when it comes to that, every new way to do something different using a gadget they adopt and promote, whether it's a good idea or not. And geeks were the ones who lobbied for getting software patented in the first place, it wasn't joe schmoo mechanic down at the shop or suzy hairdresser. Want to blame someone for geek troubles like these patents, blame the geeks, the programmers with huge dollar signs in their eyes way back when who demanded this patent protection for their vague intangible "products" and also demanded no liability for their products. They got it, the system obliged them, now it's tough noogies, you can't go back 40 years or whatever and change it. Demanding above and beyond what other industries get came back to bite them, as it was predicted a long time ago. It's not like this wasn't anticipated and warned against, but the warners back then got called "luddite" and other things, like they were "anti technology" or "anti progress". Nope, that was never it, just you can't tell a geek ANYTHING because they are born with hard coded DNA that says they are always correct and anyone else is an idiot.
what goes around comes around. Geeks and geek companies embraced the sytem with open arms, profitted from it, now they notice they need to have a lawyer hard wired to them, kept on a leash just to do anything. If they are so smart, why did they let it happen in the first place?
The geek community needs a little soul searching on this one and to drop down off their "insulted and shocked" high horse. Yes, it's changed with open source, but it doesn't eliminate past historical reality, they asked and begged for this situation we have now, and the politicians and PHBs obliged them.. They are trying to close the barn door after the horse got out, not a real long term smooth move it appears..
And the next major geek FUBAR that will hit? Over zealous false intellectual righteousness with how "safe" nanotech and bioengineering are, and that will make patent fiascos look tame by comparison. Add in overwhelming and pervasive RF pollution, another huge case of serious denial. And you know why? Same huge dollar signs in the eyes that the original wizard programmers had, that's why. Obfuscate and ignore potential long term problems in exchange for leetness and bigbucks today.