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McAfee Granted Firewall Patent
BadUspto writes "BetaNews reports that 'The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted software maker McAfee a patent for tracking network events on a computer using a firewall. The patent filing involves tracing the location of an incoming connection and displaying a map showing where the remote system geographically resides.' Doomsday for VisualRoute and others?"
Isn't it prior art if something is common knowledge?
What of those of us that can, and have been, doing such IP -> rough geographical area translations in our mind for years?
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
IANAL and I didn't RTFP (read the fine patent) but I did RTFA. I was once taught that a patent covers a method for achieving an outcome. In the McAfee case, the method involves using logs collected on a firewall, then analyzing the origin based on the logs. I would guess that a competing product that directly sniffed the packets and analyzed the origin then produced a map wouldn't be infringing, because it would use a different method to achieve the same outcome.
This is why I keep _every_ that application that I have ever used. For example, Calamaris, a really nice squid stats generator, has fallen victim to software patent bullshit, but I still get to use it.
Obviously, the affected applications are never going to be patched or updated, but it's still better than nothing. I will continue to do so, regardless of legality.
Scream Prior Art! From the top of my lungs.. But then i remember, that thankfully the EU has not legalised software patents yet. And i sincerely hope Poland will knock some sense into our MEPs. I wrote a letter to my MEP yesterday and was surprised to get a responce (!). They say they too are worried about software patents, thats why they are voting for it (!?) - Something with settling on the middle, bleh.
Software patents scare the living crap out of me. I fear a world where Microsoft has a patent on "Operating System" I think it's total bullshit that people can even do this. First off, I bet McAfee has some C++ programming in it... which derives from C, which was created by Dennis Ritchie... so where is his cut? Everything we do, builds on something someone else did. In most cases, those things aren't necessarily things that someone did for money. It's a sad deal that this patent crap came into effect and is possible... Maybe I'm in over my head a little bit. Can someone still release an open source GPL product that does the same thing as McAfee's deal and be untouchable?
I was using Visual Route way back in '99.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/metricmusic
Just so you guys know, the registered version of ZoneAlarm has been doing this for a LONG time.
It's people like you that give the F/OSS community a bad name
How do you figure? How do you know it's all F/OSS software that I was referring to? By posting on Slashdot, do I somehow instantly represent the F/OSS community? I don't think so. What I do think is that I get to use good software for as long as I wish. Go me.
Can someone still release an open source GPL product that does the same thing as McAfee's deal and be untouchable?
no, and existing programs aren't really safe either -- the "prior art" defense is mostly a fantasy. in a legal battle between the typical large corporation and the typical freeware developer, the latter will be living in the street LONG before they can use the "prior art" defense -- assuming they have a good enough lawyer to successfully use it, and a judge that will accept it. some of us have been screaming about the danger of software patents to the right to program since the mid-90s. pity nobody paid attention then. too late now. hang on to your tar bundles, because sooner than you think you won't be able to get them anymore. at least in countries with software patents -- the us, the eu, etc.
Almost:
The US has jumped the shark, ceased to be useful, lost all insight, and generally become a bloated, monstrous, piece-of-shit government that only serves to rubber-stamp anything that comes across its desk that looks like it might make some corporation a dollar.
That's better
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
If it is considered to be found in the "prior art" then it cannot be registered as a patent. Simple.
Whilst I am on this topic, I would like to point out that the USA has a very broad system for defining prior art, novelty and utility. Unlike the UK, Australia and Canada - they have very strict and narrow interpretations of patent law.
Hence, if a patent is granted in the USA, it does not mean that the same patent would be granted in countries like Australia, UK, etc.
Then again, with international treaties such as TRIPs, countries who are a member of the TRIPs agreement are meant to enforce foreign IP, e.g. patents. Hence the UK is meant to recognise and enforce USA patents and vice versa.
So you could say that if you cannot get your patent approved in the UK or Australia, go get it registered in the good old USA. That will provide you some protection given the obligations on a country by the TRIPs argeement.
The only reason there IS a microsoft, is because courts decided "look-and-Feel" of an operating system was unpattentable.
Back then it was Apple who vigurously chanted the "I've got a pattent" song.
Even I've written prior art on that, in 2001. The connecting to a firewall for realtime traffic data, intrusion detection, and displaying their locations on a map using reverse dns and whois part. And I was just imitating another product made years before.
This from the people who make you dependant on IE for antivirus updates. Absolutely unbelievable.
"Lazar said piracy has cost the Redmond-based company "billions of dollars over the past 10 years," but he would not be more specific."
Ok, there are enough posts that say for 150 - 300 dollars for an OS is resonable. Now consider that it was release in 2001. So the expiration is?? 2005 or 2006? I have seen XP pro for 150-199 for an upgrade (an upgrade people). Now that OS is going to be outdate in a year or two. How is a full price OS that will expire in a year or two resonable.
Tips to Microsoft:
1) Charge a price that is reasonable:
a) For an OS
b) For an Office Suite
2) Lower a price for a product that is at the end of a life cycle.
As for MS promise to support an OS for 10 years. Well thats pure hog wash. Look at w2k; they decided not to release SP5 for it. Only a patch here or there will trickle in for said product. A single patch here or there never gets the die hard test of a SP. Odds are that the time between patchs will get longer and longer. So users have no choice.
Yes, I am aware that they cannot support a product forever. However, w2k was put on the scrap heap in 2002/2003 in favor of XP. There was 2 years left before it expired. No new feature enhancements like SP2 for XP. They could have postponed the the relegation of w2k on the 4th year.
Same thing happened to NT and eventually XP.
The greed is just digusting, IMHO.