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Symantec Patents Multiple File Area Virus Scanning
DigitumDei writes "Symantec announced on Wednesday that it has aquired a new patent (United States Patent - 6,851,057) titled "Data driven detection of viruses". Symantec has declined to comment on whether it will pursue litigation. Symantec's director of intellectual property Michael Schallop stated : 'We don't generally discuss how we will leverage this patent against competitors or others,'." From the article: "[The patent] could refer to any technology that allows antivirus researchers or antivirus products to use scripting to determine, dynamically, where in a file to scan and detect threats. It could also include the use of Javascript or other common scripting languages to direct antivirus scanning..."
I love how patents encourage innovation. Now Symantec will be able to lock up the market and really innovate some cool stuff!
I say Symantec should just patent viruses and charge royalty fees on whoever decides to make them.
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Sorry I already patented alcohol intake, gonna have to take half of those to allow you to drink them.
Microsoft should patent some of its security flaws, it could make a killing by licensing the ability to patch said flaws to anti-virus companies.
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Or better yet, someone should copyright their virus and use the DMCA to sue all the anti-virus companies out of existance when they reverse engineer their copyrighted program.
That's something I'd like to see. Symantec execs being escorted to jail for "Virus Piracy"
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It's my firm belief that a "YGTBFKM" troll would make more of a positive contribution to /. than JonKatz ever did.
This is patently ridiculous?
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So, if the first patent costs $20, and each patent after that costs twice as much as the previous one, Symantec is going to go banckrupt after the 29th patent - which will cost about 5 billion dollars (the previous one costs 2 billion dollars, so 6 in total > 5).
Geometric growth. Gotta love it or hate it :).
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
"Symantec announced on Wednesday that it has aquired a new patent (United States Patent - 6,851,057) titled "Brain driven detection of burgulars". From the article: "[The patent] could refer to any technology that allows a homeowner to look around his house and detect the presence of a burgular." A Symantec spokesman noted that, "We value our intellectual property, and want homeowners to know that they can't simply use this technology without a license."