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Patents vs. Secrecy

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the need-to-know-basis dept.

giampy writes "New Scientist is reporting that the NSA appears to be having its patent applications increasingly blocked by the Pentagon. From the article: 'the fact that the Pentagon is classifying things that the NSA believes should be public is an indication of how much secrecy has crept into government over the past few years.'"

3 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Compensation? by Karma_fucker_sucker · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From TFA: So there are now 4915 secrecy orders in effect - some of which have been in effect since the 1930s.

    If the Pentagon makes your patent secret, will they compensate you? I know that's a hard call as far as value is concerned. But let's say you're in negotiations with some company. You're coming to an amount of $5 million. Will the Pentagon send you a check for $5 million. Will they compensate the company in negations with you too? Or will they just say "Eminent Domain" and just take the thing and if you object, put you in jail?

    What would happen if you just said "Fuck you!" and release it on the Net - jail you? The cat's already out of the bag.

    --
    Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
  2. Inventions for Bond Jr. by Bemmu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Quite interesting what kind of patents they have for example "US05224756 Integrated child seat for vehicle". I bet James Bond never had that one! Full list of patents: http://cryptome.org/nsa-patents.htm

  3. If you think that is paranoid, read this... by mikael · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The war on pigeon doo-doo

    Two and a half months after a Freedom of Information request was filed, a 376 document was produced, but with 149 pages completedly blacked out and 102 pages partially blacked out.

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads