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The Reality of Patent Expirations for the NES

Posted by Zonk on from the not-getting-any-younger dept.

Tashimojo writes "Gamasutra's running a feature entitled 'Nintendo Entertainment System - Expired Patents Do Not Mean Expired Protection', an interesting read. From the article: 'This article originated when the Gamasutra editors noticed a number of online sources such as Wikipedia stating that it was now completely legal to make NES 'clone' consoles, because all of Nintendo's patents regarding the NES had expired. How true was this statement? We asked game IP lawyer S. Gregory Boyd the question: Are the NES patents expired? If so, is a company free to build and sell new NES-like systems?'"

11 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Frosty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    First Post - sorry, Frist Piss!

  2. See Digg.com by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    See Digg.com--where Slashdot gets all its news now. It's like traveling into the future to see Slashdot's stories days from now! But with WAY more each hour, and you vote on what gets posted. According to Alexa.com, Digg will be overtaking Slashdot's traffic within the month.

    This place is dead. Corporate-owned, jammed with banner ads, and run by incompetent editors who don't give a CRAP about your input and are two busy posting whiney editorials about getting their nickname taken away in World of Warcraft and expecting preferential treatment because he's CmdrTaco of Slashdot, darnit. Ha, yeah, subscribers know what I'm talking about--try emailing them about a dupe sometime before it hits the front page.

    It's time to move on to bigger and better things. Digg looks like it.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
    1. Re:See Digg.com by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 0, Offtopic



      I do email them about dupes before stories hit the front page. I've helped stop 3 dupes that I know of. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes I'm WRONG. I've seen one dupe pulled AFTER it hit the front page (I had emailed when I saw it in the Mysterious Future).

      I doubt the "is there a problem with this story" link would even BE there if the intent was to ignore everyone.

      But whatever, dude. Shill away.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    2. Re:See Digg.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      /. has banner adds?

      I'll have to turn off Adblock sometime to see WTF he's talking about. As long as I'm not modded a troll, I don't care if the editors like my input, the editors are not the only people that read /. :D

    3. Re:See Digg.com by CuriosityKilledWHAT · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      According to Alexa.com, Digg will be overtaking Slashdot's traffic within the month.

      Traffic, maybe someday, if only because of Digg fanboys continually refreshing to read the latest dupes that have been posted and post complaints about them.

      Reach? As in how many different people actually visit daily? Digg has a long way to go yet.

      I'd also wager a much higher % of veteran Slashdot readers don't even allow Alexa to track their browsing habits.

    4. Re:See Digg.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      The left-wing slant died when michael trotski got the can.

    5. Re:See Digg.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      "Seriously, I hate those god damn eggplant wizards!"

      -- Kid Icarus

    6. Re:See Digg.com by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I'm not wrong at all.

      Linus calling Slashdot a "public wanking session" on the LKML:

      "Gaah. I don't tend to bother about slashdot, because quite frankly, the whole _point_ of slashdot is to have this big public wanking session with people getting together and making their own 'insightful' comment on any random topic, whether they know anything about it or not."

      Yeah, Linus has an account. So do a lot of other people who now despise this place.

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
  3. I'll bite, damned troll... by J_Omega · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I like digg, but its certainly not where /. gets all of its stories. Note that the sheer number of stories that digg has means that there is a lot more noise to filter out.

    Plus, not being able to post in a threaded manner makes any sort of discussion there completely pointless (as opposed to here being perhaps pointless.)

    Dude... CmdrTaco has a blog. You'll be able to find it here: http://slashdot.org/

    That just might be why he expects "preferential treatment."

    FYI, it looks like digg might go to ad-based revenue shortly, so start your whining about it there as well.

    And digg has just as many, if not MORE, dupes as /. does.

    Digg is cool, and has its pros - but look at the cons and it certainly isn't superior, just an alternative.

  4. You want insightful comments? by Hitto · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Try 4chan.org
    The most honest discussions ever :D

  5. Leftwing slant? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha .
    Let me guess - you're American, correct? Hehehehehehehehe.