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Google Patents Using iPhones To Kill 'Free Bird'
theodp writes "At Chicago's Billy Goat Tavern, construction workers found physical threats an effective way to discourage smart-ass Whitney Young High School students from playing annoying jukebox songs over and over again. But with Google's newly-patented technology for the Collaborative Rejection of Media for Physical Establishments, you no longer need to resort to violence to prevent Elton John Songs from being played on jukeboxes in bars. Its invention, boasts Google, 'enables customers of an establishment to collaboratively reject a media file that is currently playing and/or pending to be played within that establishment by entering data into a personal wireless portable computing device on their person, for example a cellular telephone.' But don't get your hopes up too high, kids. Much like Google's dual-tier stock plan, the patent calls for 'customer status levels including a premium status and a standard status,' so a premium customer will be able to veto attempts by lowly standard customers to kill his requests to play MC Hammer's 'Can't Touch This'. The patent comes from a quirky Outland Research IP portfolio acquired by Google; its inventor is Louis B. Rosenberg, a Stanford PhD and professional film maker."
I would be happy about the premium service, to keep you people from cancelling my music. But, then again, there is no way that any jukebox in any of *your* bars is going to have the kind of music on it that I'm into anyway. And no bar that would let you people in is going to serve the kind of food I eat, or the drinks that I'm into these days. I would tell you about it, but you wouldn't get it. You see, I don't even *own* a TV. And everything you like is just a ripoff of the *real* stuff that only a few people like me know about. Of course, you don't get it. But I wouldn't expect people like you to understand. You should probably stick with your radio music. Doubt you could handle the real stuff anyway.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm taking my custom painted iPad to a club that you haven't heard of, in a part of town that you've probably never been too, to listen to music you wouldn't understand, with people you would never meet. I would say goodbye, but no one says that anymore unless they're being ironic--or do they?
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
But don't get your hopes up too high, kids. Much like Google's dual-tier stock plan, the patent calls for 'customer status levels including a premium status and a standard status,' so a premium customer will be able to veto attempts by lowly standard customers to kill his requests to play MC Hammer's 'Can't Touch This'.
I think there's some confusion here. I read that part of the patent as saying that if you, the owner of this jukebox system, have a patron at your place of playing music that is a regular then you can get his/her ID and promote them above random walk-ins. I used to bartend for two years in college. There was this lonely guy that came in everyday of the week. My first day there, the owner pointed at him and said, "This is Joe, you help Joe before any other customers, you charge Joe $1.25 for each of his beers no matter what size or kind, tap or bottle." Apparently for 30 some years that guy came in, drank five beers through the course of the entire evening and left. People like that, I think you'd let them have your way with your jukebox and maybe you, the owner would be above everyone else in case things got out of hand. Maybe google thinks bars will run promotions where the first birthday person in the door with a large party gets veto control over the jukebox? Who knows?
At Chicago's Billy Goat Tavern, construction workers found physical threats an effective way to discourage smart-ass Whitney Young High School students from playing annoying jukebox songs over and over again.
What the hell? Somebody want to fill me in? I just spent ten minutes googling for some news item about this and came up empty handed ...
My work here is dung.
The patent office needs to stop awarding idiotic patents. Anything plus a computer/mobile should not equal a patent.
Music is by far the most boring application of this "media banishment system", especially at an exercise club or waiting room.
I would love to see this applied to TV News and the financial news shills and the weather channel. Oh god not another "it bleeds it leads" hit skip. Not another kitten in tree saved by firefighters. The commentator on CNBC right now is a real estate shill .... flushing sound .... Onsight live broadcast breathlessly reporting "its raining" zapped.
The main problem is there's a million recorded songs out there, the bar flies cannot possibly block them all even if they were sober and cooperated. But unleash this on the financial news channels and a small team could literally wipe the slate clean of all stories leaving a blank screen or test pattern. Its very likely that if you zap all the video news releases, and network entertainment news self promotions, and celebrity news, and pointless human interest stories, there is nothing left in a typical newscast.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Why is it that everytime an article mentions a "cellular phone", /. editor needs to put the i*** word in the headline ?
Seems there's another issue here besides the jukebox.
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People are more than able to caught $20 for the music THEY want to here. The problem with Jukeboxes is that they play all of one customers songs in the order paid for. Some kid dumps $10 for the same song 20 times there's nothing to do about it. There are a lot of other ways to deal with the situation that could be built into the player.. Randomize tracks, only accept 3 songs at a time, only let so many repeats in an hour, etc....
This is a classic Tragedy of the Commons situation. The music affects everybody at the location, but the play rights are sold to one jukebox provider. Once they got the rights, they have no further interest in making user the experience is good for everybody. Free Capitalism baby! If somebody wants to harass the other customers with $20 of MCHammer it's not the jukebox providers problem.. They got their $20! If you didn't like the selection put your own $20 in first. You had the same chance as anybody else... Why did you "share"? It's exactly like the Ferengi Rules of Accusition.
Why do people keep parroting this shit?
Google has said they will never sue over patents and they haven't. It's more so they can protect themselves later and also highlights a complete lack of patent office quality.
You don't deserve a music-related patent if you can't spell Zeppelin.
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
...that allows certain people, let's call them "moderators," to assign -1 or +1 rating points to the song. If the song falls below the bar's threshold, then it doesn't play. The selector of the song also accumulates these points from the moderators; we can call this "karma." Bad or good karma gives their future song selections a lower or higher initial rating, respectively. I'm so novel and smart! Time for me to file for my patent, beyotches!
I'm as free as a bird now, and this bird you cannot chayayayayayayange!
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
No. Why would anyone come to site that just showed blank pages?
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
Sigh, another page hit title.
Google holds a patent to use a __________ branded mobile phone to squash jukebox songs. Last I knew, Google is well known for a certain mobile phone OS.
But no, the title went for "iPhone".
So who paid for that headline?
Folks, THAT is the new business model - "pay for custom slanted news!"
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
The links are to sites, not to the events or activities described. Who cares about the Billy Goat Tavern, except if one lives within driving distance?
Probably submitter thought it would be hilarious to make the Android fans have a minor freak out over putting "Google" in the same title as "iPhone."
Looks like it worked.
Folks, THAT is the new business model - "pay for custom slanted news!"
Fox already holds that patent.
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?