I grew-up in the 70s and played many many games throughout the 80s, and I'm not aware of any program that used this method. They all used a mechanical dongle, or other physical method, to verify a program's validity.
Can you please provide us a list of the games/programs, pre-patent, that allowed for *online* registration using a key? (or else defaulted to a trialware mode)
>>>it would mean no one could do this in their own products without fear of a law suite
Is a "law suite" where lawyers and hookers go to get their freak on? Sorry. I couldn't resist.;-) No what it means is that every time somebody uses an online registration key, then they have to pay a royalty to the inventor, just the same as a royalty has to be paid to use MPEG2 or AAC or Dolby Surround. This is no big deal, and entirely fair for the smalltime inventor.
>>>Surely there we're games/shareware apps that did that before this patent too.
Please name them. I'm not aware of any that predate 1993 (when the inventor originally tried to sell his idea to MS). Most of the software of that time used the following methods to enable trialware: Let you play a level and then type in a "code" from a book or wheel. -or- Allow software to be used but disabled if you did not have the mechanical dongle on the rear of the machine.
This inventor's idea was different in that it allowed online registration via phoneline dialup or internet connection.
Plus all legitimate authority comes from the People. The jury is as close to that ultimate authority as you're gonna get, and as you said there's the appeals process which allows judges to order secondary trials if the original case was somehow flawed. Hopefully this inventor will get a second chance to stand before a jury and plead his case to protect his invention.
>>>For balance then we need a system where by we, the public, can vacate a judge on the same grounds...
We have one. (cocks gun). Or if you want something less messy, you could hire a private investigator to hack the judge's accounts, find the evidence of bribes from Microsoft, and then have the judge removed and the original verdict restored. There was a similar instance in Pennsylvania, resulting in the freedom of many wrongfully-convicted citizens and a judge who is heading towards jail on bribery/corruption charges.
You say "usual" but it's only usual TODAY. It was not usual back in the 80s when it was invented. Quoting the article:
"Once users buy the software, they get a registration key that unlocks the full featured version of the software. Uniloc claimed Richardson showed a copy of his software to Microsoft in 1993 but Microsoft did not license it, instead developing its own almost identical version and incorporating it into its products from 1997 or 1998."
>>>they will pay enough tax in their working lives to more than counterbalance what they cost in retirement.
Yes but when the oil drought hits the fan circa 2020 or 2030, causing rampant shortages in food supplies, having *fewer* hungry people will be an advantage. It's easier to feed 10 million than 50 million, so it's wiser to close the doors now rather than later. (Even if we come-up with alternative solar power, the transition from oil will be easier with a smaller population.)
- It's the same reason why people lease cars instead of buying them. It's cheaper in the short term, and easier to come up with $300 for rent than $20,000 for purchase. Plus adding extra cars as new employees join the company is trivially easy.
Yes the summary didn't make any sense to me either. "How big can the cloud get before it starts to rain?" Huh? Is it saying how long will it be until the cloud starts making a profit for Amazon, or until the cloud collapses under its own weight? I still remember when AOL signed-up too many customers, and the result was a service that was slow and unresponsive.
>>>Washington Times. Its the newspaper equivalent of Fox News.
That's a nice opinion, but it doesn't explain why we should ignore the article the Times printed You committed an Ad Hominem Fallacy. Example: "Paula says the umpire made the correct call, but this can't be true, because Paula is a liar." Assuming the premise is correct, that Paula's observation is probably a lie, the umpire may nonetheless have made the right call. Likewise Washington Times' article may still be a worthy article, and you've failed to explain why it isn't.
Someone else wrote:
>>>what's wrong with surfing porn at work?
Same thing that's objectionable about hanging a bikini calendar in your office. Some women find this objectionable and will file a lawsuit about "creating an unfriendly workplace" or some such. Therefore both the calendar and the porn are verboten. Of course it's not just women. Back in the days of Wang computers I saw a lot of jokes pasted to bulletin boards about male coworkers or husbands, and the size of the their Wangs.
Getting back to the article, it sounds like it was a more serious problem than just one or two visits to a site: - "One foundation employee...during a three-week period in June 2008, the worker perused hundreds of pornographic Web sites" (bored from lack-of-work perhaps?) - "Another employee in a different case was caught with hundreds of pictures, videos and even PowerPoint slide shows containing pornography." - "Another employee who stored nude images of herself on her computer told investigators she mistakenly had downloaded the pictures." - "The foundation is hardly the only government agency to be embarrassed... The inspector general for the SEC noted in a report last fall that it had recently conducted three investigations into employees who misused government computers to view pornography."
The remarkable thing is the lack of punishment. The first two employees merely got a 2-week suspension without pay. Oh no. Horror. The woman received mandatory counseling, and the senior exec who surfed 300+ days apparently got no punishment - just an early retirement. If I did this on my private job I'd get FIRED. I should forget private engineering and instead study public policy to land myself a nice cushy job in government.
Copyright used to censor information? I'm sure that was Not the original intent ("to promote useful arts"). That's using copyright to Demote the arts via silencing the mouth of the author as if she/he was a slave. I also find the Fair Use Project's claims dubious. Did not capitulate? That's exactly what she did when she excised major pieces of her book.
If I was accused of copyright infringement, I'd try to work with the owners and satisfy their request, but I would not censor my main thesis, or remove the one or two sentences that were borrowed from Joyce and crucial for my readers' understanding. I'd go ahead and publish anyway - and if they pulled my books off the shelf, then I'd release the book for free on my website or bittorrent. I won't back down in the face of Censors or tyrants. They can take their cease-and-desist letter and shove it down their throat.
>>>start programming mobile clients with the same care we used for hand-optimized assembler on original IBM PCs
Agree 100%. But that requires intimate knowledge of how the hardware works in order to optimize the code to use the hardware sparingly. Few modern programmers have any clue, since they are "removed" from the device by several layers of OS and userspace.
Also tape is not really stable - the magnetic oxide flakes-off over time.
I'd say the most stable technology we have for storage is Flash RAM since it has no moving parts, and if you're willing to expend the money, then a ROM is the absolute best. Even after we're all dust, the ROMs inside Atari, Sega, and Nintendo cartridges will still be readable.
I haven't changed. I've always disliked big spenders that borrow money and drive us deeper into debt ($130,000 per U.S. home and climbing). BTW did you know, due to the recession, Social Security is now projected to go bankrupt in 2017? Yay.
"On pages 201 and 202 of the Medicare report, you will find the conclusive arithmetic: over the next 75 years, Social Security and Medicare will cost an estimated $103.2 trillion, while dedicated taxes and premiums will total only $57.4 trillion. The gap is $45.8 trillion." - Why Social Security Should Go Broke Faster | Newsweek, http://www.newsweek.com/id/199167
Okay so *hundreds* of dollars instead of thousands. Still a ripoff. Meanwhile the music industry is trying to plot ways so you *rent* your songs rather than buy them for life, and the banking industry is hitting Americans with numerous fees, and the electric companies are raising rates to offset carbon credits, and......
No wonder the typical person carries $10,000 in credit card and $70,000 in mortgage debt. They are being soaked for money such that they can't catch up.
Funny. That's what my brother said when he spent $3000 on a push lawnmower. I still think he's a fool. I coulda bought one off amazon for less than $200... fewer features perhaps but it still makes the grass short.
>>>>>I've paid $14.95 a month for 56 months. That's $837.20. >> >>pretty much every other hobby costs a lot more per month
Yes but it's not necessary to spend all that cash on just ONE game. I bought DDR for just $20 and it still entertains me all these years later. Why spend hundreds of dollars when a single twenty will give just as much fun?
>>>Ahh the download is a lost sale fallacy. It's simply not true.
Well... it's only partly true. I'd estimate that about 10% of people I know, if they did not have internet, would have bought the product on CD or DVD. So you can estimate that 10 downloads == 1 lost sale overall.
Slashdot Mirror
I grew-up in the 70s and played many many games throughout the 80s, and I'm not aware of any program that used this method. They all used a mechanical dongle, or other physical method, to verify a program's validity.
Can you please provide us a list of the games/programs, pre-patent, that allowed for *online* registration using a key? (or else defaulted to a trialware mode)
>>>it would mean no one could do this in their own products without fear of a law suite
Is a "law suite" where lawyers and hookers go to get their freak on? Sorry. I couldn't resist. ;-) No what it means is that every time somebody uses an online registration key, then they have to pay a royalty to the inventor, just the same as a royalty has to be paid to use MPEG2 or AAC or Dolby Surround. This is no big deal, and entirely fair for the smalltime inventor.
>>>Stop astroturfing.
This isn't astroturfing. This is some guy making a point and expressing an opinion - a true grassroots person.
>>>Surely there we're games/shareware apps that did that before this patent too.
Please name them. I'm not aware of any that predate 1993 (when the inventor originally tried to sell his idea to MS). Most of the software of that time used the following methods to enable trialware: Let you play a level and then type in a "code" from a book or wheel. -or- Allow software to be used but disabled if you did not have the mechanical dongle on the rear of the machine.
This inventor's idea was different in that it allowed online registration via phoneline dialup or internet connection.
Plus all legitimate authority comes from the People. The jury is as close to that ultimate authority as you're gonna get, and as you said there's the appeals process which allows judges to order secondary trials if the original case was somehow flawed. Hopefully this inventor will get a second chance to stand before a jury and plead his case to protect his invention.
>>>For balance then we need a system where by we, the public, can vacate a judge on the same grounds...
We have one. (cocks gun). Or if you want something less messy, you could hire a private investigator to hack the judge's accounts, find the evidence of bribes from Microsoft, and then have the judge removed and the original verdict restored. There was a similar instance in Pennsylvania, resulting in the freedom of many wrongfully-convicted citizens and a judge who is heading towards jail on bribery/corruption charges.
You say "usual" but it's only usual TODAY.
It was not usual back in the 80s when it was invented.
Quoting the article:
"Once users buy the software, they get a registration key that unlocks the full featured version of the software. Uniloc claimed Richardson showed a copy of his software to Microsoft in 1993 but Microsoft did not license it, instead developing its own almost identical version and incorporating it into its products from 1997 or 1998."
>>>they will pay enough tax in their working lives to more than counterbalance what they cost in retirement.
Yes but when the oil drought hits the fan circa 2020 or 2030, causing rampant shortages in food supplies, having *fewer* hungry people will be an advantage. It's easier to feed 10 million than 50 million, so it's wiser to close the doors now rather than later. (Even if we come-up with alternative solar power, the transition from oil will be easier with a smaller population.)
So to use a car analogy (cough)
- It's the same reason why people lease cars instead of buying them. It's cheaper in the short term, and easier to come up with $300 for rent than $20,000 for purchase. Plus adding extra cars as new employees join the company is trivially easy.
Yes the summary didn't make any sense to me either. "How big can the cloud get before it starts to rain?" Huh? Is it saying how long will it be until the cloud starts making a profit for Amazon, or until the cloud collapses under its own weight? I still remember when AOL signed-up too many customers, and the result was a service that was slow and unresponsive.
You need to integrate your kid with your computer, so that way you can both have fun at the same time.
>>>Washington Times. Its the newspaper equivalent of Fox News.
That's a nice opinion, but it doesn't explain why we should ignore the article the Times printed You committed an Ad Hominem Fallacy. Example: "Paula says the umpire made the correct call, but this can't be true, because Paula is a liar." Assuming the premise is correct, that Paula's observation is probably a lie, the umpire may nonetheless have made the right call. Likewise Washington Times' article may still be a worthy article, and you've failed to explain why it isn't.
Someone else wrote:
>>>what's wrong with surfing porn at work?
Same thing that's objectionable about hanging a bikini calendar in your office. Some women find this objectionable and will file a lawsuit about "creating an unfriendly workplace" or some such. Therefore both the calendar and the porn are verboten. Of course it's not just women. Back in the days of Wang computers I saw a lot of jokes pasted to bulletin boards about male coworkers or husbands, and the size of the their Wangs.
Getting back to the article, it sounds like it was a more serious problem than just one or two visits to a site:
- "One foundation employee...during a three-week period in June 2008, the worker perused hundreds of pornographic Web sites" (bored from lack-of-work perhaps?)
- "Another employee in a different case was caught with hundreds of pictures, videos and even PowerPoint slide shows containing pornography."
- "Another employee who stored nude images of herself on her computer told investigators she mistakenly had downloaded the pictures."
- "The foundation is hardly the only government agency to be embarrassed... The inspector general for the SEC noted in a report last fall that it had recently conducted three investigations into employees who misused government computers to view pornography."
The remarkable thing is the lack of punishment. The first two employees merely got a 2-week suspension without pay. Oh no. Horror. The woman received mandatory counseling, and the senior exec who surfed 300+ days apparently got no punishment - just an early retirement. If I did this on my private job I'd get FIRED. I should forget private engineering and instead study public policy to land myself a nice cushy job in government.
Interesting post.
Copyright used to censor information? I'm sure that was Not the original intent ("to promote useful arts"). That's using copyright to Demote the arts via silencing the mouth of the author as if she/he was a slave. I also find the Fair Use Project's claims dubious. Did not capitulate? That's exactly what she did when she excised major pieces of her book.
If I was accused of copyright infringement, I'd try to work with the owners and satisfy their request, but I would not censor my main thesis, or remove the one or two sentences that were borrowed from Joyce and crucial for my readers' understanding. I'd go ahead and publish anyway - and if they pulled my books off the shelf, then I'd release the book for free on my website or bittorrent. I won't back down in the face of Censors or tyrants. They can take their cease-and-desist letter and shove it down their throat.
>>>start programming mobile clients with the same care we used for hand-optimized assembler on original IBM PCs
Agree 100%. But that requires intimate knowledge of how the hardware works in order to optimize the code to use the hardware sparingly. Few modern programmers have any clue, since they are "removed" from the device by several layers of OS and userspace.
Also tape is not really stable - the magnetic oxide flakes-off over time.
I'd say the most stable technology we have for storage is Flash RAM since it has no moving parts, and if you're willing to expend the money, then a ROM is the absolute best. Even after we're all dust, the ROMs inside Atari, Sega, and Nintendo cartridges will still be readable.
>>>baraknaphobia got to him, it appears.
I haven't changed. I've always disliked big spenders that borrow money and drive us deeper into debt ($130,000 per U.S. home and climbing). BTW did you know, due to the recession, Social Security is now projected to go bankrupt in 2017? Yay.
"On pages 201 and 202 of the Medicare report, you will find the conclusive arithmetic: over the next 75 years, Social Security and Medicare will cost an estimated $103.2 trillion, while dedicated taxes and premiums will total only $57.4 trillion. The gap is $45.8 trillion." - Why Social Security Should Go Broke Faster | Newsweek, http://www.newsweek.com/id/199167
Okay so *hundreds* of dollars instead of thousands. Still a ripoff. Meanwhile the music industry is trying to plot ways so you *rent* your songs rather than buy them for life, and the banking industry is hitting Americans with numerous fees, and the electric companies are raising rates to offset carbon credits, and ......
No wonder the typical person carries $10,000 in credit card and $70,000 in mortgage debt. They are being soaked for money such that they can't catch up.
Funny. That's what my brother said when he spent $3000 on a push lawnmower. I still think he's a fool. I coulda bought one off amazon for less than $200... fewer features perhaps but it still makes the grass short.
P.S.
And if I ever get tired of DDR, I can always sell it on ebay and recover most of my $20. Good luck trying to recover your $840 worth of online gaming.
>>>It is immoral and unethical to leave a fool with any money.
Hey Barak, is dat u? I cant sy I like ur new 80% tax rate, but I love u man! Ur so hot.
>>>>>I've paid $14.95 a month for 56 months. That's $837.20.
>>
>>pretty much every other hobby costs a lot more per month
Yes but it's not necessary to spend all that cash on just ONE game. I bought DDR for just $20 and it still entertains me all these years later. Why spend hundreds of dollars when a single twenty will give just as much fun?
:-) Barack Obama used to work for ACORN.
Ahh the old "two wrongs don't make a right" fallacy. If we held true to that saying, we would not put people in jail because that too is a "wrong".
>>>Ahh the download is a lost sale fallacy. It's simply not true.
Well... it's only partly true. I'd estimate that about 10% of people I know, if they did not have internet, would have bought the product on CD or DVD. So you can estimate that 10 downloads == 1 lost sale overall.
http://www.dictionary.com/ might also work. (Funny how people overlook the obvious.)