The US Supreme Court ruling used the term "anything under the sun that is made by man".
The essence of this lawsuit is that the natural genes were "discovered" not "made by man".
In other words these patents were invalid under existing law. Nothing new here, bad patents have been around since King James (the gay King of England and Scotland).
At some point China (and any other country which restricts free speech) must either (1) degrade their Internet service severely or (2) allow a "leaky wall"
Option 1 means that they will inevitably fall behind the rest of the world in areas like science and commerce which they care about. If that process is continued long enough they become irrelevant - like the notion of Somalia invading the US.
Option 2 means that they will have to live with losing all control over the information they most want to suppress.
This is one area where a democracy is far better equipped to deal with than any totalitarian government.
This is an issue which every politician should help to resolve. The few honest ones who actually support open government might actually do so!
I sent this email to my US Congress Representative - Harry Mitchell D-Arizona 5th District http://www.mitchell.house.gov/
"President Obama was elected on a promise of more openness in government. One of the organizations which support this goal is a website known as WikiLeaks. http://www.wikileaks.org/
Wikileaks does not accept government money in any form, but rely on independent donations. It appears that today PayPal has suspended their account as WikiLeaks struggles to raise funds for their 2010 expenses.
Quote from the website: "Paypal has as of 23rd of January 2010 frozen WikiLeaks assets. This is the second time that this happens. The last time we struggled for more than half a year to resolve this issue. By working with the respected and recognized German foundation Wau Holland Stiftung we tried to avoid this from happening again -- apparently without avail.
We are working on resolving this issue as fast as possible. Please use our bank accounts for direct transfer in the meantime, or contact wl-donations@sunshinepress.org for any further questions.
WikiLeaks is not the only non-profit organization with this problem. This is a regular occurrence, that from our perspective should not be tolerated by the global community using this payment system."
This appears to be politically motivated and something which should be investigated!
I am sure you will agree that this is not merely an issue between private parties, but one of immense importance to supporters of open and accountable government everywhere.
As your constituent, I urge you to use whatever influence that you can bring to bear to investigate this situation and to expose whatever wrongdoing is involved - wrongdoing by EITHER party in this dispute.
This is exactly the kind of booby trap that makes "software patents" and "ownership of software" such a minefield!
IMHO this is one of the great "sleeper" issues of th e21st century.
'Ownership" implies a whole raft of things like Real Estate (1000 years ago John the Harvester used to carry his wheelbarrow over this land so his decendets should still be able to!"
"Licensing" gives 100% ownership of EVERYTHING to the "licensor". "You wrote that using MS Word, WE get a free copy..."
This is not a simple problem and there will not be simple or "nice" answers, but it is probably the most important question of the 21st century!
Alan Greenspan claimed that many of our economic problems are due to IP laws based on a Real Estate model (I own this forever and it is in my interest to build lots of good stuff on the land) rather than a "creative" model like Patents (I own this for a few years, but someone is making something better so I need to stay ahead of them while I can...)
Obviously this is a problem with cooling the engine of an ocean going vessel too.
The traditional solution is to use corrosion resistant metals and to add sacrificial anodes of a metal such as zinc which make electrical contact with the metal parts to be protected.
It is an added expense, but quite manageable.
For many years I lived on a sailboat with a 30 year old diesel engine which worked just fine, but you had to replace the zinc anodes every couple of months.
They cost about US$2 and took about 10 minutes to replace.
For many years I lived on a sailboat with a wind generator which shorted the output to stop the blades as well as to KEEP them stopped.
Worked fine even in gale force +++ winds.
One VERY dark night headed for Fiji though a magnet came loose in the generator and THAT was spectacular!
Think a 1/2 inch hardened steel rod with a 45 degree bend before it broke!
I now understand that the bade was close to MACH 1 when it broke free!
THANK CTHULU that the flying blade that flew off didn't hit anyone on board but went into the Pacific Ocean! My abject apologies to any fish...
The CUBE relationship is the biggest problem with wind power - 99% of the time you have to eke out every watt, but for that 1% you have SO much power that it destroys things.
I am a long time Windows app. developer (think EDIF and Anadigm Inc.) recently converted to Linux.
As such I am often looking for an app. that will do some specific task, if it is really useful and interesting then I might even join the development effort.
I am amazed at the number of projects that describe their goals in gobblydygook or even have no description at all apart from "its the greatest thing since sliced bread".
Yeah great.:-(
Actually it seems that the root cause is often that the project leaders really have no idea what it is that they are developing either! The result is yet another arcane abandonware project which does no one any good and just wastes the developers efforts.
Like it or not a one paragraph summary is essential - that fact that it is really hard to write is only an indication of how much confusion exists.
A standard I used when starting out was to describe what I was doing to a non-techie such as my mother. If THEY could understand what I was up to then anyone with some technical knowledge would catch on instantly. It really does help!
I had a similar problem with a very persistent collector for someone's defaulted student loan. I would explain that the person had never lived here and they would go away for a couple of weeks then another agency would call and we would start all over.
Finally I was angry enough to ask the caller why he wanted to talk to my 6 year old granddaughter? Was he a child molester trying to kidnap her? Then WHY are you calling her? etc. for about 10 minutes until I ran out of nasty accusations.
Since it was a Federal Government student loan collection (which they should not have revealed but did...) I followed this up with a blistering letter to my congressman!
I have not received another call in almost 18 months now.
As a Patent Agent I often cross the US/Canada border with highly proprietary client information on my laptop. It is well established in law (both Canadian and US law!) that this information is covered by attorney-client privilege. As a practical matter premature disclosure to a third party (i.e. CBT officials) could result in invalidation of the patent and result in damages running into the BILLIONS of dollars.
I really wonder if any government agency is prepared to accept this liability?
So far this question has not arisen, usually I wave my passport at the official and get waved through. (Yes I do look harmless - so much for appearances LOL)
However sooner or later this situation will come up and I have to wonder how it will be handled - probably poorly if past experience is any guide.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you travelled by airline recently?
As an old fossil who needs a toilet NOW!! on occasion I can only sympathise with the monkey!
The US Supreme Court ruling used the term "anything under the sun that is made by man".
The essence of this lawsuit is that the natural genes were "discovered" not "made by man".
In other words these patents were invalid under existing law. Nothing new here, bad patents have been around since King James (the gay King of England and Scotland).
Wasn't there a movie about this a few years ago? LOL
Just think, before long we can have robots along every highway that can "eliminate" speeders and other evil lawbreakers!
No need for a trial or any of this "pinko liberal" carp - just ZAP them as they offend!
At some point China (and any other country which restricts free speech) must either (1) degrade their Internet service severely or (2) allow a "leaky wall" Option 1 means that they will inevitably fall behind the rest of the world in areas like science and commerce which they care about. If that process is continued long enough they become irrelevant - like the notion of Somalia invading the US. Option 2 means that they will have to live with losing all control over the information they most want to suppress. This is one area where a democracy is far better equipped to deal with than any totalitarian government.
This is an issue which every politician should help to resolve. The few honest ones who actually support open government might actually do so!
I sent this email to my US Congress Representative - Harry Mitchell D-Arizona 5th District http://www.mitchell.house.gov/
"President Obama was elected on a promise of more openness in government. One of the organizations which support this goal is a website known as WikiLeaks. http://www.wikileaks.org/
Wikileaks does not accept government money in any form, but rely on independent donations. It appears that today PayPal has suspended their account as WikiLeaks struggles to raise funds for their 2010 expenses.
Quote from the website:
"Paypal has as of 23rd of January 2010 frozen WikiLeaks assets. This is the second time that this happens. The last time we struggled for more than half a year to resolve this issue. By working with the respected and recognized German foundation Wau Holland Stiftung we tried to avoid this from happening again -- apparently without avail.
We are working on resolving this issue as fast as possible. Please use our bank accounts for direct transfer in the meantime, or contact wl-donations@sunshinepress.org for any further questions.
WikiLeaks is not the only non-profit organization with this problem. This is a regular occurrence, that from our perspective should not be tolerated by the global community using this payment system."
This appears to be politically motivated and something which should be investigated!
I am sure you will agree that this is not merely an issue between private parties, but one of immense importance to supporters of open and accountable government everywhere.
As your constituent, I urge you to use whatever influence that you can bring to bear to investigate this situation and to expose whatever wrongdoing is involved - wrongdoing by EITHER party in this dispute.
By some strange coincidence Texas seceded from the (then) Spanish colony of Mexico right after the Spanish abolished slavery!
That is the part of "the Alamo" that Texans would rather forget!
Just try to find a real person!
Diesel equipment has been used for more than 50 years in mines due to the fact they give off CO2 not CO.
As anyone who has owned a diesel engine knows, the main "particulates" are pure carbon soot!
I don't know the exact chemistry but clearly if there were any really nasty stuff in the exhaust then the mines would become contaminated long ago.
17th amendment is direct election of senators!
BAH HUMBUG!
That is exactly the question that this court ruling is all about! CAN you resell the download legally or not?
DRM merely adds a layer of obfuscation.
This is exactly the kind of booby trap that makes "software patents" and "ownership of software" such a minefield!
IMHO this is one of the great "sleeper" issues of th e21st century.
'Ownership" implies a whole raft of things like Real Estate (1000 years ago John the Harvester used to carry his wheelbarrow over this land so his decendets should still be able to!"
"Licensing" gives 100% ownership of EVERYTHING to the "licensor". "You wrote that using MS Word, WE get a free copy ..."
This is not a simple problem and there will not be simple or "nice" answers, but it is probably the most important question of the 21st century!
Alan Greenspan claimed that many of our economic problems are due to IP laws based on a Real Estate model (I own this forever and it is in my interest to build lots of good stuff on the land) rather than a "creative" model like Patents (I own this for a few years, but someone is making something better so I need to stay ahead of them while I can ...)
Microsoft is used to dealing with much smaller adversaries who can be intimidated or simply ignored.
I am thinking of the MSWord/XML patent fuss as the latest example.
What is new is that Google is big enough to take on Microsoft and at their own game! Including Microsoft's favourite game of FUDD!
What I am seeing is that Microsoft is being "attacked" on many fronts at once.
Remember IBM and their attempts to kill off the PC not that long ago?
I find that downloading Ubuntu releases via BitTorrent to be about 5X faster than FTP or HTTP downloads!
Much slower for something rare like the 1964 Dr. Who TV series, but hey ...
I was trying to be polite with the term "organic pollutants" :-)
Of course Lake Ontario is one of the largest FRESH WATER lakes in the world ...
The only real problem there is zebra mussels which clog pipes and eat many organic pollutants (you can't win them all!)
Obviously this is a problem with cooling the engine of an ocean going vessel too.
The traditional solution is to use corrosion resistant metals and to add sacrificial anodes of a metal such as zinc which make electrical contact with the metal parts to be protected.
It is an added expense, but quite manageable.
For many years I lived on a sailboat with a 30 year old diesel engine which worked just fine, but you had to replace the zinc anodes every couple of months.
They cost about US$2 and took about 10 minutes to replace.
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but Sailmail is intended for marine applications and is licensed ONLY in the marine mobile bands!
That being said, almost every marina in the world now had Wi-Fi, I suspect that most RV parks won't be far behind.
You will likely need a "high power" or "extended range" Wi-Fi though. In Australia we "pushed" Wi-Fi to over 2 miles for example.
Even in Indonesia we found Internet Cafe's (4 users on a 56Kb line!)
If you go to remote places there is still access, but it is either expensive or degraded.
I think they learned this from watching US politics.
Are US Political Speeches still considered "Canadian Content" on Canadian TV?
that wind power is EVIL!
For many years I lived on a sailboat with a wind generator which shorted the output to stop the blades as well as to KEEP them stopped.
Worked fine even in gale force +++ winds.
One VERY dark night headed for Fiji though a magnet came loose in the generator and THAT was spectacular!
Think a 1/2 inch hardened steel rod with a 45 degree bend before it broke!
I now understand that the bade was close to MACH 1 when it broke free!
THANK CTHULU that the flying blade that flew off didn't hit anyone on board but went into the Pacific Ocean! My abject apologies to any fish ...
The CUBE relationship is the biggest problem with wind power - 99% of the time you have to eke out every watt, but for that 1% you have SO much power that it destroys things.
Especially at night when I am off watch :-(
Captain Bligh was a NICE guy compared to me!
I think the point is to have say 90% the information IN ONE PLACE!
Not spread over 20,000 source code comments and 60 wiki pages.
If YOU don't know what you are developing why expect anyone else to?
Of course if you are really in the business of developing abandonware then ignore all of this.
I am a long time Windows app. developer (think EDIF and Anadigm Inc.) recently converted to Linux.
As such I am often looking for an app. that will do some specific task, if it is really useful and interesting then I might even join the development effort.
I am amazed at the number of projects that describe their goals in gobblydygook or even have no description at all apart from "its the greatest thing since sliced bread".
Yeah great. :-(
Actually it seems that the root cause is often that the project leaders really have no idea what it is that they are developing either! The result is yet another arcane abandonware project which does no one any good and just wastes the developers efforts.
Like it or not a one paragraph summary is essential - that fact that it is really hard to write is only an indication of how much confusion exists.
A standard I used when starting out was to describe what I was doing to a non-techie such as my mother. If THEY could understand what I was up to then anyone with some technical knowledge would catch on instantly. It really does help!
I had a similar problem with a very persistent collector for someone's defaulted student loan. I would explain that the person had never lived here and they would go away for a couple of weeks then another agency would call and we would start all over.
Finally I was angry enough to ask the caller why he wanted to talk to my 6 year old granddaughter? Was he a child molester trying to kidnap her? Then WHY are you calling her? etc. for about 10 minutes until I ran out of nasty accusations.
Since it was a Federal Government student loan collection (which they should not have revealed but did ...) I followed this up with a blistering letter to my congressman!
I have not received another call in almost 18 months now.
As a Patent Agent I often cross the US/Canada border with highly proprietary client information on my laptop. It is well established in law (both Canadian and US law!) that this information is covered by attorney-client privilege. As a practical matter premature disclosure to a third party (i.e. CBT officials) could result in invalidation of the patent and result in damages running into the BILLIONS of dollars.
I really wonder if any government agency is prepared to accept this liability?
So far this question has not arisen, usually I wave my passport at the official and get waved through. (Yes I do look harmless - so much for appearances LOL)
However sooner or later this situation will come up and I have to wonder how it will be handled - probably poorly if past experience is any guide.