Good grief. What a pissy AC; and incapable of stringing a comprehensible sentence together. Thank Taco that the/. team designed a moderation system which routes around morons.
But hey, being nevertheless stung by the lack of acquired Karma, I thought I'd submit the following gemettes of data, since apparantly my previous more generic argument failed to sway the AC
As the story relates, a complaint has been made in the UK Parliament about the dilatory nature of US justice, which appears to be acting in the interests of US big business and against that of a UK pipsqueak company. The original complaint can be found by searching for "Allvoice" at the URL http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/ cgi-bin/empower?DB=ukparl (which URL, for some strange reason, is not accepted by/. as a valid link. Probably they're merely the soft face of US Hegemony, eh?). There's about a couple of pages of the Member of Parliament providing chapter & verse on the slings and arrows that have outraged the patent holders.
It all relates to teeny tiny Allvoice, who when they're not inventing the future are happy to dash out, screwdriver in hand, to fettle your fallen-down PC. Not a business renowned for making fortunes, so unsuprising they're feeling the pinch taking on US big business
Allvoices patents, which are the McGuffins in this episode, are available for inspection herebut you'll have to use the bottom of the three search boxes on the left side to search for "Allvoice", since I cannot be bothered to list the six patents individually. You can get to a PDF of the full patent in each case.
None of which has anything to say about the price of bread, for which I refer you to my previous post.
This problem seems to be exactly that which is bedevilling UK ISP's at the moment; the cost of defending {a patent|the right to fair comment} and the time involved oft times works against natural justice.
A patent is of no use whatsoever unless you can defend it in court (i.e. prove that someone else has infringed the patent). So take one small underfunded inventor, one huge profitable corporation, and one invention which has the capacity to make huge profit, and what do you think you get? Steamrollered if you're the little guy; more profit if you're the big guy.
Of course there are exceptions. But only a fool thinks that having right on their side leads to justice in the courts.
In closing, the patent law, like the UK libel law, does in fact protect the {inventor|fair-commenter} but only if they can afford to access the protection.
Kudos to Katz for the ffort he put into this thing.
Shame on the squabblers who are more interested in discussing the copyright of their idle scribbling; there is a serious issue here, and that it ameliorating the hellmouth.
Two suggestions:
First, that there should be an online version of the book - hellmouth.com would be apt - maybe the squatters will give it up. The three archives on/. are too confusing for the computer illiterate (e.g. schoolteachers, school heads) - they need a predigested site.
The profits from the book might usefully be used to fund the sending of free copies to school principals, who are exactly the people who need to read and understand this stuff.
Umm, no, we're all British Citizens now, and have been for some time. I vaguely remember the muted brouhaha ten or more years ago when the change was made, and my '91 issue passport confirms it. Probably arose out of some European agreement. And soon we'll be covered by European Convention on Human Rights, so if I can hold out long enough, I'll not ave to admit whether or not I bothered to read the leaked intelligence report. So long as they don't tickle my feet... oops, blown it.
Slashdot Mirror
But hey, being nevertheless stung by the lack of acquired Karma, I thought I'd submit the following gemettes of data, since apparantly my previous more generic argument failed to sway the AC
As the story relates, a complaint has been made in the UK Parliament about the dilatory nature of US justice, which appears to be acting in the interests of US big business and against that of a UK pipsqueak company. The original complaint can be found by searching for "Allvoice" at the URL http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/ cgi-bin/empower?DB=ukparl (which URL, for some strange reason, is not accepted by /. as a valid link. Probably they're merely the soft face of US Hegemony, eh?). There's about a couple of pages of the Member of Parliament providing chapter & verse on the slings and arrows that have outraged the patent holders.
It all relates to teeny tiny Allvoice, who when they're not inventing the future are happy to dash out, screwdriver in hand, to fettle your fallen-down PC. Not a business renowned for making fortunes, so unsuprising they're feeling the pinch taking on US big business
Allvoices patents, which are the McGuffins in this episode, are available for inspection here but you'll have to use the bottom of the three search boxes on the left side to search for "Allvoice", since I cannot be bothered to list the six patents individually. You can get to a PDF of the full patent in each case.
None of which has anything to say about the price of bread, for which I refer you to my previous post.
A patent is of no use whatsoever unless you can defend it in court (i.e. prove that someone else has infringed the patent). So take one small underfunded inventor, one huge profitable corporation, and one invention which has the capacity to make huge profit, and what do you think you get? Steamrollered if you're the little guy; more profit if you're the big guy.
Of course there are exceptions. But only a fool thinks that having right on their side leads to justice in the courts.
In closing, the patent law, like the UK libel law, does in fact protect the {inventor|fair-commenter} but only if they can afford to access the protection.
I f^£&ed up the HTML. I didn't preview. Flame me. I'll flame myself.
Unclean, unclean.
Shame on the squabblers who are more interested in discussing the copyright of their idle scribbling; there is a serious issue here, and that it ameliorating the hellmouth.
Two suggestions:
Umm, no, we're all British Citizens now, and have been for some time. I vaguely remember the muted brouhaha ten or more years ago when the change was made, and my '91 issue passport confirms it. Probably arose out of some European agreement. And soon we'll be covered by European Convention on Human Rights, so if I can hold out long enough, I'll not ave to admit whether or not I bothered to read the leaked intelligence report. So long as they don't tickle my feet ... oops, blown it.