"Process" here is not referring to a manner of business. It is referring to "processes" such as "refining ore into pure iron". Court case after case has upheld that Business Processes can not be patented. However, the 1998 case State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group Inc. made it possible to patent business methods. This precedent set in this case is what allowed Amazon.com to patent "One-Click Checkout", a previously unpatentable business method.
Maybe I'm missing something, but haven't hardware developers been able to do this for a long time? When I was hardware hacking back in the 1980s, I remember several companies that would take a circuit board design (presumably tested on prototyping breadboard first) and manufacture it in whatever quantities you needed. I think there were even a few chip fabs that could chuck you out a calculator chip in no time. (Although I think all the modern fabs require large runs.)
Looking at the patent, it would appear that the claim of "Uses an embedded HTML Viewer" is the point where they trip up. Yes, they can get Microsoft on this, but there is very little they can do to Apple. Apple's auto-update program does not use an HTML viewer in any way shape or form, and is thus non-infringing.
Granted, I'm on 10.2 Jaguar, so things may be different in 10.3.
you patent the business process for using the software.
One of the things you explicitly CANNOT patent is a business process. A business process is not considered a device or invention. To patent something, you must describe a physical device (which software has been redefined to be) that performs a specific, non-obvious task.
Hey, those things were actually great little 2D cards (and cheap too!). The reason why they fell out of favor was that their 3D support (in the form of the S3 Virge) was downright broken. I remember playing a "Virge Enhanced" version of Tomb Raider. None of the wall seams would line up, polygon "ghosts" kept appearing, and the overall game performance was indistinguishable from the software version. The end result was that *software rendering* made a better showing than the S3 Virge.
Not quite. CyberMage had an in-game story-line like Half-life. Marathon was more like System Shock in that it used "terminals" outside of the action to advance the plot.
Bringing up patents is a huge red herring. SCO's original claim is that there is actual code in Linux that SCO holds copyrights too. They're not claiming that Linux developers re-implementated anything; they're claiming that Linux developers copied things.
I understand, but that breaks down even worse in SCO's favor. The litmus test is this:
1. Is the code EXACTLY the same? 2. Can SCO prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the code was explicitly copied, was disguised, did not diverge and was not re-implemented. 3. Can SCO show a trade secret that was stolen?
We pretty much know that #1 is false and that #2 is damn near impossible to prove. #3 is useless to them because TISC revealed the secret. They can sue TISC for that (if they have a leg to stand on), but they can't sue anyone else. Thus SCO is still performing barratry and they know it.
Actually, this accusation would affect BSD, period. BSD (like most Unixes) switched from the A.OUT format to ELF several years ago. In fact, BSD was one of the last holdouts simply because they didn't need to switch.
However, it's not a laughing matter, solely because the merits will be determined by lawyers and judges - not anyone with a vaguely technical background. Or much common sense...
Granted, but it *is* a matter of law. Mr. Sontag's assertion that the Unix copyright somehow gives them patent protection, it completely and utterly ridiculous. So far the judge has damn near booted SCO out of court. I expect he'll finish the job after he understands what SCO is trying to propose here.
Why are you laughing? Do you know if their claims have merit,
Indeed I do. Perfect example is Mr. Sontag's statement that "everyone is infringing on SCO's ELF copyrights." Mr. Sontag apparently does not understand what a copyright is. (Hint: It's not like a patent.) While I'm not a lawyer, I did an analysis here.
These guys make absolutely no sense. They're flailing their arms in the air and saying "You owe us money!" Let's pick apart each claim:
1. Sontag also says that any entities that ignore SCO's ELF copyrights are infringing."
Hello? Copyrights are for "copy" protection. Not "patent" protection. If you invent something new and fail to patent it, I can re-implement it all I want, copyright or no.
2. SCO also claims "substantial similarity" between the Read-Copy-Update (RCU) routine in Linux 2.6.5 and Linux patches and SCO's copyrighted work, specifically SVR4.2 MP.
Again, do they have a patent? If they don't, then they should STFU.
3. It thinks that Unix SMP 4.2 System V initialization (init) code was copied into Linux 2.6, that there's "substantial similarity" between the user level synchronization (ULS) routines in Linux and Unix, that its Unix System V IPC code was copied into Linux 2.4.20 and that copyrighted Unix header and interfaces were copied into Linux.
Oooo... it's similar! Well, that just cinches it, doesn't it. It's not like anyone would ever re-implement a design they liked. I better go take the wheels off my Chevy. It's too similar to a cart and horse.
4. It also says the journaled file system (JFS) module from later versions of AIX, which SCO believes may derive from the JFS Unix, is in Linux 2.6. - MOG
Just to reiterate, SCO is not reading their own contracts. What IBM develops is IBMs. Plain and simple.
These guys ought to be tried and convicted for barratry, regardless of whether their legal counsel is this stupid or not.
I'm not trying to be mean, nor is this intended as a flame, but a strong conternder against what? If you don't game a lot that PC is fine (I have a dual p3-700 with a gf2 gts that I use every day), but it's going to struggle to play most current games, let alone next gen ones.
It has played every game I've wanted it to play. That's good enough for me. And I rarely fall below the "minimum" requirements. There are still a lot of GeForce 2s out there, so I think game developers have focused on making their games work with them. Not to mention that the Quake III engine (still in popular use) is practically designed for the GeForce 2. Unreal 2 was a bit slow, but I wasn't overly impressed anyway.
I don't really equate Doom3 to Quake3 as much as the jump from doom2 to quake1 when you had to have a pentium to run the game.
Agreed. The release of the Doom 3 engine will mark the transition from one era of gaming to another. It is very much the paradigm shift that will force me to finally upgrade. But in the meantime, you can expect me to get the most milage possible out of my existing machine. I built it for capacity, and it has held up well.
I really thought that half-life was the first FPS with an immersive story.
It was. Sort of. CyberMage actually beat it out by several years, but no one ever played CyberMage. I just happened to find Elite Force more immersive than Half-life (which I STILL haven't beat. Doesn't this game ever END?);-)
One definite error: you talk about oxygen being "pulled near the star by gravitation", yet once it combines with H2 to make water, it *then* gets blown out? Despite the fact that H20 molecules are heavier than the isolated oxygen atoms?
The Sun exhausts a great deal of energy in the form of Solar Winds. For every one particle of oxygen that combines to make water, you potentially have trillions of hydrogen particles from the Sun's outer layer. These particles would easily impart their energy and force the water back out of the solar system. Think of it like water poured on a massive fire. It instantly gets converted to steam and forced away from the fire.
Granted, I don't know where in the Solar System the water would form, but any that manages to make it inside will be blown back out.
Are you on crack? Of course they want everyone to go out and buy doom 3, and trust me, it will happen.
Oh, I believe it will happen. Just not right now. First systems have to play catch-up to the proper tech before Doom III will run on the majority of systems. The hardcore gamers, those with the latest and greatest hardware, and the overclockers should all be covered. That still leaves a HUGE portion of the market that Id will slowly draw revenue from over the next 3-5 years.
It's WAY more than a year, even if the engine and dev tools are already completely done for you.
As I said, at least a year lead time. A year of lead time can happen when an existing project switches engines in mid-development. While not very common, it has been known to happen.
My apologies. I'm just annoyed because that joke has been appearing on every space related article posted over the past few days. It's beginning to grate on my nerves (which are already raw for other reasons) and you happened to reply the standard troll text I was expecting. You just kind of ended up in the line of fire. It was nothing personal against you.
Whether a planet that's too close to a star (ie, too hot) keeps its water isn't a function of heat, but one of gravity. The water, if present, may be in a vapor form, but that vapor is still held around the planet by gravity.
That's where solar winds are able to literally rip away the vapor. As far out as we are, we only see about 1.3kw of power per square meter. Keep in mind that radiation and sunlight fall off at a rate of 1/r^2. The closer you get to the Sun, the more energy is applied to the nearby bodies.
Here's a link that explains that Mercury's atmosphere is believed to be mostly lost to Solar Winds.
Actually, I was able to get the "demo" running. It was pretty cool, but the controls lagged horribly. Granted, it wasn't final code, but I have few doubts that my machine would be able to produce more than 20 FPS. Whether that's "playable" or not is a topic for debate.
And had your reading comprehension been higher, you might have noticed that I said "using the F* word in every place possible" was what failed to make it funny. I expand on this point more in this post.
It *would* have been funny if it was a good contrast. But the Onion couldn't leave it alone. They decided that they had to swear so much it would make a Gangsta Rapper blush. That's when it stops being funny and begins to grate on your nerves. It's nothing more than a forced joke by someone who can't write.
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"Process" here is not referring to a manner of business. It is referring to "processes" such as "refining ore into pure iron". Court case after case has upheld that Business Processes can not be patented. However, the 1998 case State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group Inc. made it possible to patent business methods. This precedent set in this case is what allowed Amazon.com to patent "One-Click Checkout", a previously unpatentable business method.
Maybe I'm missing something, but haven't hardware developers been able to do this for a long time? When I was hardware hacking back in the 1980s, I remember several companies that would take a circuit board design (presumably tested on prototyping breadboard first) and manufacture it in whatever quantities you needed. I think there were even a few chip fabs that could chuck you out a calculator chip in no time. (Although I think all the modern fabs require large runs.)
Looking at the patent, it would appear that the claim of "Uses an embedded HTML Viewer" is the point where they trip up. Yes, they can get Microsoft on this, but there is very little they can do to Apple. Apple's auto-update program does not use an HTML viewer in any way shape or form, and is thus non-infringing.
Granted, I'm on 10.2 Jaguar, so things may be different in 10.3.
you patent the business process for using the software.
One of the things you explicitly CANNOT patent is a business process. A business process is not considered a device or invention. To patent something, you must describe a physical device (which software has been redefined to be) that performs a specific, non-obvious task.
Choose your answer:
1. What's a Playstation?
2. I never owned a Playstation, you insensitive clod!
3. Playstations used S3 Virge chips?
=D
Hey, those things were actually great little 2D cards (and cheap too!). The reason why they fell out of favor was that their 3D support (in the form of the S3 Virge) was downright broken. I remember playing a "Virge Enhanced" version of Tomb Raider. None of the wall seams would line up, polygon "ghosts" kept appearing, and the overall game performance was indistinguishable from the software version. The end result was that *software rendering* made a better showing than the S3 Virge.
Not quite. CyberMage had an in-game story-line like Half-life. Marathon was more like System Shock in that it used "terminals" outside of the action to advance the plot.
Bringing up patents is a huge red herring. SCO's original claim is that there is actual code in Linux that SCO holds copyrights too. They're not claiming that Linux developers re-implementated anything; they're claiming that Linux developers copied things.
I understand, but that breaks down even worse in SCO's favor. The litmus test is this:
1. Is the code EXACTLY the same?
2. Can SCO prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the code was explicitly copied, was disguised, did not diverge and was not re-implemented.
3. Can SCO show a trade secret that was stolen?
We pretty much know that #1 is false and that #2 is damn near impossible to prove. #3 is useless to them because TISC revealed the secret. They can sue TISC for that (if they have a leg to stand on), but they can't sue anyone else. Thus SCO is still performing barratry and they know it.
(In best Teal'C impression) Indeed.
Actually, this accusation would affect BSD, period. BSD (like most Unixes) switched from the A.OUT format to ELF several years ago. In fact, BSD was one of the last holdouts simply because they didn't need to switch.
However, it's not a laughing matter, solely because the merits will be determined by lawyers and judges - not anyone with a vaguely technical background. Or much common sense...
Granted, but it *is* a matter of law. Mr. Sontag's assertion that the Unix copyright somehow gives them patent protection, it completely and utterly ridiculous. So far the judge has damn near booted SCO out of court. I expect he'll finish the job after he understands what SCO is trying to propose here.
Why are you laughing? Do you know if their claims have merit,
Indeed I do. Perfect example is Mr. Sontag's statement that "everyone is infringing on SCO's ELF copyrights." Mr. Sontag apparently does not understand what a copyright is. (Hint: It's not like a patent.) While I'm not a lawyer, I did an analysis here.
These guys make absolutely no sense. They're flailing their arms in the air and saying "You owe us money!" Let's pick apart each claim:
1. Sontag also says that any entities that ignore SCO's ELF copyrights are infringing."
Hello? Copyrights are for "copy" protection. Not "patent" protection. If you invent something new and fail to patent it, I can re-implement it all I want, copyright or no.
2. SCO also claims "substantial similarity" between the Read-Copy-Update (RCU) routine in Linux 2.6.5 and Linux patches and SCO's copyrighted work, specifically SVR4.2 MP.
Again, do they have a patent? If they don't, then they should STFU.
3. It thinks that Unix SMP 4.2 System V initialization (init) code was copied into Linux 2.6, that there's "substantial similarity" between the user level synchronization (ULS) routines in Linux and Unix, that its Unix System V IPC code was copied into Linux 2.4.20 and that copyrighted Unix header and interfaces were copied into Linux.
Oooo... it's similar! Well, that just cinches it, doesn't it. It's not like anyone would ever re-implement a design they liked. I better go take the wheels off my Chevy. It's too similar to a cart and horse.
4. It also says the journaled file system (JFS) module from later versions of AIX, which SCO believes may derive from the JFS Unix, is in Linux 2.6. - MOG
Just to reiterate, SCO is not reading their own contracts. What IBM develops is IBMs. Plain and simple.
These guys ought to be tried and convicted for barratry, regardless of whether their legal counsel is this stupid or not.
I have but one response: BWHAHAHAHAHA!!! These guys are LAME.
Oh thank you! I didn't know you cared!
Wait a minute...
I'm not trying to be mean, nor is this intended as a flame, but a strong conternder against what? If you don't game a lot that PC is fine (I have a dual p3-700 with a gf2 gts that I use every day), but it's going to struggle to play most current games, let alone next gen ones.
It has played every game I've wanted it to play. That's good enough for me. And I rarely fall below the "minimum" requirements. There are still a lot of GeForce 2s out there, so I think game developers have focused on making their games work with them. Not to mention that the Quake III engine (still in popular use) is practically designed for the GeForce 2. Unreal 2 was a bit slow, but I wasn't overly impressed anyway.
I don't really equate Doom3 to Quake3 as much as the jump from doom2 to quake1 when you had to have a pentium to run the game.
Agreed. The release of the Doom 3 engine will mark the transition from one era of gaming to another. It is very much the paradigm shift that will force me to finally upgrade. But in the meantime, you can expect me to get the most milage possible out of my existing machine. I built it for capacity, and it has held up well.
:-)
I really thought that half-life was the first FPS with an immersive story.
;-)
It was. Sort of. CyberMage actually beat it out by several years, but no one ever played CyberMage. I just happened to find Elite Force more immersive than Half-life (which I STILL haven't beat. Doesn't this game ever END?)
One definite error: you talk about oxygen being "pulled near the star by gravitation", yet once it combines with H2 to make water, it *then* gets blown out? Despite the fact that H20 molecules are heavier than the isolated oxygen atoms?
The Sun exhausts a great deal of energy in the form of Solar Winds. For every one particle of oxygen that combines to make water, you potentially have trillions of hydrogen particles from the Sun's outer layer. These particles would easily impart their energy and force the water back out of the solar system. Think of it like water poured on a massive fire. It instantly gets converted to steam and forced away from the fire.
Granted, I don't know where in the Solar System the water would form, but any that manages to make it inside will be blown back out.
Are you on crack? Of course they want everyone to go out and buy doom 3, and trust me, it will happen.
Oh, I believe it will happen. Just not right now. First systems have to play catch-up to the proper tech before Doom III will run on the majority of systems. The hardcore gamers, those with the latest and greatest hardware, and the overclockers should all be covered. That still leaves a HUGE portion of the market that Id will slowly draw revenue from over the next 3-5 years.
It's WAY more than a year, even if the engine and dev tools are already completely done for you.
As I said, at least a year lead time. A year of lead time can happen when an existing project switches engines in mid-development. While not very common, it has been known to happen.
My apologies. I'm just annoyed because that joke has been appearing on every space related article posted over the past few days. It's beginning to grate on my nerves (which are already raw for other reasons) and you happened to reply the standard troll text I was expecting. You just kind of ended up in the line of fire. It was nothing personal against you.
Whether a planet that's too close to a star (ie, too hot) keeps its water isn't a function of heat, but one of gravity. The water, if present, may be in a vapor form, but that vapor is still held around the planet by gravity.
That's where solar winds are able to literally rip away the vapor. As far out as we are, we only see about 1.3kw of power per square meter. Keep in mind that radiation and sunlight fall off at a rate of 1/r^2. The closer you get to the Sun, the more energy is applied to the nearby bodies.
Here's a link that explains that Mercury's atmosphere is believed to be mostly lost to Solar Winds.
Actually, I was able to get the "demo" running. It was pretty cool, but the controls lagged horribly. Granted, it wasn't final code, but I have few doubts that my machine would be able to produce more than 20 FPS. Whether that's "playable" or not is a topic for debate.
And had your reading comprehension been higher, you might have noticed that I said "using the F* word in every place possible" was what failed to make it funny. I expand on this point more in this post.
That's exactly why the Onion article is so funny.
It *would* have been funny if it was a good contrast. But the Onion couldn't leave it alone. They decided that they had to swear so much it would make a Gangsta Rapper blush. That's when it stops being funny and begins to grate on your nerves. It's nothing more than a forced joke by someone who can't write.