OK, let's put aside any patentability issues and say that they have patented a method of converting arbitary domain names to US-ASCII domain names (gee, I thought MIME does something very similar with headers, I must be mistaken).
What they are missing is the fact that for their patent to become valuable that particular conversion method must become standard. Now, you can have two kinds of standards, either de facto (like Microsoft) or de jure (like IETF). No self-respecting standards body is going to standardize a patented method so their only hope then lies in selling their patent to Microsoft. And I don't think even Microsoft has enough clout to make new de facto DNS standards...
Yes it is so... I've got as far as the demo but cannot yet start a game... would the first person to get this up and running on a case-dependent filesystem please put the converted package up somewhere?
In Finland all the technological universities have a long tradition in jäynäs. One of the best jäynäs is the stunt by the divers in Helsinki University of Technology just before the Wasa ship (sunk in the Stockholm harbor in the 17th century) was raised in 1961. In the official list of artifacts found in the ship is a miniature statue of Paavo Nurmi, dated circa 20th century...
A more recent jäynä was in 1993 (or about), again by HUT, where all speed limits in Helsinki were changed overnight from 40km/h to 30km/h. Even the chief of police managed to comment that the change was official and done in the interest of public safety...
A good jäynä does not cause monetary loss nor is it a danger to anyone. It should cause a short inconvinience to the audience followed by a good laugh.
A similar decision was recently made in a lower court here in Finland. The ruling basically said, that a shrink wrap software is similar to a music record. When you buy one you also get a right to resell it. We're anxiously waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on this.
Last time I checked, the only reason EU is thinking of changing the relevant directives to allow software patents was pressure from the US. At the moment, it is impossible to get a patent on an algorithm in Finland (a solid fact) and AFAIK in the rest of EU as well (I have not studied EU patent law but I am under the impression that EPO does not grant software patents).
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OK, let's put aside any patentability issues and say that they have patented a method of converting arbitary domain names to US-ASCII domain names (gee, I thought MIME does something very similar with headers, I must be mistaken).
What they are missing is the fact that for their patent to become valuable that particular conversion method must become standard. Now, you can have two kinds of standards, either de facto (like Microsoft) or de jure (like IETF). No self-respecting standards body is going to standardize a patented method so their only hope then lies in selling their patent to Microsoft. And I don't think even Microsoft has enough clout to make new de facto DNS standards...
Yes it is so... I've got as far as the demo but cannot yet start a game... would the first person to get this up and running on a case-dependent filesystem please put the converted package up somewhere?
In Finland all the technological universities have a long tradition in jäynäs. One of the best jäynäs is the stunt by the divers in Helsinki University of Technology just before the Wasa ship (sunk in the Stockholm harbor in the 17th century) was raised in 1961. In the official list of artifacts found in the ship is a miniature statue of Paavo Nurmi, dated circa 20th century...
A more recent jäynä was in 1993 (or about), again by HUT, where all speed limits in Helsinki were changed overnight from 40km/h to 30km/h. Even the chief of police managed to comment that the change was official and done in the interest of public safety...
A good jäynä does not cause monetary loss nor is it a danger to anyone. It should cause a short inconvinience to the audience followed by a good laugh.
A similar decision was recently made in a lower court here in Finland. The ruling basically said, that a shrink wrap software is similar to a music record. When you buy one you also get a right to resell it. We're anxiously waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on this.
WHAT??
Last time I checked, the only reason EU is thinking of changing the relevant directives to allow software patents was pressure from the US. At the moment, it is impossible to get a patent on an algorithm in Finland (a solid fact) and AFAIK in the rest of EU as well (I have not studied EU patent law but I am under the impression that EPO does not grant software patents).