6) This may allow the OpenSSH project to snag a.org domain name, which they were so upset about not being able to get for OpenSSH. Of course, they should snag a name, *then* announce it...
Individuals and corporations need some sort of incentive to perform research and, for example, produce new drugs. A basc motivation for patent protection is to grant some tangible 'value' to these pursuits.
To which the author of the article replied that there are other forms of protection available, such as trade secret and (a libertarian's favorite) contract.
I wish I could agree with the article, but I don't think he addressed this point very well. The field of drug development is an excellent example; I don't want to start taking any drugs that have been developed under trade secret, do you? And it is rather unlikely that the researcher is going to get a contract with everyone in the world to only use the new drug information under royalty bearing license.
It seems to me that patents are necessary in this case. What is a patent but a contract with an entire nation? If anyone can suggest another alternative, I'm all ears.
Now, as to whether the patent system is currently well serving the needs of the general public, that is an entirely separate discussion.
The complaint includes several counts against the defendants, including trespassing under Virginia state common law,
violations of Virginia state law--which outlaws the transmission of spam--and breaches of federal trademark laws. AOL
charges that some of the Webmasters forged the company's name in email headers.
I took one of Vancouver's Electric Grid Busses to work this morning. I'm a fan of public transit, but I consider myself lucky when I ride one of these for a half an hour without the bus driver having to walk around behind the bus and reconnect the bus to the overhead wires. These busses particularly like to disconnect at busy intersections, where there are lots of intersecting wire tracks.
I like them in a way; they are quaint and quiet. But when I want to get somewhere reasonably quickly, I'm always glad to see a recently built internal combustion bus come along.
Too much time has gone past now without BT making a claim.
This concept does not apply to patents. It only applies to trademarks. You can patent something and only start enforcing it 15 years later, if you wish. If you don't enforce your trademark, eg. 'Zipper', you can lose your trademark.
As mentioned in the article, and in some of yesterday's posts, QoS can be used for Bad Things. However, Voice over IP is one example of a Good Thing that pretty much requires VoIP. How is this resolved?
It seems to me that QoS packets are more expensive to the network than regular packets, so why not charge for them that way? The end user can buy, for instance, a package with 1Mb/s total bandwidth, including 64kb/s realtime bandwidth. If a small business wants several VoIP lines, they pay for more realtime bandwidth accordingly. That gives you enough room for VoIP clients to do their thing, and streaming video clients can use stream buffering and cheaper, jittery packets just like they do now.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think this would be a difficult thing to implement for IP6 ISPs, would it?
Great. Now I have to go create my own linux distribution just so I can use that cool penguin/frog/deer crossbread as my mascot. Thanks, Microsoft, for shoehorning more work onto my schedule! Jerks.
Want to get rid of Yahoo's, "racy Maxim ads?" Change your gender to female. Worked for me.
Seriously, my girlfriend surfs from my computer, and some of those ads were really creeping her out. Since I started, um, cross-dressing, I've been getting lots of health/diet ads, but no soft-porn.
But starting a buying panic is very much in their interest. CNet bought the story, hook-line&sinker. Now you.
CNet did not 'buy' any story about skyrocketting prices or panic buying. The words panic and skyrocket do not occur in the referenced story; those were inferred here on/. CNet's story simply says Micron is, "expected to boost memory prices," which is pretty calm language, I think.
Here's a critical thinking exercise for you; who is the intended audience of CNet's story? It isn't, "the hobbyist market," nor, "the big OEMs," as you seem to believe. A hint from the article:
"Demand has been pretty good all spring, and we expect business to pick up for them in the summer," said Josephthal & Co. analyst Larry Borgman, who rates the stock a "buy."
If you produce a commodity product like DRAM, a 10 cent price increase on a $6 product is a big deal to your profitability, and that matters greatly to the investing public.
Slashdot Mirror
You forgot one:
6) This may allow the OpenSSH project to snag a .org domain name, which they were so upset about not being able to get for OpenSSH. Of course, they should snag a name, *then* announce it...
Sounds much better, I think.
Individuals and corporations need some sort of incentive to perform research and, for example, produce new drugs. A basc motivation for patent protection is to grant some tangible 'value' to these pursuits.
To which the author of the article replied that there are other forms of protection available, such as trade secret and (a libertarian's favorite) contract.
I wish I could agree with the article, but I don't think he addressed this point very well. The field of drug development is an excellent example; I don't want to start taking any drugs that have been developed under trade secret, do you? And it is rather unlikely that the researcher is going to get a contract with everyone in the world to only use the new drug information under royalty bearing license.
It seems to me that patents are necessary in this case. What is a patent but a contract with an entire nation? If anyone can suggest another alternative, I'm all ears.
Now, as to whether the patent system is currently well serving the needs of the general public, that is an entirely separate discussion.
From the article,
I took one of Vancouver's Electric Grid Busses to work this morning. I'm a fan of public transit, but I consider myself lucky when I ride one of these for a half an hour without the bus driver having to walk around behind the bus and reconnect the bus to the overhead wires. These busses particularly like to disconnect at busy intersections, where there are lots of intersecting wire tracks.
I like them in a way; they are quaint and quiet. But when I want to get somewhere reasonably quickly, I'm always glad to see a recently built internal combustion bus come along.
- Bruce
This concept does not apply to patents. It only applies to trademarks. You can patent something and only start enforcing it 15 years later, if you wish. If you don't enforce your trademark, eg. 'Zipper', you can lose your trademark.
Software doesn't spam people. People spam people.
I love boilerplate rhetoric.
As mentioned in the article, and in some of yesterday's posts, QoS can be used for Bad Things. However, Voice over IP is one example of a Good Thing that pretty much requires VoIP. How is this resolved?
It seems to me that QoS packets are more expensive to the network than regular packets, so why not charge for them that way? The end user can buy, for instance, a package with 1Mb/s total bandwidth, including 64kb/s realtime bandwidth. If a small business wants several VoIP lines, they pay for more realtime bandwidth accordingly. That gives you enough room for VoIP clients to do their thing, and streaming video clients can use stream buffering and cheaper, jittery packets just like they do now.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think this would be a difficult thing to implement for IP6 ISPs, would it?
Great. Now I have to go create my own linux distribution just so I can use that cool penguin/frog/deer crossbread as my mascot. Thanks, Microsoft, for shoehorning more work onto my schedule! Jerks.
Want to get rid of Yahoo's, "racy Maxim ads?"
Change your gender to female. Worked for me.
Seriously, my girlfriend surfs from my computer,
and some of those ads were really creeping her
out. Since I started, um, cross-dressing, I've
been getting lots of health/diet ads, but no
soft-porn.
CNet did not 'buy' any story about skyrocketting prices or panic buying. The words panic and skyrocket do not occur in the referenced story; those were inferred here on /. CNet's story simply says Micron is, "expected to boost memory prices," which is pretty calm language, I think.
Here's a critical thinking exercise for you; who is the intended audience of CNet's story? It isn't, "the hobbyist market," nor, "the big OEMs," as you seem to believe. A hint from the article:
"Demand has been pretty good all spring, and we expect business to pick up for them in the summer," said Josephthal & Co. analyst Larry Borgman, who rates the stock a "buy."
If you produce a commodity product like DRAM, a 10 cent price increase on a $6 product is a big deal to your profitability, and that matters greatly to the investing public.