My stepdad used to work at Bennett Pump (they built gas pumps)...They were having a problem updating software on the machines they had on the market; it took a good while to change the software on each pump. And with ten or twelve pumps to a station, and five or six stations to a small city, it took quite a long time.
My brother suggested that they put the data on data cards. (aka punchcards, but with a magnetic strip) Basically a stack of them would hold the software update.
The company had to pass on the idea because finances were too tight to fund a patent search. The company went under less than two years later.
(1) LAWS REGULATING CONDUCT THAT IS SUBJECT OF THE ACT- On or after the effective date of this Act, no State statute, rule, regulation, or common law doctrine that prohibits or otherwise regulates conduct that is the subject of this Act shall be effective.
Dear God...look at 7.c.2, 7.c.2.b, 7.c.2.g.
And 7.d:
(d) IMPOUNDMENT- At any time while an action under this section is pending, including an action seeking to enjoin a violation, the court may order the impounding, on such terms as it deems reasonable, of all copies of contents of a database made available in commerce or attempted to be made available in commerce potentially in violation of section 3, and of all masters, tapes, disks, diskettes, or other articles by means of which such copies may be reproduced. The court may, as part of a final judgment or decree finding a violation or attempted violation of section 3, order the remedial modification or destruction of all copies of contents of a database made available in commerce or attempted to be made available in commerce in violation of section 3, and of all masters, tapes, disks, diskettes, or other articles by means of which such copies may be reproduced.
IANAL, but That looks like it means they can impound anything that could possibly have a copy of the said material on it. Meaning, every computer, floppy and tape in a company.
And here's the punchline: (I'll let you guys play with it. I've got to go home.)
SEC. 10. NONSEVERABILITY.
(a) IN GENERAL- If the Supreme Court of the United States holds that the provisions of section 3, relating to prohibition of misappropriation of databases, are invalid under Article I of, or the First Amendment to, the Constitution of the United States, then this Act is repealed, effective as of the date of the Supreme Court decision.
(b) TERMINATION- Subsection (a) shall cease to be effective at the end of the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.
I think I see your point, but in that particular patent, what was unique to the patent was the fact that the later pointer attracted the cat by infrared, not by visible light.
(Which is kind of silly, since I've never been able to get my cat's attention with remote control.)
Well, to a new perl user, I usually say "dollar-sign file"... if I'm talking to another programmer, I say "Then I update the file variable with each iteration, and then feed file to cat."
And I'm not sure what you mean about 5-7-5. The "exec" keyword intsructs the perl binary to interperet a string as perl code. JIT compiling, in a sense.
I've got TurboLinux on CD...picked up at ComDex in '97 by my parents.:) Never used it, though. Tried Red Hat 5.2 for a couple days, then switched to Debian since all the Linux guys I knew personally used it.
That method of hurting me was demonstrated by Stanley Kubric in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and patented shortly thereafter. The fact that no government in the world recognizes the Monkey Patent Association is something you'll have to forget...
IIRC, the USPTO is supposed to publish such applications. That's how people are able to contest them before they get approved. Anyone have a reference?
Well, I've never seen the GNOME website badmouth KDE. It all boils down to something like this.
Re:This won't spell the end to software developmen
on
Perens on Patents
·
· Score: 1
No kidding.
My step dad used to work for an electronics design/manufacturing company. They built a factory in China, but the Chinese government demanded a copy of every piece of documentation that would be onsite. Then they built a duplicate operation just down the road.
Before a patent is accepted, it's put up for public display, for anyone to dispute. What we really need is a user-powered web site (Another OSDN partner?) that watches patents as they are put up for review, and looks for prior art.
Software patents would preferably be monitored (I can't imagine a user-based organization large enough to monitor all the different patents), but I guess other topical patents would be acceptable too.
If OSDN is interested in making that a job, they can email me.:) I'm sure there are a lot of out-of-work software developers who would also be interested in being hired for a job like that. Show that telecommuting can work.:)
Keep in mind that "prior art" does not include stuff written as soon as the patent is seen. It has to be prior to when the patent was filed. (IANAL, but that's what seems likely to me.)
Slashdot Mirror
It already is a financial burden.
My stepdad used to work at Bennett Pump (they built gas pumps)...They were having a problem updating software on the machines they had on the market; it took a good while to change the software on each pump. And with ten or twelve pumps to a station, and five or six stations to a small city, it took quite a long time.
My brother suggested that they put the data on data cards. (aka punchcards, but with a magnetic strip) Basically a stack of them would hold the software update.
The company had to pass on the idea because finances were too tight to fund a patent search. The company went under less than two years later.
definately. Look at 6.b.1...it declares that..
(b) PREEMPTION OF STATE LAW-
(1) LAWS REGULATING CONDUCT THAT IS SUBJECT OF THE ACT- On or after the effective date of this Act, no State statute, rule, regulation, or common law doctrine that prohibits or otherwise regulates conduct that is the subject of this Act shall be effective.
Dear God...look at 7.c.2, 7.c.2.b, 7.c.2.g.
And 7.d:
(d) IMPOUNDMENT- At any time while an action under this section is pending, including an action seeking to enjoin a violation, the court may order the impounding, on such terms as it deems reasonable, of all copies of contents of a database made available in commerce or attempted to be made available in commerce potentially in violation of section 3, and of all masters, tapes, disks, diskettes, or other articles by means of which such copies may be reproduced. The court may, as part of a final judgment or decree finding a violation or attempted violation of section 3, order the remedial modification or destruction of all copies of contents of a database made available in commerce or attempted to be made available in commerce in violation of section 3, and of all masters, tapes, disks, diskettes, or other articles by means of which such copies may be reproduced.
IANAL, but That looks like it means they can impound anything that could possibly have a copy of the said material on it. Meaning, every computer, floppy and tape in a company.
And here's the punchline: (I'll let you guys play with it. I've got to go home.)
SEC. 10. NONSEVERABILITY.
(a) IN GENERAL- If the Supreme Court of the United States holds that the provisions of section 3, relating to prohibition of misappropriation of databases, are invalid under Article I of, or the First Amendment to, the Constitution of the United States, then this Act is repealed, effective as of the date of the Supreme Court decision.
(b) TERMINATION- Subsection (a) shall cease to be effective at the end of the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.
The law excludes government information. It's quite possible that the local laws could be overturned under this one.
At least the Wayback machine will have copies from before copyright notices were added to the page... :)
I think I see your point, but in that particular patent, what was unique to the patent was the fact that the later pointer attracted the cat by infrared, not by visible light.
(Which is kind of silly, since I've never been able to get my cat's attention with remote control.)
Slashdot natural
At least for us poor geeks, see.
CRT glasses!
(laughter) I wasn't on topic.
I was just writing a perl script
I should be shamed on.
Well, to a new perl user, I usually say "dollar-sign file" ... if I'm talking to another programmer, I say "Then I update the file variable with each iteration, and then feed file to cat."
And I'm not sure what you mean about 5-7-5. The "exec" keyword intsructs the perl binary to interperet a string as perl code. JIT compiling, in a sense.
I've got TurboLinux on CD...picked up at ComDex in '97 by my parents. :) Never used it, though. Tried Red Hat 5.2 for a couple days, then switched to Debian since all the Linux guys I knew personally used it.
Sorry...
That method of hurting me was demonstrated by Stanley Kubric in 2001: A Space Odyssey , and patented shortly thereafter. The fact that no government in the world recognizes the Monkey Patent Association is something you'll have to forget...
Uh, are you referring to the grave quotes? Those (and anything between them) are replaced by the output of running them through /bin/sh.
IIRC, the USPTO is supposed to publish such applications. That's how people are able to contest them before they get approved. Anyone have a reference?
Well, my AMD chainsaw certainly doesn't get caught on little things like branches...
And my AMD sedan doesn't stall much at all.
(I'm a little rusty, so don't kill me.)
#!/usr/bin/pl -warn
foreach $FILE in @ARGV {
exec { `cat $FILE` };
}
No!
"No damn cat, no damn KETTLE!" (Look for "Cats in the Kettle")
Well, I've never seen the GNOME website badmouth KDE. It all boils down to something like this.
No kidding.
My step dad used to work for an electronics design/manufacturing company. They built a factory in China, but the Chinese government demanded a copy of every piece of documentation that would be onsite. Then they built a duplicate operation just down the road.
Have you pointed its presence in Apache out to the USPTO?
How much of your "no-duh" is "I've thought of that before," and how much of it is 20-20 hindsight?
I suspect that a lot of uproar about patents is hindsight rather than prior-art.
Where does that place trademarks, though? If not enforced, a trademark is lost.
Before a patent is accepted, it's put up for public display, for anyone to dispute. What we really need is a user-powered web site (Another OSDN partner?) that watches patents as they are put up for review, and looks for prior art.
:) I'm sure there are a lot of out-of-work software developers who would also be interested in being hired for a job like that. Show that telecommuting can work. :)
Software patents would preferably be monitored (I can't imagine a user-based organization large enough to monitor all the different patents), but I guess other topical patents would be acceptable too.
If OSDN is interested in making that a job, they can email me.
Keep in mind that "prior art" does not include stuff written as soon as the patent is seen. It has to be prior to when the patent was filed. (IANAL, but that's what seems likely to me.)
I started journal entry to continue this discussion. You're invited to participate.
I started journal entry to continue this discussion. You're invited to participate.
I started journal entry to continue this discussion. You're invited to participate.
I started journal entry to continue this discussion. You're invited to participate...