It will be interesting to see if Apple's patent survives the next few days of Slashdot analysis, or even the next few hours! If the Westerman thesis is relevant, than not citing it is unfortunate for them. My guess is that Apple will follow this discussion, and then file for continuations and re-examinations based upon what shows up here.
Not to quibble, but isn't this really a Chief Information Officer position, rather than a CTO position? I would expect a Chief Technical Officer to know much more than just information technology.
This is really a brilliant plan on the part of the MPAA. The aliens copy the movie, distribute this among themselves, and then we sue them $150,000 for each unauthorized copy under the DMCA! The entire universe is now liable!
Of course, they will still have to work out the exchange rates, but this is a minor detail.
Ah how time flies. Soon we'll all be reminiscing about the good old days, students flunking final exams, single parents reduced to financial ruin, the Federal court system tied up in knots and used in a way that creates disrespect for the law. Good times...
Although I'm sure that Patry had an excellent Blog, the cynic in me thinks that there is only one real reason why the archives are now off line. This is probably fear that some of his earlier statements are now inconsistent with his high level legal position at Google. That is, he is concerned that an opponent might try to twist his words in the Blog against him.
(a) LICENSE REQUIRED FOR OPERATION- No person who is subject to the jurisdiction or control of the United States may, directly or through any subsidiary or affiliate, operate any private remote sensing space system without a license pursuant to section 201.
(b) LICENSING REQUIREMENTS- Any license issued pursuant to this title shall specify that the licensee shall comply with all of the requirements of this Act and shall--
(1) operate the system in such manner as to preserve the national security of the United States and to observe the international obligations of the United States in accordance with section 506;
(2) make available to the government of any country (including the United States) unenhanced data collected by the system concerning the territory under the jurisdiction of such government as soon as such data are available and on reasonable terms and conditions;
(3) make unenhanced data designated by the Secretary in the license pursuant to section 201(e) available in accordance with section 501;
(4) upon termination of operations under the license, make disposition of any satellites in space in a manner satisfactory to the President;
(5) furnish the Secretary with complete orbit and data collection characteristics of the system, and inform the Secretary immediately of any deviation; and
(6) notify the Secretary of any agreement the licensee intends to enter with a foreign nation, entity, or consortium involving foreign nations or entities.
Section 74C-12: Denial, suspension, or revocation of license, registration, or permit; duty to report criminal arrests.
(a) The Board may, after compliance with Chapter 150B of the General Statutes, deny, suspend or revoke a license, registration, or permit issued under this Chapter if it is determined that the applicant, licensee, registrant, or permit holder has done any of the following acts:
(1) Made any false statement or given any false information in connection with any application for a license, registration, or permit or for the renewal or reinstatement of a license, registration, or permit.
(6) Engaged in or permitted any employee to engage in a private protective services profession when not lawfully in possession of a valid license issued under the provisions of this Chapter.
(8) Knowingly made any false report to the employer or client for whom information is being obtained.
(12) Undertaken to give legal advice or counsel or to in any way falsely represent that he or she is representing any attorney or he or she is appearing or will appear as an attorney in any legal proceeding.
(13) Issued, delivered, or uttered any simulation of process of any nature which might lead a person or persons to believe that such simulation, written, printed, or typed, may be a summons, warrant, writ or court process, or any pleading in any court proceeding.
(17) Failed to notify the Director by a business entity other than a sole proprietorship licensed pursuant to this Chapter of the cessation of employment of the business entity's qualifying agent within the time set forth in this Chapter.
Yeah, let's kill innovative new technology in the cradle! If there are any bad effects at all (for example, someone complains that the solar plants look too shiny), we bureaucrats could get in trouble! We'll study it for a few years, and maybe they will all go away.
"Other examples of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's record with sentient technology include an armada of neurotic elevators, hyperactive ships' computers and perhaps most famously of all, Marvin the Paranoid Android. Marvin is a prototype for the GPP feature, and his depression and "terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side" are due to unresolved flaws in his programming. Ironically, the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as "your plastic pal who's fun to be with".
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy electronic guidebook defined the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes" with "a footnote to the effect that the editors would welcome applications from anyone interested in taking over the part of robotics correspondent." The story notes that a version of the Encyclopaedia Galactica that "had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from a thousand years in the future" defined the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came."
I was recently able to successfully read data from my old Apple II+ elephant memory disks from 1981-1982. It worked nearly perfectly, with only a few tracks out of ten disks being unreadable. Of course the old disks only stored about 140K per disk, so the tracks must have been huge by modern standards.
I used disk2fdi for this. You can get this at:
http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi
If you like the DMCA (and all the RIAA abuses) then you will love Jon Dudas. According to his official USPTO biography:
"He guided enactment of major patent, trademark, and copyright policy, including the 1999 American Inventors Protection Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
Most patent attorneys consider him unqualified because he had no previous patent experience prior to becoming head of the USPTO.
This isn't a patent reform issue. It's more of an attempted fraud by using patents issue. You can attempt fraud using almost anything. For example, consider the Chewbacca offense:
Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider: this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now, think about that. That does not make sense! Therefore defendant owes us money!
Much better than the old style Chewbacca defense, no?
It says that BU may inspect the files, but it doesn't say anything about sharing the data with third parties:
"Boston University reserves the right, without notice, to limit or restrict any individual's use, and to inspect, copy, remove or otherwise alter any data, file, or system resource which may undermine the authorized use of any computing facility or which is used in violation of University rules or policies. Boston University also reserves the right periodically to examine any system and any other rights necessary to protect its computing facilities."
Most human spaceflight ideas were formulated 50+ years ago, at a time when modern electronics just wasn't there. Given all that modern computers and robots can do now, We need to rethink things.
Since human space flights seem to be running about 10 to 100x more expensive than robotic missions, it would make sense to list the objectives, and only use humans when it makes sense. Our hidden agenda is probably to spread humans throughout the universe, which is fine with me, but we need to articulate this objective, and then make plans consistent with this idea.
Thomas has claimed on her website that her computer developed problems, and that she brought it in for warranty repairs months BEFORE she was notified that she had been targeted by the RIAA. It was her dealer that replaced the hard drive.
She also claimed this part of the story was not brought up at the trial. If so and if true, it seems to me that her defense attorney really dropped the ball here.
Point taken. The applicant is legally expected to submit any prior art that he or she knows of. Additionally, the examiner is also expected to spend a fair number of hours looking for prior art. The applicant either should have disclosed this, or the examiner should have spotted this.
However the patent system does have an error correction mechanism, called reexamination. Once enough relevant prior art is collected, a third party can submit the prior art to the USPTO (along with a fee), and request reexamination.
At any rate, I personally tried the Sierra Network in 1989. Alas I don't have my old disks, but SN featured network card games, since these were easy to do on the slow equipment of that era. It worked, and since this was a networked, multi-player, graphical cards playing system, there should be a massive amount of prior art here. Let's bring in Ken Williams (former Sierra CEO) here!
Slashdot Mirror
It will be interesting to see if Apple's patent survives the next few days of Slashdot analysis, or even the next few hours! If the Westerman thesis is relevant, than not citing it is unfortunate for them. My guess is that Apple will follow this discussion, and then file for continuations and re-examinations based upon what shows up here.
Not to quibble, but isn't this really a Chief Information Officer position, rather than a CTO position? I would expect a Chief Technical Officer to know much more than just information technology.
I also have no personality and prefer HDTV!
This is really a brilliant plan on the part of the MPAA. The aliens copy the movie, distribute this among themselves, and then we sue them $150,000 for each unauthorized copy under the DMCA! The entire universe is now liable! Of course, they will still have to work out the exchange rates, but this is a minor detail.
Do what I do. Up your caffeine dose eeeevvverry yyyeeaaarrr...........
Ah how time flies. Soon we'll all be reminiscing about the good old days, students flunking final exams, single parents reduced to financial ruin, the Federal court system tied up in knots and used in a way that creates disrespect for the law. Good times...
If the transistor was patented in the 1920's, please give us the patent number so we can look this up.
Although I'm sure that Patry had an excellent Blog, the cynic in me thinks that there is only one real reason why the archives are now off line. This is probably fear that some of his earlier statements are now inconsistent with his high level legal position at Google. That is, he is concerned that an opponent might try to twist his words in the Blog against him.
Well they did it. Of course it may be unconstitutional, but since its a "national security" thing, the courts may not want to get involved.
All in all, the license for a few pixel image from the moon should be trivial to get. Just a bit of extra useless paperwork.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c102:1:./temp/~c1029W3AOE:e25773:
SEC. 202. CONDITIONS FOR OPERATION.
(a) LICENSE REQUIRED FOR OPERATION- No person who is subject to the jurisdiction or control of the United States may, directly or through any subsidiary or affiliate, operate any private remote sensing space system without a license pursuant to section 201.
(b) LICENSING REQUIREMENTS- Any license issued pursuant to this title shall specify that the licensee shall comply with all of the requirements of this Act and shall--
(1) operate the system in such manner as to preserve the national security of the United States and to observe the international obligations of the United States in accordance with section 506;
(2) make available to the government of any country (including the United States) unenhanced data collected by the system concerning the territory under the jurisdiction of such government as soon as such data are available and on reasonable terms and conditions;
(3) make unenhanced data designated by the Secretary in the license pursuant to section 201(e) available in accordance with section 501;
(4) upon termination of operations under the license, make disposition of any satellites in space in a manner satisfactory to the President;
(5) furnish the Secretary with complete orbit and data collection characteristics of the system, and inform the Secretary immediately of any deviation; and
(6) notify the Secretary of any agreement the licensee intends to enter with a foreign nation, entity, or consortium involving foreign nations or entities.
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByChapter/Chapter_74C.html
Section 74C-12: Denial, suspension, or revocation of license, registration, or permit; duty to report criminal arrests.
(a) The Board may, after compliance with Chapter 150B of the General Statutes, deny, suspend or revoke a license, registration, or permit issued under this Chapter if it is determined that the applicant, licensee, registrant, or permit holder has done any of the following acts:
(1) Made any false statement or given any false information in connection with any application for a license, registration, or permit or for the renewal or reinstatement of a license, registration, or permit.
(6) Engaged in or permitted any employee to engage in a private protective services profession when not lawfully in possession of a valid license issued under the provisions of this Chapter.
(8) Knowingly made any false report to the employer or client for whom information is being obtained.
(12) Undertaken to give legal advice or counsel or to in any way falsely represent that he or she is representing any attorney or he or she is appearing or will appear as an attorney in any legal proceeding.
(13) Issued, delivered, or uttered any simulation of process of any nature which might lead a person or persons to believe that such simulation, written, printed, or typed, may be a summons, warrant, writ or court process, or any pleading in any court proceeding.
(17) Failed to notify the Director by a business entity other than a sole proprietorship licensed pursuant to this Chapter of the cessation of employment of the business entity's qualifying agent within the time set forth in this Chapter.
Yeah, let's kill innovative new technology in the cradle! If there are any bad effects at all (for example, someone complains that the solar plants look too shiny), we bureaucrats could get in trouble! We'll study it for a few years, and maybe they will all go away.
This patent has an initial filing date of October 3, 2001. So this should last about 1 second in court.
Purchase two cans of Pringles (tm) chips. Eat chips. Insert Wifi antenna on each end into cans. Line up cans. Enjoy.
"Other examples of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's record with sentient technology include an armada of neurotic elevators, hyperactive ships' computers and perhaps most famously of all, Marvin the Paranoid Android. Marvin is a prototype for the GPP feature, and his depression and "terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side" are due to unresolved flaws in his programming. Ironically, the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as "your plastic pal who's fun to be with".
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy electronic guidebook defined the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes" with "a footnote to the effect that the editors would welcome applications from anyone interested in taking over the part of robotics correspondent." The story notes that a version of the Encyclopaedia Galactica that "had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from a thousand years in the future" defined the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came."
I wonder if working as a State Judge will give him extra immunity from prosecution?
I used disk2fdi for this. You can get this at: http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi
Beatles, Sgt. Peppers lonely heart's club band, 1967
"He guided enactment of major patent, trademark, and copyright policy, including the 1999 American Inventors Protection Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
Most patent attorneys consider him unqualified because he had no previous patent experience prior to becoming head of the USPTO.
Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider: this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now, think about that. That does not make sense! Therefore defendant owes us money!
Much better than the old style Chewbacca defense, no?
"Boston University reserves the right, without notice, to limit or restrict any individual's use, and to inspect, copy, remove or otherwise alter any data, file, or system resource which may undermine the authorized use of any computing facility or which is used in violation of University rules or policies. Boston University also reserves the right periodically to examine any system and any other rights necessary to protect its computing facilities."
Damn! I almost said this with a straight face, let me try again!
Most human spaceflight ideas were formulated 50+ years ago, at a time when modern electronics just wasn't there. Given all that modern computers and robots can do now, We need to rethink things.
Since human space flights seem to be running about 10 to 100x more expensive than robotic missions, it would make sense to list the objectives, and only use humans when it makes sense. Our hidden agenda is probably to spread humans throughout the universe, which is fine with me, but we need to articulate this objective, and then make plans consistent with this idea.
She also claimed this part of the story was not brought up at the trial. If so and if true, it seems to me that her defense attorney really dropped the ball here.
However the patent system does have an error correction mechanism, called reexamination. Once enough relevant prior art is collected, a third party can submit the prior art to the USPTO (along with a fee), and request reexamination.
At any rate, I personally tried the Sierra Network in 1989. Alas I don't have my old disks, but SN featured network card games, since these were easy to do on the slow equipment of that era. It worked, and since this was a networked, multi-player, graphical cards playing system, there should be a massive amount of prior art here. Let's bring in Ken Williams (former Sierra CEO) here!