As far as I can tell, all the evidence so far clearly shows that the MailList King author is not a spammer or involved in such activities. Until someone posts evidence to the contrary, I suggest that you all stop shouting about spammers when the only spammer here is the guy who ripped off Xecute's software. Seriously, people.
I don't think anyone here suggests that the MailList king author is a spammer. But tell me one thing: why is it, if the program has nothing at all to do with spam, that it found itself in company of other products interesting for spammers? Let me answer you: because it is a program that appears to be useful for spammers. As I said in my post: that program clearly has legitimate uses. But it also has a huge potential for abuse, and the damage done through the abuse is far greater than the benefit the net as a whole gets from it.
I can't say I feel too sorry about a bunch of Pakistani punks giving the developer of spammer software a hard time. Yes, that software may have legitimate uses, and it's never the gun that kills people but rather the people using them. But on the whole the damage done through the abuse outweighs the benefits by far, and so I can't squeeze too much sympathy out of myself on this cool December morning.
However, I do wonder: how would you proceed if you tried to make a living (or just a few bucks) through software you write upon finding that someome else is selling it? You can never stop piracy, that much is for sure, but don't the emails that were shown on the website (assuming they are legit) make you feel a bit helpless? Just shrug it off since there is little the Pakistani hoster is going to do against the wishes of his paying customer?
Is that so? Was he working for free? I would assume that he was being paid for his work, and so I don't really see the problem. That he could have milked the system is really just an assumption that's built on the silly notion that every producer (especially foreign producers) will honor your patent, use the technology covered in the patent and pay fees. And we know that this is not always the case. The companies could avoid the patented technology or decide to use the technology and take the legal risks of not paying up.
This is how the patent system works and this is why you can apply for a patent for under $2000 - a thorough search for prior art will cost over $100,000 and the USPTO cannot afford to give those out for $2000.
And a small company that is allegedly violating patents is supposed to shell out those $100k to do what the PO should have been doing in the fist place? I can see how that suits the big players just well, but it strikes me as a perversion of the system that it is easier and cheaper to patent the obvious than it is to prove that the USPTO should not have granted that patent to begin with.
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I can tell, all the evidence so far clearly shows that the MailList King author is not a spammer or involved in such activities. Until someone posts evidence to the contrary, I suggest that you all stop shouting about spammers when the only spammer here is the guy who ripped off Xecute's software. Seriously, people.
I don't think anyone here suggests that the MailList king author is a spammer. But tell me one thing: why is it, if the program has nothing at all to do with spam, that it found itself in company of other products interesting for spammers? Let me answer you: because it is a program that appears to be useful for spammers. As I said in my post: that program clearly has legitimate uses. But it also has a huge potential for abuse, and the damage done through the abuse is far greater than the benefit the net as a whole gets from it.
I can't say I feel too sorry about a bunch of Pakistani punks giving the developer of spammer software a hard time. Yes, that software may have legitimate uses, and it's never the gun that kills people but rather the people using them. But on the whole the damage done through the abuse outweighs the benefits by far, and so I can't squeeze too much sympathy out of myself on this cool December morning.
However, I do wonder: how would you proceed if you tried to make a living (or just a few bucks) through software you write upon finding that someome else is selling it? You can never stop piracy, that much is for sure, but don't the emails that were shown on the website (assuming they are legit) make you feel a bit helpless? Just shrug it off since there is little the Pakistani hoster is going to do against the wishes of his paying customer?
never made a dime
Is that so? Was he working for free? I would assume that he was being paid for his work, and so I don't really see the problem. That he could have milked the system is really just an assumption that's built on the silly notion that every producer (especially foreign producers) will honor your patent, use the technology covered in the patent and pay fees. And we know that this is not always the case. The companies could avoid the patented technology or decide to use the technology and take the legal risks of not paying up.
This is how the patent system works and this is why you can apply for a patent for under $2000 - a thorough search for prior art will cost over $100,000 and the USPTO cannot afford to give those out for $2000. And a small company that is allegedly violating patents is supposed to shell out those $100k to do what the PO should have been doing in the fist place? I can see how that suits the big players just well, but it strikes me as a perversion of the system that it is easier and cheaper to patent the obvious than it is to prove that the USPTO should not have granted that patent to begin with.