I don't think you understand entirely how first to file works. Apart from not having to prove you invented it first, it means that if the information is published, it becomes unpatentable. So even if you want to patent your own invention, in a first to file domain you have to file it before you market it, or else it becomes unpatentable.
If that were the case, they'd flood P2P with their own music.
The same way that Microsoft has opened their source to compete with Linux? If you are winning in the current paradigm, why would you participate in changing to a new model when you can have the new one outlawed or crippled?
See SCO case, Patent threats or some of the seemingly fraudulent TCO reports
Slashdot has a policy of trying to keep an even allocation of stories per continent.
Come on you Antarcticans, get up to some technological hijinx. You are ruining the numbers.
I believe the parent to this had a lot of sarcastic wit in its invention, but there are serious uses for this.
Imagine a P2P network where there were no restricted copyright files. So all content on this network is released under a distributable licence or is public domain.
Say I am an avid astronomer. When I go looking for star charts and the like I will be rating up accurate astonomy papers and the like and rating down material that is based on astrology, which may have similar descriptive terms. My search results will closely align with other astronomers who have similar interests to myself, so in effect we will filter for the material we are interested in.
At the same time we will be voting down astrology papers, which people interested in astrology are voting up. Those with interests in astrology will have made their searches more relevant through this feature, while filtering out the 'noise' of astronomy documents.
There would also be two other sets created, documents neither group voted up, which may have nothing to do with the topic or may be spam or corrupt. And there would be items that both groups voted for. These might be very accurate star charts for example.
If I were a music fan and I enjoyed dance music, listening to every free act available to select stuff I like could be a painful and time consuming experience. However as the rating system learns my preferences it can direct me to songs that people of similar tastes have enjoyed. And by my rating them it may further align me with people of similar interests, beyond just saying we are say, trance music fans. On the other hand, I could always just download some lower rated stuff to broaden my horizons, so that option is not taken away from me. This also avoids the current music selection method of 'whatever we throw marketing dollars at / buy radio airtime for' and songs will have to sink or swim based on their own quality to a given group. If Sony have a botnet rating up their latest release (assuming they release some songs on a free distribution network to get more buyers) and the music isn't up to scratch, the botnets opinion will fade from relevancy in the human listener groups.
The particular strength of this system though is the ability to filter out spam and other junk. Your botnets that are misrepresenting say an audio advertisement file as the latest song from some rap artist will very quickly become its own community. Further because people have hopefully been 'categorised' as more than just rap fans due to subtleties in tastes, it would be very difficult for a bot net to align itself with all rap fans to infect the network with the spam.
Further if you are a person with strong beliefs, whether it be religious, political, gender-based or parental concern, if you rate items on the network according to what offends you and what doesn't, you will align yourself with people of similar mind and will avoid being 'offended'. When someone decides to be funny by posting photos of dead soldiers as 'rabbit pictures for children' because the are being funny (and I knew people who would have thought that hilarious in college, so people with that kind of dementia do exist) would either never make it into the 'concerned parent' rating group, or would have their credibility with that group shot quickly.
It also protects against censorship, because instead of 'offensive to most' posts being erased, they would simply be rated out of existence within thoise circles, while being rated highly in circles that appreciated that line of reasoning. So your conspiracy theorists or anti-establishment groups eg EFF could not be rated out of existence by bot-nets.
And for the true seedy underside, your terrorist or paedophile cells, only included because if I don't I could be attacked for advocating them, it actually would create clustering of people of such mindsets, which should make it easier for enforcement to identify them if they are doing their job right.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think you understand entirely how first to file works. Apart from not having to prove you invented it first, it means that if the information is published, it becomes unpatentable. So even if you want to patent your own invention, in a first to file domain you have to file it before you market it, or else it becomes unpatentable.
If that were the case, they'd flood P2P with their own music.
The same way that Microsoft has opened their source to compete with Linux? If you are winning in the current paradigm, why would you participate in changing to a new model when you can have the new one outlawed or crippled?
See SCO case, Patent threats or some of the seemingly fraudulent TCO reports
Slashdot has a policy of trying to keep an even allocation of stories per continent. Come on you Antarcticans, get up to some technological hijinx. You are ruining the numbers.
I believe the parent to this had a lot of sarcastic wit in its invention, but there are serious uses for this.
Imagine a P2P network where there were no restricted copyright files. So all content on this network is released under a distributable licence or is public domain.
Say I am an avid astronomer. When I go looking for star charts and the like I will be rating up accurate astonomy papers and the like and rating down material that is based on astrology, which may have similar descriptive terms. My search results will closely align with other astronomers who have similar interests to myself, so in effect we will filter for the material we are interested in.
At the same time we will be voting down astrology papers, which people interested in astrology are voting up. Those with interests in astrology will have made their searches more relevant through this feature, while filtering out the 'noise' of astronomy documents.
There would also be two other sets created, documents neither group voted up, which may have nothing to do with the topic or may be spam or corrupt. And there would be items that both groups voted for. These might be very accurate star charts for example.
If I were a music fan and I enjoyed dance music, listening to every free act available to select stuff I like could be a painful and time consuming experience. However as the rating system learns my preferences it can direct me to songs that people of similar tastes have enjoyed. And by my rating them it may further align me with people of similar interests, beyond just saying we are say, trance music fans. On the other hand, I could always just download some lower rated stuff to broaden my horizons, so that option is not taken away from me. This also avoids the current music selection method of 'whatever we throw marketing dollars at / buy radio airtime for' and songs will have to sink or swim based on their own quality to a given group. If Sony have a botnet rating up their latest release (assuming they release some songs on a free distribution network to get more buyers) and the music isn't up to scratch, the botnets opinion will fade from relevancy in the human listener groups.
The particular strength of this system though is the ability to filter out spam and other junk. Your botnets that are misrepresenting say an audio advertisement file as the latest song from some rap artist will very quickly become its own community. Further because people have hopefully been 'categorised' as more than just rap fans due to subtleties in tastes, it would be very difficult for a bot net to align itself with all rap fans to infect the network with the spam.
Further if you are a person with strong beliefs, whether it be religious, political, gender-based or parental concern, if you rate items on the network according to what offends you and what doesn't, you will align yourself with people of similar mind and will avoid being 'offended'. When someone decides to be funny by posting photos of dead soldiers as 'rabbit pictures for children' because the are being funny (and I knew people who would have thought that hilarious in college, so people with that kind of dementia do exist) would either never make it into the 'concerned parent' rating group, or would have their credibility with that group shot quickly.
It also protects against censorship, because instead of 'offensive to most' posts being erased, they would simply be rated out of existence within thoise circles, while being rated highly in circles that appreciated that line of reasoning. So your conspiracy theorists or anti-establishment groups eg EFF could not be rated out of existence by bot-nets.
And for the true seedy underside, your terrorist or paedophile cells, only included because if I don't I could be attacked for advocating them, it actually would create clustering of people of such mindsets, which should make it easier for enforcement to identify them if they are doing their job right.