The problem with this patent might be that attempts to patent the problem, i.e. all solutions to a problem, not a specific solution. This type of abuse should be stopped. It isn't stopped by giving companies a slap on the wrist, that is invalidating a few claims and letting the others stand.
Of course, since I'm a slashdotter, I didn't actually read the patent;-)
I was under the impression that the DMCA only protects effective encryption, not rot13.
With the master key leaked, HDMI isn't effective encryption anymore.
In my book, this isn't about a copyright troll, more about a copyright factory.
Trolling means to do something wrong in an excessive way. However, even the capacity of the internet to copy doesn't mean that it is ok to copy an article word by word.
Copyright is the foundation of things like copyleft licenses. The only thing excessive with copyright is the asking for longer and longer durations.
Bascially what you are saying amounts to this - that all character names, place names and organization names in a work, be it a book or a movie, automatically qualify as trademarks.
This is obviously NOT the intention of trademarks. It would be especially harmful to society because trademarks, unlike copyrights, do NOT expire.
As example - if this were true, nobody would be eaten by a grue except in the original game, no goblins, orcs or trolls would be allowed because these obviously were trademarked in an earlier work.
I think Lucas arts is into this with their ass forwards - if they did not bother to trademark "Jedi" then it isn't a trademark.
And think of the poor members of the church of jediism;-)
I think the informational limit is reached only in black holes and similar dense matter. So that limit might affect the nucleus, but not the larger region of space it is in, like you suggested.
This is bullshit just as the strawman of Kurzweil you are arguing against is:
You don't need to simulate the brain to get the complexity of the brain, all you need is a similar simulated or FPGA structure that can evolve connections just like the brain does.
Bascially I propose you set up such a simulator and then run evolution on it. The technically costly part of this is to simulate an environment well enough to get useful agents in this environment.
There are probably two issues with running private servers of an MMORPG:
1) Your server will have to hold a copy of the data(the map,..) of the official servers, thereby violating some copyright. Unless you create your own maps and content, but people will hate it.
2) The license to the client will probably allow you to only use official servers.
There are situations and setups where you might work around this, but I have the feeling that it hasn't been worked around both in ultima online and WoW private servers.
They are probably within their rights if the game is advertised as "pacman" because they will own a trademark to that. I don't know about the images of pacman; if they bothered to file these as a trademark too, they got a second leg to stand on.
Just rename the game as "Pingus Hunt", replace the pacman with a penguin, and the monsters with Bill G's, and no one can complain about their project.
Your method is simply too good and precisely defined to result in a patent filing.
A US patent filing should always be broad and not do more than restate the problem and stating that it is somehow being solved by a black box, so that your company has a real chance to stop any competitor from coming up with a less optimal solution that doesn't violate the patent.
I completely agree that multiplayer games have a higher replay value. And multiplayer does not necessarily mean a central server, it could be a LAN mode.
But it really depends on how well the matchmaking is being done.
For example, in Ensemble Studios' Age of Mythology, I have fun while I have average rating.
However in Blizzards Warcraft III TFT, either people resign immediately because a map came up that they don't know by heart, or they usually beat me after 20 minutes or so. Both isn't fun.
Blizzards Starcraft was even worse, with people thinking it was fun to defect to the other team, making it a 5v3.
Also, Ensemble Studios really has a random map generator in contrast to Blizzard.
I think the problem is with the complete work that results when the non-GPL style and the GPL software are combined. Actually a distributor of the style would not infringe the GPL, but would assist someone else to do so.
There is in the GPL2 a way out of this: "If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works."
In GPL3, the way out is not as easy: "A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work, and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works permit. Inclusion of a covered work in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other parts of the aggregate."
Just goes to show that data vs code is a false dichotomy: The programming language and data description language used should not affect where the split is.
This is even more obviously worse if you for example transfer your data as JSON, so that the data interchange language is the same as the programming language.
Neither freeware nor shareware are in the public domain, the creator still has the copyright.
If the creator places it explicitely in the public domain on the other hand, he cannot expect any compensation, and it is true that the proposed brazilian law would make it illegal even for himself to try and remove it from the public domain by distributing it with DRM later on.
Digital Rights Management schemes will make it really hard soon to emulate the hardware and media.
That is why I believe that unless a non-protected copy of the game/media is submitted to the Library of Congress, or a similar insitution in your country, the game/media should lose all protection by copyright law and DMCA.
Slashdot Mirror
.. Camp. Maybe it was twins.
This news brought to you by the smallest web host ..
Much better title ;-)
There's also League of Legends, which is mostly DotA.
The problem with this patent might be that attempts to patent the problem, i.e. all solutions to a problem, not a specific solution. This type of abuse should be stopped. It isn't stopped by giving companies a slap on the wrist, that is invalidating a few claims and letting the others stand.
Of course, since I'm a slashdotter, I didn't actually read the patent ;-)
I was under the impression that the DMCA only protects effective encryption, not rot13. With the master key leaked, HDMI isn't effective encryption anymore.
In my book, this isn't about a copyright troll, more about a copyright factory.
Trolling means to do something wrong in an excessive way.
However, even the capacity of the internet to copy doesn't mean that it is ok to copy an article word by word.
Copyright is the foundation of things like copyleft licenses.
The only thing excessive with copyright is the asking for longer and longer durations.
Bascially what you are saying amounts to this - that all character names, place names and organization names in a work, be it a book or a movie, automatically qualify as trademarks.
This is obviously NOT the intention of trademarks. It would be especially harmful to society because trademarks, unlike copyrights, do NOT expire.
As example - if this were true, nobody would be eaten by a grue except in the original game, no goblins, orcs or trolls would be allowed because these obviously were trademarked in an earlier work.
I think Lucas arts is into this with their ass forwards - if they did not bother to trademark "Jedi" then it isn't a trademark.
And think of the poor members of the church of jediism ;-)
I think the informational limit is reached only in black holes and similar dense matter.
So that limit might affect the nucleus, but not the larger region of space it is in, like you suggested.
The .ico format supports better resolutions in one file, so someone could have used better images.
Much better than a weird apple only tag.
This is bullshit just as the strawman of Kurzweil you are arguing against is:
You don't need to simulate the brain to get the complexity of the brain, all you need is a similar simulated or FPGA structure that can evolve connections just like the brain does.
Bascially I propose you set up such a simulator and then run evolution on it.
The technically costly part of this is to simulate an environment well enough to get useful agents in this environment.
I get the following trying to access their public patent search:
error 11
Fatal error: basedir missing - given base directory "c:/webtadirs/FREE" could not be located on this server; please call system administrator.
WebTransactions - © 2005 Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH
I'd prefer to live in Kissing, Germany - and it is even pronouced the same way, unlike Fucking which is pronounced Foock-ing
There are probably two issues with running private servers of an MMORPG:
1) Your server will have to hold a copy of the data(the map, ..) of the official servers, thereby violating some copyright. Unless you create your own maps and content, but people will hate it.
2) The license to the client will probably allow you to only use official servers.
There are situations and setups where you might work around this, but I have the feeling that it hasn't been worked around both in ultima online and WoW private servers.
They are probably within their rights if the game is advertised as "pacman" because they will own a trademark to that. I don't know about the images of pacman; if they bothered to file these as a trademark too, they got a second leg to stand on.
Just rename the game as "Pingus Hunt", replace the pacman with a penguin, and the monsters with Bill G's, and no one can complain about their project.
Your method is simply too good and precisely defined to result in a patent filing.
A US patent filing should always be broad and not do more than restate the problem and stating that it is somehow being solved by a black box, so that your company has a real chance to stop any competitor from coming up with a less optimal solution that doesn't violate the patent.
I completely agree that multiplayer games have a higher replay value.
And multiplayer does not necessarily mean a central server, it could be a LAN mode.
But it really depends on how well the matchmaking is being done.
For example, in Ensemble Studios' Age of Mythology, I have fun while I have average rating.
However in Blizzards Warcraft III TFT, either people resign immediately because a map came up that they don't know by heart, or they usually beat me after 20 minutes or so. Both isn't fun.
Blizzards Starcraft was even worse, with people thinking it was fun to defect to the other team, making it a 5v3.
Also, Ensemble Studios really has a random map generator in contrast to Blizzard.
I think the problem is with the complete work that results when the non-GPL style and the GPL software are combined. Actually a distributor of the style would not infringe the GPL, but would assist someone else to do so.
There is in the GPL2 a way out of this: "If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works."
In GPL3, the way out is not as easy: "A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent
works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work,
and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program,
in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an
"aggregate" if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not
used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation's users
beyond what the individual works permit. Inclusion of a covered work
in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other
parts of the aggregate."
Just goes to show that data vs code is a false dichotomy:
The programming language and data description language used should not affect where the split is.
This is even more obviously worse if you for example transfer your data as JSON, so that the data interchange language is the same as the programming language.
Quoted from the blurb: "By trying to log in again and again, cycling through characters and measuring the time it takes for the computer to respond".
You need more than one attempt to make a timing attack, too.
Adding a random delay doesn't help. Just send in the request 100 times and take the average time.
A javascript non HTML5 puzzle game(just DHTML):
http://hylzee.sourceforge.net/hylZee/
Neither freeware nor shareware are in the public domain, the creator still has the copyright.
If the creator places it explicitely in the public domain on the other hand, he cannot expect any compensation, and it is true that the proposed brazilian law would make it illegal even for himself to try and remove it from the public domain by distributing it with DRM later on.
Digital Rights Management schemes will make it really hard soon to emulate the hardware and media.
That is why I believe that unless a non-protected copy of the game/media is submitted to the Library of Congress, or a similar insitution in your country, the game/media should lose all protection by copyright law and DMCA.
Just a thought.
Uranium will be gone too in about hundred years, and faster if everyone builds more plants in reaction to peak oil.