Darwin's Theories - patents tag

Ian's Top Ten Today, #1

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:51:00 GMT

Here are some links that I found worth passing on recently. This is not a monthly or even a regular listing; I'll repeat this when I have another ten.

End Software Patents
Jacob C. Hornberger: Hillary Should Have Apologized for Waco in Waco
Building a Green PC at ArsTecnica
Canadian Politics: Let Elizabeth Speak (although, despite the noble-sounding URL, it only pleads for one of our minority parties)
Managing Your Inbox courtesy of RIM
Microsoft dupes consumers into buying crappy hardware just to pinch Vista out the door (Caveat: this blog contains statements admitted in evidence but not "proven" by trial, and doesn't know how to spell "dilemna")
Free book downloads in CS/Eng/Programming from www.freetechbooks.com/index.php
Senator denies $40,000 in telecom corporate donations could affect vote on telecoms immunity bill (I can just see Jay Leno delivering that line, can't you?)
MPAA lies about college downloading, agitates for legal interventions, and laughs its $10B profits all the way to the bank
Humor: PHD Comics, especially this strip (thread continues about 8 strips later).

Like I say, tha-tha-that's all (for now), folks. When I get another ten, this'll be back.

US Patent Office Agrees to Hear PUBPAT FAT Challenge

Thu, 10 Jun 2004 12:00:00 GMT

On April 15 I reported that the Public Patent Foundation was challenging Microsoft's all-important FAT Filesystem Patent. Today the US PTO agreed that PubPat's challenge had enough merit to prompt a new hearing into whether the Patent in question should be abolished. Score one for the good guys at PubPat!

Microsoft using the State to kill free software?

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 12:00:00 GMT

Microsoft has started a campaign to license all implementations of "FAT", the filesystem type used in MS-DOS. This filesystem format is used all over the place, including most media interchange by flash memory cards, USB-based "memory disks", and more. It is also used for floppy interchange on all operating systems that support floppy drives, including the open-source operating systems like Linux and the BSD family (including OpenBSD). Since Microsoft have refused to offer a no-fee license to open source groups, it could easily be inferred that they are trying to use the Patent Office to put an end to the challenge they face from open source development, and in the process put the lid they have always wanted on all software innovation other than their own. One of the leading groups fighting this effort is the Public Patent Foundation; please check out this information on their intervention filed with the U.S. Patent Office to re-examine Microsoft's claim based on prior art. See also my history pages for where Microsoft originally got MS-DOS from.

Support the EFF Copyright Petition

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 12:00:00 GMT

I urge everyone to support the EFF Copyright Petition. You must have a U.S. mailing address to be a signatory to this petition, since it is addressed to the U.S. Congress, but you can support other worthwhile EFF projects from anywhere.
And since it is the second anniversary of Sept 11, 2001, please check out the FFF's book Liberty, Security, and the War on Terrorism.

More SCO Lawsuit Lunacy

Mon, 18 Aug 2003 12:00:00 GMT

The frivolous lawsuit by SCO against IBM and Linux turned humorous when Bruce Perens revealed that the bits of "stolen" code they showed off were actually taken from V7 UNIX which SCO (when it was called Caldera, Inc.) released for all the world to use for free under a BSD-style license. See also this paper at OSI (Open Source Institute) on the SCO vs IBM suit.