[109078] in Cypherpunks
CDR: e-commerce patents problematic? [salongmagazine]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Choate)
Tue Mar 9 22:01:46 1999
From: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 20:46:05 -0600 (CST)
Reply-To: Jim Choate <ravage@einstein.ssz.com>
X-URL: http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/feature/1999/03/09feature.html
Hey you, downloading audio or video clips from the Net -- yeah, you!
Drop that animated GIF. Put down that QuickTime movie. Forget about
those MP3 files. Didn't you know that buying copies of those things
over the Internet is patented? If someone doesn't pay royalties,
someone's going to be liable.
Patent fear is gripping the Net these days, as media coverage
highlights new patents covering the flow of multimedia, music, money
and whatnot over the Internet. In the past, news stories about patents
were tales filled with strange chemicals, weird industrial processes,
arcane contraptions with odd levers or microscopic things. To get a
patent in the old days, you couldn't be just any schmoe -- you needed
horn-rim glasses and a white lab coat.
But the latest batch of patents that focus on the Internet aren't
anywhere near as impressive. In fact, they look as if any schmoe did
"invent" them -- by taking some everyday occurrence and adding to it
the phrase, "with a computer network."
Consider U.S. Patent 5848161, which describes the flash of genius that
hit two Canadians and an American: They "invented" the practice of
locking up the data traveling over the Internet between the customer
and the store -- that is, they use encryption functions to hide credit
card account numbers from prying eyes.
[text deleted]
____________________________________________________________________
The trouble with acting according to your conscience is that
once you start doing it, nobody can trust you any more.
Alexis A. Gilliland
The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate
Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com
www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087
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