Texass jury says MS infringed on software piracy protection patent!

[kurttrail]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aKP0_TZqM9e4&refer=top_world_news

MS is the biggest IP infringer in the world. And ain't it just
hysterical that MS had to infringe on a patent to treat their customers
like the thief MS really is!

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

MS is the biggest IP infringer in the world. And ain't it just
hysterical that MS had to infringe on a patent to treat their customers
like the thief MS really is!

You really are troubled - read: obsessed - m'man.

I hope all of your posts get dumped.

 

[All Things Mopar]

Today kurttrail commented courteously on the subject at hand

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aKP0_TZq
M9e4&refer=top_world_news

MS is the biggest IP infringer in the world. And ain't it
just hysterical that MS had to infringe on a patent to
treat their customers like the thief MS really is!

Yes, definitely. After all, they stole GUI from Apple, but
justified it as both expedient and just, as Apple had stolen it
from the ill-fated Xerox Star 100 a decade earlier. Hmmm. Two
wrongs make a right? Or is it, might makes right?

And, I have no clue on how M$ managed to get a U.S. Patent on a
double-click, which they hardly invented (again, it was Apple
and their single-button mouse), plus, patents protect
inventions, not only moderately sophisticated mouse motion and
timing loop software, but that's irrelevant in reality.

 

[Mike Williams]

Today kurttrail commented courteously on the subject at hand


Yes, definitely. After all, they stole GUI from Apple, but
justified it as both expedient and just, as Apple had stolen it
from the ill-fated Xerox Star 100 a decade earlier. Hmmm. Two
wrongs make a right? Or is it, might makes right?

GUI is an invention and mouse motion is not?

And, I have no clue on how M$ managed to get a U.S. Patent on a
double-click, which they hardly invented (again, it was Apple
and their single-button mouse), plus, patents protect
inventions, not only moderately sophisticated mouse motion and
timing loop software, but that's irrelevant in reality.

Because the US patent system is so broken, companies like Microsoft are
driven to patent everything that moves to protect them against
patent-sharks. If they didn't indulge in these protections, they'd
probably also get sued by their own shareholders. And we won't get into
the subject of US tort law reform...

 

[All Things Mopar]

Today Uncle Grumpy commented courteously on the subject at
hand

You really are troubled - read: obsessed - m'man.

I hope all of your posts get dumped.

Best add me to your hit list, as it is clear to anyone with even
minimal cognitive skills that the OP is correct in theory and
practice.

M$ isn't exactly known for playing fair, either. Take for
example, the way Bill the Gates duped IBM into allowing him to
retain an exclusive license to what became MS-DOS by burying an
obscure paragraph into the Ts & Cs of his contract with IBM for
PC DOS 1.0. Then, too, there's also the known fact that Bill
didn't even have a DOS to sell to IBM and quickly found one and
tricked the poor-but-hungry owner into selling it for just $50K.

And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

In the late 19th/early 20th centuries, M$'s practices woulda
been termed "robber baron" and monopolistic and the trust
busters of the day, ala Teddy Roosevelt would've easily broken
the company up years ago.

 

[All Things Mopar]

Today Mike Williams commented courteously on the subject at
hand

GUI is an invention and mouse motion is not?

Didn't exactly say that, if you read my post carefully. I
don't think Apple actually patented their GUI as it is really
an expression of an idea, and not the idea itself, a
prerequisite for any patent, in theory. Certainly, Xerox did
not.

But, to your point, everybody, and I mean everybody, since the
days of the Xerox Star have /all/ used the basic idea of a
double-click, left-click, right-click, 15th button click,
whatever in every GUI OS I've ever seen, so, again, how could
M$ get a patent on kleenex tissue?

Because the US patent system is so broken, companies like
Microsoft are driven to patent everything that moves to
protect them against patent-sharks. If they didn't indulge
in these protections, they'd probably also get sued by
their own shareholders. And we won't get into the subject
of US tort law reform...

Now, this part I will readily agree with, along with the
federal court system under the current administration being
broken, although it was broken before President Bush got here.

Neither can figure out what is the best compromise for
businessses and their customers, not to mention employees,
taxpayers, and everybody else, else Netscape and others
would've been able to prevail in court some years back that M
$ was, in fact, using predatory marketing policies with it's
OEMs to squash competition. I was about to say "illegally",
except that M$ won.

 

[Mike Williams]

Neither can figure out what is the best compromise for
businessses and their customers, not to mention employees,
taxpayers, and everybody else, else Netscape and others
would've been able to prevail in court some years back that M
$ was, in fact, using predatory marketing policies with it's
OEMs to squash competition. I was about to say "illegally",
except that M$ won.

Netscape helped torpedo itself by terrible software-engineering, not
least by forgoing international support which made its browser unusable
unless everyone in the world used Western European characters. It only
took them 2-3 years to rewrite everything to catch up with MS.

 

[Winux P]

Think that cost will be passed on to the consumer?

- Winux P

:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aKP0_TZqM9e4&refer=top_world_news
:
: MS is the biggest IP infringer in the world. And ain't it just
: hysterical that MS had to infringe on a patent to treat their customers
: like the thief MS really is!
:
: --
: Peace!
: Kurt Kirsch
: Self-anointed Moderator
: http://microscum.com
: "It'll soon shake your Windows
: And rattle your walls
: For the times they are a-changin'."
:
:

 

[Kerry Brown]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aKP0_TZqM9e4&refer=top_world_news

MS is the biggest IP infringer in the world. And ain't it just
hysterical that MS had to infringe on a patent to treat their
customers like the thief MS really is!

The whole patent thing has gotten out of hand. Microsoft is not the only one
affected.

http://www.iusmentis.com/computerprograms/opensourcesoftware/patentrisks/

Then there's the SCO Unix patent scam/extortion. Software patents shouldn't
be allowed. It stifles creativity and competition. Copyright should be
sufficient to protect software.

 

[kurttrail]

You really are troubled - read: obsessed - m'man.

ROFL! You don't see the irony of it all, do you? How sad.

I hope all of your posts get dumped.

For what? Telling the truth?

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[kurttrail]

Think that cost will be passed on to the consumer?

Both the fine, and the license fee for the software piracy protection
patent!

MS is the real crook, but we are the ones who always get it up the
keyster!

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[kurttrail]

The whole patent thing has gotten out of hand. Microsoft is not the
only one affected.

http://www.iusmentis.com/computerprograms/opensourcesoftware/patentrisks/

Then there's the SCO Unix patent scam/extortion. Software patents
shouldn't be allowed. It stifles creativity and competition.
Copyright should be sufficient to protect software.

I agree, but then this is just karma saying a big hello to MS, for their
own patent portfolio.

--
Peace!
Kurt Kirsch
Self-anointed Moderator
http://microscum.com
"It'll soon shake your Windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'."

 

[Guest]

Then there's the SCO Unix patent scam/extortion. Software patents shouldn't

be allowed. It stifles creativity and competition. Copyright should be
sufficient to protect software.

All to often patents are granted that fail to meet the obviousness test. If
out of a group of 10 engineers familiar in the field of the techonology
invovled, 5 of them come up with the same solution as the one in a patent, I
feel that the patent fails the obvious test, but there are cases where 8 or 9
of the 10 engineers would figure it out and patent are granted anyway.

Example bad patents I've seen:

Anything related to compression since little improvement has been made since
the original patents (LZ1, LZ2) expired years ago. Ditto for error correction
codes, but since most of the new algorithms are produced by educational
institutions, patents involving ECC are rare.

For a sort program, a company patented the idea of using the scatter /
gather I/O mechanism in a computer to speed up a sort by avoiding the
movement of data. Memory moves on some mainframes are implemeted via DMA, and
were used for sorts. It wouldn't take much to realize that being able to
program a single I/O with multiple DMA's would eliminate the requirement to
move data in memory before I/O's.

The guy who patented the micro processor. A few Japanese companies just
settled, but Intel, Texas Instruments, and maybe some other companies got
this patent overturned. The guy never produced a working version, and kept
amending the patent application, in an apparent attempt to lengthen the
longevity of the patent.

For tape backup drives, a company got a patent for the idea of inserting a
cartidge sideways so that a smaller form factor could be used, even though
cassette decks in cars had been doing the same thing (side load) for years
prior to the patent.

On the other hand, consider the poor guy that invented the weed whacker. All
of the stuff needed to make one had been around for decades, yet no one
thought of this before. This patent was overturned.

I don't like EULA's either as copyright laws are sufficient for protecting
software, but that's another (sore) subject.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I don't like EULA's either as copyright laws are sufficient for
protecting software, but that's another (sore) subject.

It's a very sore subject. Copyright is becoming more and more important in
this digital age. Unfortunately the courts don't seem to think so. Because
of this companies are having to resort to things like patents and EULAs to
protect their intellectual property. I believe it will be years before it's
all sorted out. DRM and copyright protection schemes are going to force the
issue into the limelight. It's going to hurt everyone who's used to just
downloading whatever they want (music, movies, software etc.) but it has to
happen or creativity will be stifled. I used to write articles for a
computer newsletter and was paid a modest fee. The copyright was prominently
displayed at the bottom of the article. I now find these articles on the net
with no thought being given to copyright or remuneration or even mention of
the author. Same with programs. I have seen some of my routines used in
commercial programs with the source code clearly saying this is not allowed
still in place. When I talked to a lawyer about this he laughed and said it
would cost too much to try to do anything.