From ARS
The case was just weeks away from a jury trial, but US District Judge Anthony Trenga didn't let it get that far. In an opinion published Wednesday, Trenga found that IV's patents were simply abstract ideas: "nothing more than the mere manipulation or reorganization of data," he wrote. "At most, the patents describe a more efficient system or method for performing tasks than could be done without a computer, i.e. monitoring expenditures according to preset limits (the '137 Patent) or determining what would appeal to a particular user from a particular website (the '382 Patent.)"
woot!
Showing posts with label trolls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trolls. Show all posts
Monday, April 21, 2014
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Ad Blocking Illegal? Well, let me see...
The (bad word) president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau thinks blocking third party cookies and ads might be illegal. Apparently so does a writer at CNET.
While I'm not a lawyer (IANAL). I do understand that the the Computer Fraud and Abuse act criminalizes:
While I'm not a lawyer (IANAL). I do understand that the the Computer Fraud and Abuse act criminalizes:
" (a) Whoever ... (2) intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains—...(C) information from any protected computer;"Can I put a message into my browsing header that creates my own terms of service that states:
"This computer browser is accessing a web site to collect public information and images in HTML format published by the owner of the web server site. For reasons of data privacy and security, the policy of the owner of the browsing computer prohibits execution of any computer programming code such as, but not limited to, Javascript, Oracle Java, Microsoft ActiveX, and others without explicit permission, and has automated policies set to block execution of this code. Sites that use technical measures to bypass these protections are considered attackers of the browsing computer, and may be blocked and/or prosecuted under Computer Fraud and Abuse act of the United States of America.I suspect this is way to long to put in the browser headers, but I could certainly put in a link to my cloud site, and save the logs of the sites that access the policy. It could certainly be part of the web browser.
If this policy conflicts with your web site, please block your information from being sent to the browser. If you would like our policy to change, indicate your own policy, and we will determine whether our policy can be temporarily modified. "
Monday, February 4, 2013
Newegg Wins against the patent trolls!
Update May 2013
From Ars Technica - Newegg wins again against the trolls! Take that suckers!
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/newegg-nukes-corporate-troll-alcatel-in-third-patent-appeal-win-this-year/
W00t!
This is really good, and important. Newegg won an important patent victory against Soverain Software, which said they owned the concept of the online shopping cart. Their claims said that anything that used online shopping carts needed to pay them 1%. This is exactly like someone stating that they owned the patent of a real shopping cart, and every store that used one needed to pay them one per cent of the value of its contents.
This is obviously completely bogus, since their earliest patent was filed in 1994, and I worked at Receptive before that. Not only did we have similar shopping carts, but there were tons of them at the time.
Amazon settled, Victoria's Secret settled, lots of the biggies, maybe all of them, but Newegg stood up.
There's a really good article at Ars Technica where they interview the Chief Legal Officer of Newegg, Lee Cheng, who explains what happened, and also that the founder of Newegg, Fred Chang, "an extremely principled guy, " and "We have always been willing to sacrifice tactical gain for strategic success."
I'm so happy there's still an American company who says that.
Hooray!
The software patent system is horribly broken, and companies that stand up for all of our rights can help expose this problem, get it in front of our legislators, and get it fixed.
There is something we all can do - support Newegg ( in spite of my previous problems, I'm giving them another chance ), and support the EFF.
From Ars Technica - Newegg wins again against the trolls! Take that suckers!
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/newegg-nukes-corporate-troll-alcatel-in-third-patent-appeal-win-this-year/
W00t!
This is really good, and important. Newegg won an important patent victory against Soverain Software, which said they owned the concept of the online shopping cart. Their claims said that anything that used online shopping carts needed to pay them 1%. This is exactly like someone stating that they owned the patent of a real shopping cart, and every store that used one needed to pay them one per cent of the value of its contents.
This is obviously completely bogus, since their earliest patent was filed in 1994, and I worked at Receptive before that. Not only did we have similar shopping carts, but there were tons of them at the time.
Amazon settled, Victoria's Secret settled, lots of the biggies, maybe all of them, but Newegg stood up.
There's a really good article at Ars Technica where they interview the Chief Legal Officer of Newegg, Lee Cheng, who explains what happened, and also that the founder of Newegg, Fred Chang, "an extremely principled guy, " and "We have always been willing to sacrifice tactical gain for strategic success."
I'm so happy there's still an American company who says that.
Hooray!
The software patent system is horribly broken, and companies that stand up for all of our rights can help expose this problem, get it in front of our legislators, and get it fixed.
There is something we all can do - support Newegg ( in spite of my previous problems, I'm giving them another chance ), and support the EFF.
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