Viewing profile — throwawaykf

That article sounds like it supports a corrollary of rayiner's theory, that men are sick of having to "earn it". The article certainly seems to support that it is indeed women who …

Relevant (from 2010): "Detecting Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Activity in Second Life and World of Warcraft", Angela S M Irwin, Jill Slay - University of South Australi…

Heh, I'm surprised there have been no New Yorkers yet chiming in to say "good riddance". Most New Yorkers -- in my experience -- seem to share the sentiment that there are too many…

Oh boy, that paper is a huge exercise in setting up a strawman and knocking it down. Lemley has done some good work, but this is not it. 1. He goes on and on about "patent theory",…

My problem with that book is that the authors start it with a lie [1], and changed to different lies when being called out on it [2]. They also made some misrepresentations of how …

Did someone say "research" and "patents" in the same sentence? :-) I was going to rifle through my vast collection of references to studies about patents, but I just came across a …

> ... and said "I represent a concerned group of local small business people and programmers, and software patents are destroying our ability to make a living and causing us to los…

Glad to finally see someone who looks at the other side of things as well! I generally avoid IPWatchDog for the same reason reasons as Groklaw: too shrill, snarky and narrow-minded…

Same thing happened at the ITC last year (except I'm not sure if an ITC ruling can actually invalidate patents): http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/VFat-patent-could-be-... How…

I'll let alone the fact that your definition of "software patents" is flawed. Let me address your other points. > There are so many conclusive arguments against software patents th…

> The current state of the patent system is such that having been granted a patent legally supersedes in power the act of enabling technological advancement. That is to say that th…

Hmm, genuinely curious, which part of my post sounded like a personal attack as opposed to an objection?

No, I work as a software engineer, but don't let that get you down from your moral high horse. But I have also worked for a small company that was ripped off by the big guys, almos…

Hmm, I understand, to varying degrees, pretty much everything that happens there, at least down to the logic gate level. Once it hits the physics or quantum level I'm lost. It migh…

Ahh, Bessen. Interesting that he cites his own "trolls cost $29B" study [1] without mentioning that it's been "called into question" [2, 3, 4] to put it diplomatically. It's not li…

> For a group of people with highly specialized skills (who get underpaid when compared to lawyers and doctors)... Too broad a brush stroke there. The vast majority of software dev…

I don't think, given his history of depression, that there's any easy rational explanation for his suicide.

Hmm, wonder how much of their 80M settlement the MPAA will actually get... http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/hotfile-settles-c...

> Where is the risky investment in research that patents are supposed to be making possible? Focusing on the "risky investment" part, the investment is not just monetary: I spent a…

Here I go citing another Lemley paper. I'm afraid I may end up giving the impression that I agree wih him on things! "Are Universities Patent Trolls?", Mark Lemley, http://papers.s…

Hmm, I didn't read his reply that way. Maybe you're just going off... half-cocked?

Apologies for pointing out the flaws in your "taking non-rivalrous things causes no harm" argument. Oink!

>Many people could derive huge benefits (in the case of patented medicines, life!) if we hadn't artificially made the copies and drugs scarce. That's a very short term analysis. Ag…

> Laws don't keep people from taking tangible items, they only punish afterwards. So now all laws are "legal fiction"? > The only thing that stops someone from taking something tan…

Well, are the claimants buying them a new football stadium? The Lemley paper I posted below certainly seems to indicate no great preference for plaintiffs over defendants.