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Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

nytimes.com

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Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#91

Post by itronitron »

janoc wrote: post #64
Someone wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patents on mp3 and RSA didn’t prevent them from being used everywhere. I guess a patent on FFT (which, by the way, was considered at the time, according to Wikipedia) wouldn’t have stopped its adoption either. Also, IMO, a formula , which tells you what to compute, is essentially different from an algorithm , which tells you how . FFT would be patentable because it is non-obvious, even when given the formula for doin…

Sorry, a formula and an algorithm are not at all different. A mathematical formula is just a symbolic expression of an abstract concept, with the procedure (algorithm) how to use it being implicit (= obvious to the person skilled in the art). A computer algorithm can be trivially converted into purely mathematical/logic representation ("formulas" if you want), e.g. using things like lambda calculus. And vice-versa -…

But you could also argue that algorithms can be expressed through Language by trivially converting them into a purely semantic/logic representation. Is then anything that can be expressed through Language not patentable because it is trivially reduced to words?

Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#92

Post by gnicholas »

IncRnd wrote: post #84
hellllllllooo wrote: post #4

It's crazy how the large companies file so many patents for any idea their employees can think of. We used to have a lawyer come to our desks once a month and they would try patent any idea you could come up with even off the top of your head. Not sure how small companies can compete when larger companies can buy up all the IP in a space without having to do any work. The smaller companies I've worked for have to be…

I have several patents I created and assigned to my company. The main reason is to allow the company to work in those ways without restriction. For example, without a patent granting rights to do operation XYZ, then a competitor may say that the company is doing something forbidden and needs to stop. We can look at all the claims for stolen IP with the various self-driving car companies to see examples. This is a for…

> For example, without a patent granting rights to do operation XYZ, then a competitor may say that the company is doing something forbidden and needs to stop.

Just FYI, a patent doesn't "grant rights to do operation XYZ". Patents only allow you to forbid others from doing XYZ. That means that you can have a patent that covers XYZ, but if someone else has a patent to do X (or XY), then they can stop you from doing XYZ.

Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#93

Post by itronitron »

bitL wrote: post #37

I have to give it to FB - it's impressive how does their personal information collection and inference work. I was recently called by their recruiter - despite me being off FB for a few years, with inactive LinkedIn profile and keeping my current career info offline, they were perfectly informed what I am up to. Google messaged me as well. It's pretty amazing they could figure it out, even if I didn't really hide any…

>> they were perfectly informed what I am up to

Can you elaborate? If not with details then in general terms, i.e. what I had for breakfast last week, etc...

Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#94

Post by jedberg »

brian-armstrong wrote: post #69
jedberg wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like mutually assured distruction. Almost no one involved with software patents think they are a good idea, but until everyone backs down at the same time, you gotta keep doing it or that one evil player will destroy everyone. I don't think software patents should exist, but I've worked on a bunch (and have a few myself). Not a single person I've worked with in that process, including the lawyers, thinks softwar…

There’s a lot of cognitive dissonance in this post. Notably, you’re leaving out that smaller companies often don’t (and can’t) file patents, which means this system just further entrenches existing large companies. Also, large patent collections don’t protect you from patent trolls since they aren’t exposed to counter suing anyway - they don’t make or sell anything! But whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at…

There is no dissonance here. I'm fully aware that small companies are screwed in this process. They also aren't relevant. Just like with nuclear weapons, no one cares about the countries that don't have one. They only care about the evil countries that do have one.

Same thing here. Big companies have large patent portfolios. If my company doesn't have one as big as the evil corp, then my company will have problems when they sue.

And having a large patent portfolio does protect against trolls -- because if you're cross licensed with another big portfolio, you can use all of those to defend yourself in the suit. The trolls know this and will be less likely to sue the companies with large cross licensed portfolios.

Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#95

Post by jedberg »

detaro wrote: post #61
jedberg wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like mutually assured distruction. Almost no one involved with software patents think they are a good idea, but until everyone backs down at the same time, you gotta keep doing it or that one evil player will destroy everyone. I don't think software patents should exist, but I've worked on a bunch (and have a few myself). Not a single person I've worked with in that process, including the lawyers, thinks softwar…

> But if you don't have a big inventory of patents, then the company that does won't want a cross licensing deal. Of course the size of the other party's portfolio shouldn't matter if you're only interested in defensive use.

Of course, but usually one of the companies is interested in offensive purposes, which is why you need a large library for defensive purposes.

Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#96

Post by yorwba »

lightsighter wrote: post #80
gsnedders wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to be absolutely against software patents on those grounds, but I nowadays actually think it's a weak argument. We don't see people arguing we shouldn't patent physical machines because ultimately each operation is a simple physical movement, so the sum of everything is just a sequence of physical movements. Yet we see people arguing we shouldn't patent software "machines" because ultimately each operation is…

All programs are proofs and their results are theorems[1]. If "math is naturally inherent and merely discovered by humans" then so are all programs; programmers are just discoverers and not inventors. Given the proof of Curry-Howard Isomorphism rests on existing maths we can have another discussion about whether mathematical patents should be issued if we don't believe that maths are inherent and are actually invente…

Programs and proofs are not actually equivalent. The Curry-Howard correspondence is only concerned with the types. If you take a useful program and replace every function with another of the same type, the program is now pointless but still corresponds to the same proof. And unless you're explicitly trying to encode mathematical statements into the type system, that proof is likely to only show something trivial like "there is an integer".

Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#97

Post by homero »

citilife wrote: post #51
hellllllllooo wrote: post #4

It's crazy how the large companies file so many patents for any idea their employees can think of. We used to have a lawyer come to our desks once a month and they would try patent any idea you could come up with even off the top of your head. Not sure how small companies can compete when larger companies can buy up all the IP in a space without having to do any work. The smaller companies I've worked for have to be…

As someone who has multiple issued patents from large companies.. It's a pretty complex issue. I personally think software patents should be outlawed, as I don't know a better solution. On the one hand, I have several patents for project(s) that took years to develop. The processes are unique, very difficult to replicate, and should be offered some protection (if we agree that motor designs should be protected). The…

If your name is on a patent, can you use it anytime? Like if you change jobs?

Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#99

Post by qsdevacc »

ve55 wrote: post #17

Stop finding excuses to stay on Facebook. Be strong and do what is right. You can convince your friends to use other things if they are truly your friends.

Deleted my FB and Instagram accounts about 2 months ago. The best decision I have ever made.

Re: Facebook’s patents show a commitment to collecting personal information

#100

Post by spindle »

citilife wrote: post #51
hellllllllooo wrote: post #4

It's crazy how the large companies file so many patents for any idea their employees can think of. We used to have a lawyer come to our desks once a month and they would try patent any idea you could come up with even off the top of your head. Not sure how small companies can compete when larger companies can buy up all the IP in a space without having to do any work. The smaller companies I've worked for have to be…

As someone who has multiple issued patents from large companies.. It's a pretty complex issue. I personally think software patents should be outlawed, as I don't know a better solution. On the one hand, I have several patents for project(s) that took years to develop. The processes are unique, very difficult to replicate, and should be offered some protection (if we agree that motor designs should be protected). The…

Good for you!
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