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The Silencing of Maya

niederfamily.blogspot.be

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Re: The Silencing of Maya

#301

Post by leot »

ArbitraryLimits wrote: post #228
lloeki wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That software is my property. I own it Technically, no. I'm pretty sure that if you cashed for a copy of WordPerfect on Apple II, that software was licensed to you for unlimited time use and you don't own any bit of it.

Well, this is really getting down to a philosophical level. You can't technically "own" any land at all in the United States, for example, the most you can get is unlimited use rights in perpetuity. Stop paying your property taxes for a few months and you'll find out who actually "owns" your land real quick.

All ownership is, at base, socially constructed legal artifice.

Re: The Silencing of Maya

#302

Post by leot »

The debate here seems to be about whether patents are good or bad, when the problem seems to be more about their implementation.

It's possible to imagine a patent system that has far fewer problems (though no doubt massive armies will form to oppose any major reform).

Re: The Silencing of Maya

#303

Post by regularfry »

gcb wrote: post #295
regularfry wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not one that's good enough, apparently.

I feel the discussion may be either: Cheap enough or marketed enough. Because never the article talk about it. So either it's cost prohibitive, our they couldn't even find it's existence. But again... If it were life changing...

Perhaps you missed this passage on a first read-through:

    What would happen if we lost SfY? I have no idea. As I’ve explained 
    before, we have tried other communication apps and didn’t find any 
    that were a good match for Maya.  Interestingly, we also carefully 
    considered purchasing a communication device from PRC, and met with 
    one of their representatives in November, nine weeks before a post 
    on my Facebook wall introduced me to SfY (and seven weeks before it 
    even existed in the iTunes store).  We examined PRC’s devices and 
    were disappointed to see that they weren’t a good fit for Maya.  
    For us, this wasn’t an issue of an expensive device versus a 
    “cheap” app.  This was an issue of an ineffective device (for Maya) 
    versus an app that she understood and embraced immediately.  The 
    only app, the only system, that she immediately adopted as her own 
    way of communicating.

Re: The Silencing of Maya

#305

Post by kamaal »

Karunamon wrote: post #281
rimantas wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you tell me the case where separating hardware from software created superior product? Anyway, I am too tired to argue with FOSS extremists touting their imaginary world with imaginary benefits and solutions for imaginary threats for imaginary users. "Users" ir the key word there. Majority of the people using software are just users, not programmers. We are not all butchers, bakers, and car mechanics. We don't ha…

>imaginary world with imaginary benefits and solutions for imaginary threats Do be careful. RMS's "imaginations" have come true more than once. It's often that you don't know what you have until it's gone...

I think this sort of thing must be open source.

I am ready to contribute to such a project if it already exists.

Re: The Silencing of Maya

#306

Post by flyinRyan »

wissler wrote: post #242
flyinRyan wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you realize that, regardless of how it's abused now, in a world with zero patents no little guy would ever be paid for his idea? Big companies could just see the idea, realize the value and task 100 people with copying it exactly. Further no company would bother with R&D because as soon as they make a breakthrough everyone else will simply steal the idea and sell for pennies more than cost of production. R&D costs…

Men who have minds large enough to envision the kinds of ideas that would deserve a patent (if patents were moral) are precisely the kind who would invent regardless of whether they could get one. See Nicola Tesla or the many scientists throughout history who have achieved great things without having a carrot and a stick. Or see Linus Torvalds. The kind of men who refuse to engage themselves in creation without being…

I'm sorry but this is just not true. You say the kind of people who deserve a patent would do the work either way and then you suggest a handful of people. Many, many people have created things for the purpose of making money. Your world would eliminate people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Later in life, when Jobs had billions, he didn't seem to care about money anymore but in the beginning Apple tried everything. They even had a clothing line.

As for your examples, Linus didn't invent. He made a version of an existing OS and started with an existing version of a copy of that OS. He did it for fun, but one must also recognize that he's gained a tremendous amount by this seemingly "benevolent" action. Fresh out of college he could take much more interesting jobs than most people with his background could. His "gift" ended up being a loss leader for his career.

So if we were reliant on only having people like Tesla to push us forward we'd be nowhere near where we are today. Tesla was brilliant but there are just far too few people who think and work as he did.

Re: The Silencing of Maya

#307

Post by bobwaycott »

jeremyarussell wrote: post #271
bobwaycott wrote: post #128

I could be missing something here, and I certainly do not mean to negate the importance this family feels by "hearing" their daughter speak or the indisputable harshness experienced as a result of a patent dispute. I know I would certainly feel the same way if one of my sons had this problem. However, despite the convenience and awesomeness of being able to do this on an iPad, is there anything preventing the girl (a…

The problem here is you're trying to replace the ability for the child to respond and communicate within 1-3 seconds to form a sentence as opposed to the 45 seconds it takes for a kid to write it out. Also learning the symbols and such is easier then learning all the letters and words and grammar involved in written language. Taking into account the difference in time, how much people communicate on a daily basis, ho…

You're spot on here and illustrating my primary point--that the parents have enjoyed a greater convenience in overcoming the communication troubles with their daughter. I didn't intend to make light of how incredible that particular convenience is over other methods. I don't doubt or discount that the iPad app is leaps and bounds improved over other methods in this particular case. Again, none of that is disputable as far as I see.

The particular dimension of the story I felt worth pointing out that was disputable, however, were the ways in which the author made hyperbolic claims. I could tell with the reactions in the HN comments that everyone was capitalizing on the anti-PRC/Apple angle and somewhat beating it to death. Speaking as a parent of two, the eldest of whom started speaking later than "normal" and still seems to have some issues (though by no means as extreme as Maya's), it was the claims that there was zero communication without the app that stood out to me (particularly after taking other content on the blog into consideration).

It is unquestionably sad and pathetic when anything that truly helps improve people's lives in a demonstrable way is threatened by crap in the business world. Stories like Maya's are excellent for helping enlighten people to the ways that IP fighting can seriously degrade people's lives. I just still think it's worth being intellectually honest even amid the harshest emotional pulls.

Re: The Silencing of Maya

#308

Post by rimantas »

Karunamon wrote: post #281
rimantas wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you tell me the case where separating hardware from software created superior product? Anyway, I am too tired to argue with FOSS extremists touting their imaginary world with imaginary benefits and solutions for imaginary threats for imaginary users. "Users" ir the key word there. Majority of the people using software are just users, not programmers. We are not all butchers, bakers, and car mechanics. We don't ha…

>imaginary world with imaginary benefits and solutions for imaginary threats Do be careful. RMS's "imaginations" have come true more than once. It's often that you don't know what you have until it's gone...

They never came true. They never will. But of course, with some goalpost shifting you can argue that. Anyway, RMS "imaginations" have nothing to do with the world as it is today.

Re: The Silencing of Maya

#309

Post by Uchikoma »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #127

The biggest culprit here, in my view, isn't Apple, PRC, or the patent system. It's the death of physical media and the rise of the "app store" model. I have programs for my Apple //e computer that are over 30 years old. Most of the companies that made the software have long since disappeared, and the computer hasn't been supported since the '80s, but I can still use them. That software is my property. I own it, and I…

How is an offline iPad more impractical as your 1980 computer?

(I'm against software patents, I'm against media licensing instead of ownership for the record)

Re: The Silencing of Maya

#310

Post by ToesByNoon »

When did apple say they were pulling it? Never. A good example is VLC. It was pulled from the store on license claims, and it's never been removed from any of my devices. Also while a bit kludgy to do, they can jailbreak and find the IPA file if it really means that much. I do that when apps require iOS 5 on older devices that don't support it. I bought it, I'm entitled to it.
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