Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

scribd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 189 posts

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#41

Post by krrose27 »

Rackspace isn't the only one being sued by the troll today.

Rackspace[1] Nexsan[2] Yahoo[3]

It also appears that this is the second round. (From 2011)

Caringo[4] NEC Corportation[5] Google[6] EMC/Vmware[7]

[1]http://www.scribd.com/doc/106190890/PersonalWeb-Technologies... [2]http://www.scribd.com/doc/106190872/PersonalWeb-Technologies... [3]http://www.scribd.com/doc/106190829/PersonalWeb-Technologies... [4]http://www.scribd.com/doc/75152879/PersonalWeb-Technologies-... [5]http://www.scribd.com/doc/75137853/PersonalWeb-Technologies-... [6]http://www.scribd.com/doc/75142772/PersonalWeb-Technologies-... [7]http://www.scribd.com/doc/75152912/PersonalWeb-Technologies-...

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#42

Post by AmaralHerberth »

wbond wrote: post #20
skymt wrote: post #12

The patents in question: http://www.google.com/patents/US5978791 http://www.google.com/patents/US6415280 http://www.google.com/patents/US6928442 http://www.google.com/patents/US7802310 http://www.google.com/patents/US7945539 http://www.google.com/patents/US7945544 http://www.google.com/patents/US7949662 http://www.google.com/patents/US8001096 http://www.google.com/patents/US8099420

The titles of the patents: 5978791: Data Processing System Using Substantially Unique Identifiers to Identify Data Items, Whereby Data Items Have the Same Identifiers. 6415280: Identifying and Requesting Data in Network Using Identifiers Which Are Based On Contents of Data. 6928442: Enforcement and Policing of Licensed Content Using Content-based Identifiers. 7802310: Controlling Access to Data in a Data Processing S…

>>> Access to data items uses names based on the data in the data items;

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/26945978.jpg

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#43

Post by [deleted] »

wbond wrote: post #20
skymt wrote: post #12

The patents in question: http://www.google.com/patents/US5978791 http://www.google.com/patents/US6415280 http://www.google.com/patents/US6928442 http://www.google.com/patents/US7802310 http://www.google.com/patents/US7945539 http://www.google.com/patents/US7945544 http://www.google.com/patents/US7949662 http://www.google.com/patents/US8001096 http://www.google.com/patents/US8099420

The titles of the patents: 5978791: Data Processing System Using Substantially Unique Identifiers to Identify Data Items, Whereby Data Items Have the Same Identifiers. 6415280: Identifying and Requesting Data in Network Using Identifiers Which Are Based On Contents of Data. 6928442: Enforcement and Policing of Licensed Content Using Content-based Identifiers. 7802310: Controlling Access to Data in a Data Processing S…

[deleted]

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#44

Post by icebraining »

mikey_p wrote: post #18

Some of these seem really questionable at first glance (note that I haven't read the entire patents yet) > United States Patent No. 6,415,280 "Identifying and Requesting Data in Network Using Identifiers Which Are Based On Contents of Data." This sounds alot like hashing the contents of a file to get and identifier for it. If anything it sounds like maybe Git itself violates this, but I thought that Git hashed the di…

Git doesn't violate this in any way. Read the claims. They're talking about distributing data throughout a network of servers, using an hash as a key to know from which servers to request the data. It's more similar to database sharding.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#45

Post by debacle »

jpkeisala wrote: post #25
daenney wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gist (ha) is that Github and Rackspace themselves use some techniques that are described in those patents. Because of that they're now being sued for patent infringement. It's an 'obvious' patent troll, I doubt these patents would even hold up in court but 'till then...

How is it really possible that there are companies that just holds patents and are allowed to sue others who does things. No shame. What a world we are living at... This seems to be company who is suing Github and Rackspace. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/sn...

I think it's perfectly legitimate for a company to just hold patents and sue others based on those patents (or, more likely, license them). That's a core aspect of the patent system.

The problem here isn't patent protections. It's bad patents. We're still going to see submarine patents for the next ~16 years, and I'm sure patent trolls will exist beyond that (unless there is reform), but the patent system isn't the problem here. It's just that so many bad patents get through.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#46

Post by forestbond »

wbond wrote: post #20
skymt wrote: post #12

The patents in question: http://www.google.com/patents/US5978791 http://www.google.com/patents/US6415280 http://www.google.com/patents/US6928442 http://www.google.com/patents/US7802310 http://www.google.com/patents/US7945539 http://www.google.com/patents/US7945544 http://www.google.com/patents/US7949662 http://www.google.com/patents/US8001096 http://www.google.com/patents/US8099420

The titles of the patents: 5978791: Data Processing System Using Substantially Unique Identifiers to Identify Data Items, Whereby Data Items Have the Same Identifiers. 6415280: Identifying and Requesting Data in Network Using Identifiers Which Are Based On Contents of Data. 6928442: Enforcement and Policing of Licensed Content Using Content-based Identifiers. 7802310: Controlling Access to Data in a Data Processing S…

Similar list from previous suit here:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111219/02381817122/ex-mor...

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#47

Post by Tuna-Fish »

krrose27 wrote: post #41

Rackspace isn't the only one being sued by the troll today. Rackspace[1] Nexsan[2] Yahoo[3] It also appears that this is the second round. (From 2011) Caringo[4] NEC Corportation[5] Google[6] EMC/Vmware[7] [1] http://www.scribd.com/doc/106190890/PersonalWeb-Technologies... [2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/106190872/PersonalWeb-Technologies... [3] http://www.scribd.com/doc/106190829/PersonalWeb-Technologies... [4] http:/…

My google-fu is failing me, how did the round 1 end?

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#48

Post by dfc »

icelancer wrote: post #32
dfc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt jurisdiction was a deciding factor in who to sue. But I hated Civil Procedure so I could be wrong...

Jurisdiction is a huge factor when filing suits. IP lawyers do their best to move cases into Tyler, TX (or other backwoods cities) where the judges don't understand technology whatsoever. A popular tactic is to shake down porn companies for money using nuisance patent suits.

And you think that jurisdiction is the reason they chose to sue rackspace instead of github?

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#49

Post by genwin »

api wrote: post #38
wbond wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The titles of the patents: 5978791: Data Processing System Using Substantially Unique Identifiers to Identify Data Items, Whereby Data Items Have the Same Identifiers. 6415280: Identifying and Requesting Data in Network Using Identifiers Which Are Based On Contents of Data. 6928442: Enforcement and Policing of Licensed Content Using Content-based Identifiers. 7802310: Controlling Access to Data in a Data Processing S…

It would appear, based on many incidents underway at the moment, that the software patent apocalypse is beginning. All software infringes something, so it should get interesting. Hopefully the absurdity will stink so badly that even the U.S. congress will do something.

Your congresspeople know this is a critical issue for you. They will be happy to take your campaign contribution. They're studying this issue closely. Study results expected in March 2057.
Post reply on HN