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Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

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Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#101

Post by rbanffy »

icebraining wrote: post #44
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.

> They're talking about distributing data throughout a network of servers

Hmm... We used that to shard the MySQL databases for our WordPress setup too...

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#102

Post by doki_pen »

betterth wrote: post #93
diminish wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple -a beloved public fetish - and its patent wins have paved the way for the attack of the patent empires and rogue states, in broader public opinion. Forget abolishing patents, I would expect more litigations and monetization attempts from software patent holders and a more proprietary, closed world for a decade or so; till the heritage of the "new Apple" erodes. ++@betterth Because Apple is more positively perce…

BS. Patent trolls have been around for a very long time, and companies like IBM represent the lionshare of patent applications. Apple themselves files one of the lowest numbers of offensive patent lawsuits -- it's just a confirmation bias mixed with the massive publicity that Apple gets. Just because you hear about EVERY one of Apple's lawsuits doesn't mean that Apple is "paving the way"! I hate the knee-jerk "blame…

Is there any current IBM litigation that hurts the average consumer as much as Apple's actions against HTC and Samsung?

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#103

Post by CamperBob2 »

mrcharles wrote: post #3

How many of these ridiculous lawsuits will it take before lawmakers realize how bad software patents are? This will waste a lot of time and money for something that shouldn't even exist.

The question you have asked is equivalent to another: "How many of these ridiculous wars will it take before arms manufacturers realize how bad violence is?"

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#105

Post by cpeterso »

defen wrote: post #91
snowwrestler wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patents cover areas of technology where developing a solution that can be commercialized at scale is much, much more expensive than software. Without patents, how is a pharma company expected to pay the enormous cost of research, development, and FDA approval of new drugs? Let's not let obvious flaws in software IP protection condemn the concept of patents in general.

Pharmaceuticals definitely seem to be an exception, since the time + cost of developing a drug (years + billions of dollars) is so staggeringly large compared to the cost of manufacturing / copying. So maybe there needs to be a special type of patent that only applies to drugs and treatments for medical conditions. Going up one level though - how much has society truly benefitted from the billions (trillions?) of dol…

Some reports claim the pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on marketing and promotion as it does on research and development.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.ht...

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#106

Post by betterth »

betterth wrote: post #93
diminish wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple -a beloved public fetish - and its patent wins have paved the way for the attack of the patent empires and rogue states, in broader public opinion. Forget abolishing patents, I would expect more litigations and monetization attempts from software patent holders and a more proprietary, closed world for a decade or so; till the heritage of the "new Apple" erodes. ++@betterth Because Apple is more positively perce…

BS. Patent trolls have been around for a very long time, and companies like IBM represent the lionshare of patent applications. Apple themselves files one of the lowest numbers of offensive patent lawsuits -- it's just a confirmation bias mixed with the massive publicity that Apple gets. Just because you hear about EVERY one of Apple's lawsuits doesn't mean that Apple is "paving the way"! I hate the knee-jerk "blame…

I never said that Apple was blameless, but rather I am arguing that they are not "leading the way".

Remember, Apple sued Samsung with patents made in house with Steve Jobs name on it.

Samsung sues with standards essential patents and patents it's bought like warheads for the sole purpose of using in court.

And you want me to believe that Apple is the cancer?

Apple carries blame but this is just like Foxconn -- Everyone uses them, only Apple gets the blame.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#107

Post by fghh45sdfhr3 »

maratd wrote: post #75
luriel wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is anyone actually arguing at this point that our current patent regime is accomplishing this end? All through history patents have always hindered innovation and progress, and there is plenty of research to back this up: http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/against.h... I think it should be obvious by now for anyone that we are well past the point where the system is fixable, the only solution is to…

Nice sentiment. I share it. It's also a waste of breath. > trolls, oligopolies and lawyers Every member of that group is well funded, highly connected, and very aggressive. They are ready to devote untold resources to crush your sentiment and should that fail, to redirect your reform efforts into a more palatable outcome. Every piece of legislation is a compromise between competing interests and their competing inter…

A far more successful strategy would be to chip away at the fringes

Why would that be so? Wouldn't all the groups continually fix what you chip away and then some?

Bit by bit, piece by piece. Add complexity until it collapses on its own.

Do you have a more detailed description of how to break the patent system by adding more regulations to it, such that the special interests do not, or can not remove them to continue the system?

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#108

Post by saalweachter »

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.

I am hopeful about what happens N years after the patentocalypse, when everything has been broadly patented a million times over and then all of those patents expire, and it is no longer to patent anything again.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#110

Post by andreasvc »

geoka9 wrote: post #76
defen wrote: post #58

I can't view the link because it's expired, so I'll just post my rant here. The entire point of patents, as delineated in the U.S. Constitution, is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." So patents are a means , of securing an end , which is "the progress of science and useful arts".…

I don't think software patents in the US will be abolished any time soon. The affected parties that have the most clout with the lawmakers (large software companies) chose to hoard up billions in patent portfolios for themselves, instead of lobbying for a patent reform. I can't imagine them writing off those huge assets; it's a deadlock now.

Well they could simply stop issuing new (software) patents, and within 20 years (I believe) there would be no more (software) patents.
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