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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

#151

Post by genwin »

saalweachter wrote: post #108
api wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Won't there just be new broad patents? It seems the patent office doesn't really consider prior art.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#153

Post by apotheon »

saalweachter wrote: post #108
api wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

1. Prior art doesn't stop the patent office from issuing patents, so that's not going to help.

2. Patentocalypse is a great way to kill off startups that actually succeed and open source projects, so big business campaign contributors will keep congresscritters from doing anything about it.

3. This won't really hurt the big public corporations too much, once the dust settles a little, because they'll just reach detente to avoid mutually assured destruction.

If something changes things for the better, it will almost certainly be the general public ultimately reaching a point where everyone ignores patent law altogether, thus making it irrelevant.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#154

Post by Miky »

carbocation wrote: post #140
schmichael wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a fan of net neutrality I take it? As much as I hate patent trolling, I'd hate politics and ridiculous laws to restrict the free flow of information more instead of less.

Noonespecial is talking about private actors, not the state. This is essentially a call for a boycott, and I can't see this as a reflection on noonespecial's views on net neutrality one way or the other.

The whole point of net neutrality is preventing private actors from manipulating the flow of information.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#155

Post by rbanffy »

rossjudson wrote: post #137
rbanffy wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This sounds alot like hashing the contents of a file to get and identifier for it Oops... I think the image asset deduplication method I used at the portal I worked for infringes on that. It's a Brazilian company, so, good luck for them. Yep... They still use it: http://i0.ig.com/bancodeimagens/02/9a/e2/029ae2zxd9u8jflt2le...

Document and image management systems have been doing this sort of thing for decades. Form a unique identifier for an image by hashing, split the bytes out into a path name by hex converting, and you have a file system path. I'd say that this particular troll is going to get stepped on pretty hard, and all of these patents are going to be invalidated.

I never claimed I invented it ;-) It just seemed like the obvious way to prevent duplication when someone would rather update the same file again than search for a previously existing version.

In the end, when a dupe was uploaded for the second time, the uploader would be rewarded by not having to edit any metadata - as they would be redirected to the original asset page.

If someone ever uploads a second, valid, JPEG that collides in md5-space with a previously uploaded one, the sysadmins in the app group will receive an e-mail commemorating the fact someone defeated our deduper.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#156

Post by bo1024 »

nickbp wrote: post #130
ktizo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From having a read through the claims of - 6415280: Identifying and Requesting Data in Network Using Identifiers Which Are Based On Contents of Data. - It appears they have patented using hashes as identifiers for the data that is hashed. Which is a bit like patenting the use of a shovel for digging.

I would not be surprised if the patent office itself used this method for filing patent information in various DBs.

Every filesystem in the world probably uses this method. The identity function (i.e. storing an item under its own name) seems to be a special case.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#157

Post by josephcooney »

vibrunazo wrote: post #143
maratd wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I agree, historically, big 180 shifts in legislation didn't happen because one interest group had a more.compelling argument. Change happens when the economics shift, such that there is now a stronger economic and political (or sometimes military) power in favor of change. Forexample, slavery didn't end because one side convinced the other. Slavery ended because capitalism changed the economic power balance such that…

re: the abolition of slavery and your economic argument - do you believe this to be the case in all instances where slavery was abolished? or just in the US? Spain abolished slavery circa 1550. Great Britain abolished slave trade circa 1810. Did the US just lag these economies (and GB lag Spain) a lot at this point?

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#158

Post by kd0amg »

saraid216 wrote: post #119
debacle wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

> 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. I could understand "inevitable consequence", but I can't see where you get "core aspect". Explain?

The patent system is meant to reward inventors, including inventors who don't have the capital for commercial manufacture of their invention (i.e. by licensing it to someone who does).

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#159

Post by jlebar »

schmichael wrote: post #131
noonespecial wrote: post #115

11. Venue is proper in the Eastern District of Texas under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1391 and1400(b). PersonalWeb is a limited liability company incorporated in Smith County, Texaswith its principal place of business in Tyler, Texas. A substantial part of the events giving riseto the asserted claims occurred in this judicial district, Defendant transact business in this judicial district, and the patents were infringed in this ju…

Not a fan of net neutrality I take it? As much as I hate patent trolling, I'd hate politics and ridiculous laws to restrict the free flow of information more instead of less.

The OP's suggestion has nothing to do with net neutrality.

Net neutrality is about the /network/ being neutral to what it carries. The network should deliver skype, or google, or HN, or whatever, and treat them all the same. The network operator shouldn't get to charge Google for the privilege of using its pipes, just because Google is a big company with lots of cash.

The OP was suggesting something entirely different: That tech companies (and, yes, websites), should boycott this district of Texas.

That's no different than AmazonFresh being available only in the Seattle area.

Re: Rackspace accused of patent infringement for hosting Github

#160

Post by logn »

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

I'd recommend that no one ever click on patents to read them. If you do your company, if found guilty in court of infringement, faces 3x higher damages (at least in the US). When I worked at SAP, the only sites blocked by our proxy were patent sites.
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