Living on Video
,----[ Quote ]
| Chiariglione's video codecs evaluate the amount of data that needs to be
| actually digitised and the amount that can be "predicted" mathematically.
| Samples of the current frame are compared line-by-line with those of the
| preceding frame, and only the samples considered "sufficiently different" are
| being stored. Today, all commercial applications of digital video encoding
| are based on such predictive coding systems to save storage space.
`----
http://www.epo.org/about-us/events/epf2008/inventor/nominees/lifetime/chiariglione.html
New term: mathematical property. Whose maths is it anyway?
Confusion reigns on software patents
,----[ Quote ]
| A row is brewing over the lack of consistency surrounding the protection of
| software rights, and it needs to be resolved if the UK is to stay in step
| with European law, say experts.
`----
http://www.whatpc.co.uk/computing/analysis/2214492/confusion-reigns-software-3951869
How much have companies directly or indirectly bribed lawmakers so far in order
to build intellectual monopolies around mathematics, laws of nature?
Examples of related corruption, with focus of Microsoft, are appended below.
Recent:
Slovenia, France build pressure for Community Patent
,----[ Quote ]
| “This is a long-awaited step in the right direction. We applaud the Member
| States’ decision to push for a Community Patent,” said [Filthy Microsoft
| Shill] Jonathan Zuck...
`----
http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net/ebulletins/showissue.php3?page=/548/art/10104&ch=1
[Microsoft Lobbying Army] CompTIA Adds New Intellectual Property Rights Depth
to Its Advocacy Team
,----[ Quote ]
| Well regarded within the intellectual property community, Katopis will work
| for the interests of CompTIA’ s membership primarily on intellectual property
| rights, patent reform, and tech-neutrality in government procurement.
`----
http://www.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=291304461
Ending software patents: Has the time come?
,----[ Quote ]
| The End Software Patents Web site, here, highlights a long list of diverse
| businesses that have been sued for allegedly infringing software patents,
| including the Green Bay Packers, OfficeMax, Caterpillar, Kraft Foods , ADT
| Security Services, AutoNation, Wal-Mart , Walgreen , Barnes & Noble, Circuit
| City Stores , Ford Motor , E I du Pont de Nemours and Co. , and so on. In
| most cases, the companies have been sued because of certain basic, routine
| functions performed on their Web sites — the way images are displayed, the
| way data is gathered or transmitted — which are said to infringe software
| patents.
`----
http://legalpad.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/02/28/ending-software-patents-has-the-time-come/?source=yahoo_quote
The confusing case of software patents in the UK gets more confusing
,----[ Quote ]
| Anyway, the bottom line is that once again we find a case in which those
| seeking patent protection in Europe are far from certain as to where they
| stand. Can you obtain and then enforce software-related patents in the UK or
| not? Although the case decided yesterday involved patent applications to the
| UKIPO, there is still an issue with patents granted by the EPO.
`----
http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=da14e875-4352-4167-8551-d01e0ebf1a3f
MEPs debate tightening up lobbying rules
,----[ Quote ]
| MEPs on Thursday launched the thorny debate on tightening rules covering the
| thousands of EU lobbyists in Brussels, with an initial discussion showing
| deputies in favour of defining the term "lobbyist" as broadly as possible but
| shying away from the 600-page rulebook that defines and confines lobbyists in
| the US.
|
| [...]
|
| For his part, Mr Stubb says he is not out to demonise lobbyists, whose
| activities have come to light recently during the ferocious lobbying on
| legislation that took place during the development of the chemicals, services
| and software patent laws.
`----
http://euobserver.com/9/25526
Tech Group Expands State Lobby Efforts
,----[ Quote ]
| High-Technology Trade Association Boosts State Lobbying Program With Funding,
| Personnel
|
| [...]
|
| The group represents about 2,500 companies, including Microsoft Corp., Google
| Inc. and Dell Inc., in the software, telecommunications, computers,
| semiconductor and other sectors. It announced the plans Thursday.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080125/technology_lobbying.html?.v=2
Related:
Big businesses boast of patent benefits, for small businesses
,----[ Quote ]
| A report published by an EU task force on intellectual property claims
| that small businesses benefit from a patent system, despite lacking
| almost any participation by the small business community.
|
| Instead, the report, titled IPR (intellectual property rights) for
| competitiveness and innovation, was written up almost entirely by
| large corporations and the patent industry.
|
| [...]
|
| The report does note objections from the likes of patentfrei.de and
| Sun Microsystems, which were recorded at some length in the report.
| But this does not appear to have impacted the conclusion of the
| report in any way
|
| [...]
|
| Jean-Pierre Laisne, of ObjectWeb, an open source software community,
| said that he found the report useless: participants were told that
| all their contributions would be recorded but at the end only
| those of Business Software Alliance and Microsoft were used.
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/99155/big-businesses-boast-of-patent-benefits-for-small-businesses.html
A Patent Lie
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented,
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of
| our profits as they want."
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html
Top Ten Patent Trolls of 2007
,----[ Quote ]
| 3. Acacia. I didn't start tracking Acacia carefully until the summer. But
| still, on my blog I have reported on over two dozen lawsuits brought by
| Acacia this year, against more than 235 defendants. That's in addition to the
| over 200 lawsuits Acacia filed in previous years against hundreds and
| hundreds of defendants. And that's not including the two lawsuits (at least)
| Acacia has filed in December against 20 more defendants (yes, Acacia, I'm
| watching you). Acacia's business model, as a publicly traded company, is to
| accumulate patents and sue as many companies as possible in order to extract
| licenses. They have a market cap of over 275 million - that pays for a lot of
| lawsuits. Unlike other trolls, Acacia tends to not focus on one court in
| particular, although they have sampled the Eastern District of Texas more
| this year than in the past.
`----
http://trolltracker.blogspot.com/2007/12/top-ten-patent-trolls-of-2007.html
Playing Microsoft Patent Poker
,----[ Quote ]
| This time though, while Ballmer slinks away to try to con … convince people
| that Microsoft Unified Communications somehow offers people more than what
| Cisco's VOIP (voice over IP) been offering customers for years, a patent
| attack finally launches at Linux. Specifically, IP Innovation, a subsidiary
| of Acacia Technologies Group, has filed a patent infringement claim against
| Linux distributors Novell and Red Hat.
|
| So was it just timing, or was it something more? Let's take a look at the
| players.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2201579,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
Years of deadlock on EU patent bring some new thinking
,----[ Quote ]
| When Bill Gates visits Brussels on Thursday to speak with
| government officials, software developers and customers, he
| plans to wade into one of Europe's longest-running, most
| fruitless debates: the pursuit of a unified patent system.
| Gates, chairman of Microsoft, wants a simple system that will
| allow the world's largest software maker and other companies
| to protect their intellectual property in the European Union -
| and profit from licensing their patents.
`----
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/08/business/patents.php
Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'
,----[ Quote ]
| leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of
| lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread
| adoption of open-source software.
|
| Sent in response to a recent report on the role of open-source
| software in the European economy, Microsoft-funded pressure
| group, the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) warned of
| potentially dire effects if too much encouragement was given
| to open source software development.
`----
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109
Study: open source needs official support; Lobbyist
disagrees with "flawed" conclusions
,----[ Quote ]
| The study, commissioned by the European Commission, Directorate
| General Enterprise and Industry, is but a small part of the larger
| FLOSSPOLS project that aims to keep the EU a leader in global
| development of open source software.
|
| [...]
|
| Now, the ISC is widely regarded as a shill for Microsoft, although
| the member list also includes companies like Intel, Autodesk, and
| RSA Security (now an EMC subsidiary). The 300-strong member list is
| mostly padded with lesser lights such as Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi(
| Turkey), ThreeSixtyDegreez (Pakistan), and Datoprogrammu Apgads
| (Latvia). The institute pushes hard for the right to patent
| software, alongside regular bashings of open source businesses.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061017-8011.html
Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
,----[ Quote ]
| E-mails released by the committee show that Abramoff, often
| with the knowledge of the groups' leaders, exploited the tax-exempt
| status and leveraged the stature of the organizations to build
| support among conservatives for legislation or government action
| sought by clients including Microsoft Corp., mutual fund company
| DH2 Inc., Primedia Inc.'s Channel One Network, and Brown-Forman,
| maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey.
`----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
http://tinyurl.com/y2rbpu
Open Source Foes In Bed With Abramoff
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/12/2036223&from=rss
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