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PG's patent on Continuation Based Web Servers (as used by Arc, Seaside etc)
- gojomo 19y agoMy god! He's going to sue everyone who answers the Arc Challenge! It's a trap!
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- bayareaguy 19y agoClaims 4, 6, 8 and 9 are pretty specific and from a cursory examination of the current challenge solutions none of them work that way. Could it be that at the moment the only system to worry about a lawsuit is Arc? Yahoo (not pg) is the patent holder.
- mooneater 19y agoAnd soon it may be held by the Beast.
- Xichekolas 19y ago... and on the First Day of the Second Month of the Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Eight, the Beast issued forth from his Vile Abode and laid Charge to the Land of Light, burying their Heros with irresistible Seductions and Temptations of False Fame and Glory. The Heros of the Land of Light did hold council, and after many a deliberation decreed that the Battle was to be met with full conviction and the aid of Macro Expansions. And the Battle was fought for twenty and three days and on the morning of the twenty and fourth day, the Beast was slain by a mighty hero of the Light, whose Karma was without parallel - Sir Paul Graham, Marshal of the Closure, General of His Magesty's Symbol Tables, Diviner of the Continuation, and all other Titles held and to be granted by Our Lord Almighty - Lisp - and His Son Who Walked On Earth - Arc. And so ended an Age of Heros and Villians, the likes of which shall never walk the Net again.
- michaelneale 19y agoUpmodded for "It's a trap" usage.
- ijoshua 19y agoThe patent appears to predate PLTaEURXs work.
- pius 19y ago"The patent appears to predate PLTaEURXs work." Boy, that extra character support sure would've come in handy. :P
- mattmaroon 19y agoHe also appears to have made advances in birdfeeder technology. http://www.google.com/patents?id=Sl0gAAAAEBAJ&dq=%22paul+graham%22 http://www.google.com/patents?id=Sl0gAAAAEBAJ&dq=%22paul...
- nickb 19y agoThis one's a lot more interesting: http://www.google.com/patents?id=jTkLAAAAEBAJ&dq=%22paul+graham%22 http://www.google.com/patents?id=jTkLAAAAEBAJ&dq=%22paul... "Remote web site authoring system and method" how Viaweb works/ed...
- staticshock 19y agoMy god! He's going to sue everyone who answers the... birds.... uh..
- ardit33 19y agoSoftware Patents are a sham. Software should be copyrighted, but not patented. I wonder what would be if a writer could patent story lines: "It is like a like a novelist, patenting all action thrillers, that involve a guy saving a girl, who is kidnaped by the bad guys. Watch out, any other books that have a bad guy kidnaping the girl, can be infringing this patent." There are many industries that flourish without the needs of patents. How did we end up in this mess?
- deleted 19y ago[deleted]
- nickb 19y agoSham or not, they're a reality and we have to deal with it. Just ignoring them is not going to solve anything. >How did we end up in this mess? Politics, money and special interest is a dangerous confluence.
- anaphoric 19y agoActually just ignoring it is probably the best thing to do.
- pg 19y agoThat's what we advise startups, at least about software patents. If you've developed something very novel, it doesn't hurt to file a provisional patent application. But don't spend a lot of time on it, or waste any time worrying about other people's patents. That's not what makes startups win or lose.
- garbowza 19y ago"One thing I do feel pretty certain of is that if you're against software patents, you're against patents in general." http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html Btw, your writer analogy is a poor one, since prior art exists for that story line and thus it would not be patentable. There are also industries that would collapse without patents (pharmaceuticals for one).
- systems 19y agoAre software patents evil? Yes, I don't really believe that RnD is software is that much of a big deal, or that costly to justify patents. For how many years was windows vista tested on real humans before its being release? No, software testers don't count, they ain't real humans!
- RyanGWU82 19y agoAnd these will belong to Microsoft in a few short months...
- anaphoric 19y agoYawn... First of all it's not PG's patent. Its Yahoo's. Second, if anyone ever goes after you on a software patent, celebrate! It means you are a success. It means you have deep enough pockets to be considered worth the trouble. Third, as much as software patents are a joke, see them for what they are: A little side show for the lawyers and MBAs to leach off the big boys and feel like they are holding important cards. Hackers are wasting time/energy if they get too worked up about software patents.
- bayareaguy 19y agoPatents may be a joke to hackers but they aren't to the investors who fund them. Of course if you don't need investors for what you're doing in order to be successful then more power to you.
- anaphoric 19y agoSure, it's OK to pretend that they mean something... If you feel it helps make you look stronger, apply/get patents. Just try not to pay through the nose to do it... be careful with those lawyers. Just don't worry about stepping on the other guy's patents. They are just paper really. And as we know in this economy there is a lot of phony paper out there that people just want to call valuable/meaningful.