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Software patent reform just died in the House
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- eloff 13y agoThis is daft, Bill Gates has nothing to do with this. He spends his time at his foundation helping poor people, not directing Microsoft to lobby against patent reform.
- alecco 13y agoI do think it is very good what his foundation is trying to achieve. But do you believe all his actions are good? Do you believe all his past actions regarding this issue were right? Beware of Halo Effect.
- eloff 13y agoOf course not. He ran a powerful company in a ruthless manner. I just said it's daft to think he's personally involved in this particular event.
- alecco 13y agoI think he is still responsible for creating this monster. And he never apologized for the consequences of his actions that are still unraveling like today. Remember Ballmer was placed because he was always following his lead and counsel, as reported.
- jdminhbg 13y agoI don't know what the original, now-deleted message said, but Gates is still chairman of Microsoft's board. I'm sure he isn't micromanaging lobbying efforts, but he definitely has more than nothing to do with this.
- CmonDev 13y agoSoftware patents reform -> medical patents reform -> cheaper drugs? He still did not comment on his Monsanto investment shenanigans.
- ryanhuff 13y agoLet's not get carried away. Bill Gates is Chairman of the Board of Microsoft. Its not like he is far removed from the company that he used to run.
- joshz 13y agoHe is apparently involved with Intellectual Ventures, so while probably not directly involved in killing the reform, this isn't the most noble of positions. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/bill-gates-still-helping-known-patent-trolls-obtain-more-patents/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/bill-gates-still-...
- bnolsen 13y agoyeah helping poor people like when he donated a bunch of money along with bloomberg to try to turn over the douglas county schoolboard along with the teacher's union. I don't consider this type of messing with local politics to be helping "poor people".
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- antonpug 13y agoWhy am I not surprised that IBM and "patent reform died" are on the same line? Relentless.
- tehwalrus 13y agoSomeone remind me why wealthy businesses buying amendments to legislation isn't criminal corruption? I have a hard time remembering...
- ep103 13y agoBecause the founding fathers were exceptionally rich businessmen, and wanted to found a representative democracy of successful businessmen?
- RyanZAG 13y agoHardly IBM and Microsoft. The headline should read "thanks to easily bought senators". IBM and Microsoft don't have any real say, only the senators do. If the senators choose to destroy their own country for monetary gain, it's still not the fault of anybody else. This blame shifting is getting old.
- salient 13y agoIn cases of bribe, do you blame only the receiver, or the one who gives bribe, too? And as a non-American I fully see this as nothing but bribing. The only difference is that in US paying money to pass or fail bills like this is "legal".
- chadwickthebold 13y agoIt's not quite that clear cut. In this case, Rep. Goodlatte probably considered how vocal opposition of the bill by large corporations could cast him as 'Anti-Business' by his constituency, or a challenger in an upcoming election. There is no mention in the article that IBM, Microsoft, or any other company offered to contribute to Goodlatte's campaign fund or support him in any other way in exchange for the removal of the CBM provisions. While American politics is often seen as pay-to-play, especially after the 'Citizens United' decision by the Supreme court, it's important to differentiate situations where there is almost-direct financial ties from situations where it is more a question of political pressure. If some people (i.e. the tech-consuming public) elected to pressure our representatives more than large companies, this bill could have turned out very differently.
- logfromblammo 13y agoThe difference between the threat to cut off your campaign support directly and the threat to support a challenger in your next primary is a rather fine hair to split. Political pressure in the US always boils down to two things: money and media support. And those two are almost freely convertible, provided that you are completely milquetoast and unthreatening to the status quo.
- 13y ago
- eloff 13y agoThat settles it, I was tossing around whether to get the Xbox One or the PS4. I'm voting with my wallet and getting the PS4. Fuck Microsoft.
- csmuk 13y agoGood for you. I threw my win phone out of my car in anger the other day and broke it. I will not be buying another. I've already decided not to renew my MAPS and MSDN subs again in December thanks to the epic crack smoking going on.
- mtgx 13y agoEver since Microsoft started extorting money from open source vendors/OEM's with bogus patents, I've started dropping Microsoft's products as soon as I could. The only one left is Windows 7, which I can't wait to get rid of in 2-3 years, once either Ubuntu or Android come into their own as more mature mainstream operating systems.
- Pxtl 13y ago> which I can't wait to get rid of in 2-3 years, once either Ubuntu or Android come into their own as more mature mainstream operating systems. This comment was brought to you by the year 2006 and the letter Q.
- RyanMcGreal 13y agoI jumped ship from Microsoft when Vista came out, switching to Ubuntu in 2008. It was good enough for mainstream production use then, albeit with some warts - but it was already a hell of a lot more polished, functional and user-respecting than Vista. Ubuntu has continues to improve in polish, stability and usability since then. There's no reason for you not to start making the jump now. My recommendation is to start by replacing the applications on your Windows machine with cross-platform FOSS equivalents, if you haven't already. That way, the OS transition will be a lot easier because you will already be familiar with the software.
- skriticos2 13y ago
- jeswin 13y agoI wonder how people associated with Microsoft and IBM deal with the morality issues surrounding them. What they are doing is clearly evil and detrimental to innovation. Bill Gates receives a lot of credit for his humanitarian work; but at least part of that wealth seems ill-gotten. In my mind, real heroes are people like Torvalds and Stallman; relatively unknown but the impact of their contributions might have already superseded what Gates has been able to accomplish.
- rayiner 13y agoI wonder how people working at Facebook and Google deal with the "morality issues" of peddling advertising to impressionable children and teenagers (while calling it "innovation") while consuming 10x as much resources per capita as people in China who actually build real tangible things? NB: I don't want to give the impression that I think advertising is bad or anything. I think of it like porn: fine for adults, but not something I want my daughter exposed to until she can appreciate what it is.
- zht 13y agohas your daughter gone outside, watched a movie, watched a tv show, took the bus, went to a sporting event, etc?
- ihsw 13y agoThis disingenuous -- he was complaining about ads targeting children/teenagers rather than ads in general.
- justinsteele 13y agoChildren's toys are not generally targeted towards the parents.
- enraged_camel 13y agoI think your understanding of advertising is rather shallow. Of course children's toys are targeted towards parents. The underlying message in most advertisements is, "buy this toy to make your kid happy and get them out of your hair for a few hours."
- antonpug 13y agoWhy am I not surprised that IBM and "patent reform died" are on the same line? Relentless. (deleted)??? no free speech on HN eh?
- sp332 13y agoYou double-posted, about ten minutes apart. HN automatically killed the second post because it was identical to the first (before your edit). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6769490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6769490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6769575 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6769575
- driverdan 13y agoSingling out IBM and Microsoft is a bit disingenuous. IBM seems to be the vocal subject in the article but there are far more companies behind the opposition as shown here: http://images.politico.com/global/2013/09/22/final_-_letter_opposing_cbm_expansion_2013-09-c.html http://images.politico.com/global/2013/09/22/final_-_letter_... The list: 3M ActiveVideo Networks, Inc. Adobe Systems Advanced Technology Ventures Allison Transmission, Inc. Architecture Technology Corporation Beckman Coulter, Inc. BGC Partners, Inc. Bi-Level Technologies Biotechnology Industry Organization Boston Scientific Brash Insight Corp. BSA - The Software Alliance Cabochon, Inc. California Healthcare Institute (CHI) Cantor Fitzgerald L.P. Caterpillar, Inc. Ciencia, Inc. Cleveland Medical Devices Inc. Colorado Technology Consultants CONNECT Cotera Inc. The Cummins Allison Corporation Dolby Laboratories Domain Associates Donohue Consulting, Inc. The Dow Chemical Company DR Systems, Inc. DuPont Eatoni Ergonomics, Inc. Eli Lilly & Company Embedded Systems LLC Entrepreneurs for Growth Entropic Communications, Inc. ExploraMed Development, LLC Fairchild Semiconductor Fairfield Crystal Technology Fallbrook Technologies Inc. Flocel Inc. Forsight Labs ForSight VISION4, Inc. Foundry Newco XII, Inc. (d/b/a Twelve) Freescale Semiconductor GearMax USA Ltd. General Electric General Nanotechnology LLC Global Network Computers Great Lakes Neuro Technologies Inc. Holaira, Inc. IBM IEEE-USA Illinois Tool Works Inc. Innovation Alliance Inogen, Inc. Insight Legal Interknowlogy Inventors Network of the Capital Area IP Advocate IP Pipeline Consulting, LLC Irwin Research & Development, Inc. eptember 19, 2013 Johnson & Johnson Karbonique, Inc. KeepSight LLC Kovogen, LLC Lauder Partners, LLC Licensing Executives Society (USA & Canada), Inc. Lightstone Ventures MediaFriends, Inc. Medical Device Manufacturers Association MH Systems, Inc. Micron Technologies Microsoft Miramar Labs, Inc. Morgenthaler Ventures-Life Sciences National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Neodyne Biosciences, Inc. NeoTract, Inc. NeuroPace, Inc. NeuroWave Systems Inc. Nevro Corp. NuGEN Technologies, Inc. NuVasive, Inc. OL2, Inc. (OnLive) Orbital Research Inc. Patent Office Professional Association Power Auctions LLC Precision Combustion PreEmptive Solutions Procter & Gamble Prometheus Research, LLC Qualcomm Rearden Companies, LLC Restoration Robotics, Inc. Sapheon, Inc. Software Partners LLC Soleon Robotics LLC Tessera The Foundry LLC TM Technologies, Inc. Trading Technologies U.S. Business and Industry Council Vibrynt, Inc. Xerox Corporation
- sheetjs 13y ago
- jarjoura 13y agoInstead of "voting with dollars" because of companies' lobby groups, why not put your energy into joining EFF or other patent-reform groups?
- shmerl 13y ago> we’d be forced to oppose the bill Did IBM become a legislator? Who cares if they oppose the bill or not if that's the right bill to make?
- orthecreedence 13y agoMost big companies in the US are legislators...
- kshatrea 13y agoYes, these senators and congressmen are literally so impressionable that the very fact that IBM and Microsoft and other companies are objecting cause these political leaders to become nervous and kill the bills (to put it kindly). It seems to me that America is now on the same page as most other nations: your laws are also bought-and-paid-for by special interest groups in many cases, just like our more corrupt nations and especially mine. Very sad. edit: grammar
- sinak 13y agoJust want to point out that patent reform is being voted on in the house judiciary right now. Worth watching: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hclive02 http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hclive02
- jhprks 13y agolong live all patents (software or hardware)! they fuel invention/innovation. Edison, Bell Graham, Nikolai Tesla, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, they were inventors/innovators that deserve to be highly credited for the contributions that they made to the society, and yet so many people are trying to view a few of them as "evil" just because they made their ideas into reality before anyone else did.
- chris_mahan 13y agoYou forgot Nobel, who invented smokeless gunpowder.
- orthecreedence 13y ago...or didn't make it a reality. What if Edison, Bell Graham, etc etc filed their patents and then never went into production. Then when someone else had the idea, they sued them for billions of dollars. Where would the US be now?
- mathattack 13y agoWhile we support what Mr. Goodlatte’s trying to do on trolls, if the CBM is included, we’d be forced to oppose the bill. OK, so go on the record as opposing it.
- iends 13y agoIsn't that what the letter was saying?
- anoncowherd 13y agoWhat? No thanks to the thoroughly bribed government itself?
- mrhyperpenguin 13y agoThe title of the article is really sensationalized. The resolution is still going to pass, just without the "covered business method" (CBM) provision. People in Congress support CBM and are actively trying to find a way to make it work. Plus we could always try and reform software patents at its source and make it harder to grant the lower quality patents.
- asnyder 13y agoMost everything over the past 3 years have died in the house: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/31/worst-congress-ever-the-case-in-7-charts/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/31/wo....
- PKop 13y agoSo raw number of bills passed is a good proxy for effectiveness as a congressman? I wonder if you think that number of pages per law is also a good measure of success... All things equal, I prefer the government passing less laws than more.
- asnyder 13y agoYes, when it deviates significantly with the historical record it implies significant obstruction.
- jakejake 13y agoWe should change the word "lobbying" to "bribing" and then it would make more sense to the average person.
- dllthomas 13y agoWe need to stop saying "reform". These people want more patent protection; those people want less. They both want patent reform, so we're gonna give it to them! Those people want to actively import criminals, these people want a 500ft tall wall encasing the US, they all want immigration reform - they have SO MUCH IN COMMON!
- anotherhue 13y agoHas anyone noticed that the IEEE appear on this list? They're a non-profit, and if I needed another reason to keep my membership expired, this was it.
- moondowner 13y agoMy thoughts exactly. Glad to keep it expired.
- studentrob 13y agoSeems like software patent processing would benefit by some simple machine learning tools to help examiners identify similar content. Anyone familiar with what tools they currently use? Muddling about with the law will obviously take forever, the guys in congress have no idea what they are legislating, and the lawyers in corporations have no idea what they are lobbying for, aside from monopoly money.
- shawn-butler 13y agoMachine learning on that corpus would be extremely difficult task. This is what engineers don't really get about patent applications. We see the underlying technology or specifications and say, same thing-identical. IP Lawyers, patent clerks look at the claims and see difference. Claims have two functions. Public notice and kind of a "patent scope" of applicability. It's all very obtuse and would not be very easy I think to attach semantics via ML alone. There have been some crowdsource attempts: http://peertopatent.org http://peertopatent.org https://www.articleonepartners.com https://www.articleonepartners.com
- tzakrajs 13y agoHow much margin must a company make from their lobbying effort to make it worth destroying the ecosystem around them?
- snambi 13y agoAh... too bad... this is how innovation is killed. Kill the big companies, it will foster innovation.