6 ms·

Spritz forces takedown of Spree bookmarklet citing patents

32 points by technel 12y ago

jawns 12y ago
I don't think anybody familiar with the two services had any doubt that this would happen, eventually. Squirt.io is another service that does the same thing as Spree, and I can't imagine that it won't soon be in Spritz's crosshairs as well -- especially since in its Acknowledgements section, the first to be credited is "Spritz Inc, the company whose patents are pending." One thing I'm curious about is whether leaving the code publicly accessible, but in a "commented out" state, ostensibly rendering the program non-functional, is sufficient. Like, suppose I wrote a small open-source text editor whose default text upon startup is the entirety of "Fifty Shades of Grey." And E.L. James' people contact me and say, "Hey, you can't do that. E.L. James holds the copyright to that text." If I merely comment out the text, rather than wipe it from the source code, have I really fulfilled my responsibility to not infringe on James' copyright?
- mcherm 12y ago
  No. Because every time you send people a copy of your code, you are distributing a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey. And making a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey without permission is precisely what copyright law prevents.
- darkarmani 12y ago
  > If I merely comment out the text, rather than wipe it from the source code, have I really fulfilled my responsibility to not infringe on James' copyright? The difference is copyright versus patents. For copyright, you definitely need to remove it. For patents, I think it was openssh that used to have patented algorithms in the source that you could compile into your binary if you had a license.
matznerd 12y ago
I really like the Spritz-style technology, which allows me to read with high retention at 750+ WPM and skim casually at 900+ WPM, up from around 575 WPM and 700 WPM respectively, with other technologies. I don't like to see them stopping open source versions, but at the same time they have little else to protect their algorithm, which brought some significant advances in the speed reading (RSVP) space that hadn't changed for years. As screens get smaller with devices like smartwatches, this type of technology becomes even more important and may even be a requirement for reading text longer than a few sentences on such a small screen.
driverdan 12y ago
Here's the patent: https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014011884A1?cl=en&dq=WO+2014-011884&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oZ2PU8n9OsiLqAbesYKgAQ&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014011884A1?cl=en&dq=WO+20... It's pretty ridiculous. It's very obtusely written and clearly cites work from others as the basis for their technique (primarily in description paragraphs 1-6). Then in paragraph 7 they claim "None of the previous research on word recognition has been applied to RSVP."
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
leohutson 12y ago
Anyone know of an alternative to github that is hosted somewhere that doesn't recognise software patents?
Kiro 12y ago
I'm building a Spritz-like application but I don't live in the US so the patent doesn't apply. Is there anything else I should be worried about?
- desdiv 12y ago
  They also have a WIPO patent[0], which may or may not affect you, depending on where you are. Also, since Github is based in US you might want to look elsewhere for project hosting (assuming that it's an open source project). [0] https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014011884A1 https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014011884A1
  - killerpopiller 12y ago
    they don't have a patent. as miket pointed out, it is an patent application and thus unproven and not granted and not enforceable
    - desdiv 12y ago
      Sorry, who is miket?
aikah 12y ago
Sorry but what is it about for people who know neither Spree or Spritz, what patent did Spree violate( ELI5,tried to read the paper but did understand nothing).
Apofis 12y ago
I just realized that this tech would be perfect for Smart Watches.
pollen23 12y ago
Am I the only one who doesn't see what's so innovative about Spritz? About ten years ago or so, when people didn't create startups for every little side-project they had, there were speed reading java applets that did just about the exact same thing as Spritz.

32 points by technel 12y ago

jawns 12y ago

I don't think anybody familiar with the two services had any doubt that this would happen, eventually. Squirt.io is another service that does the same thing as Spree, and I can't imagine that it won't soon be in Spritz's crosshairs as well -- especially since in its Acknowledgements section, the first to be credited is "Spritz Inc, the company whose patents are pending." One thing I'm curious about is whether leaving the code publicly accessible, but in a "commented out" state, ostensibly rendering the program non-functional, is sufficient. Like, suppose I wrote a small open-source text editor whose default text upon startup is the entirety of "Fifty Shades of Grey." And E.L. James' people contact me and say, "Hey, you can't do that. E.L. James holds the copyright to that text." If I merely comment out the text, rather than wipe it from the source code, have I really fulfilled my responsibility to not infringe on James' copyright?

mcherm 12y ago
No. Because every time you send people a copy of your code, you are distributing a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey. And making a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey without permission is precisely what copyright law prevents.
darkarmani 12y ago
> If I merely comment out the text, rather than wipe it from the source code, have I really fulfilled my responsibility to not infringe on James' copyright? The difference is copyright versus patents. For copyright, you definitely need to remove it. For patents, I think it was openssh that used to have patented algorithms in the source that you could compile into your binary if you had a license.

matznerd 12y ago

I really like the Spritz-style technology, which allows me to read with high retention at 750+ WPM and skim casually at 900+ WPM, up from around 575 WPM and 700 WPM respectively, with other technologies. I don't like to see them stopping open source versions, but at the same time they have little else to protect their algorithm, which brought some significant advances in the speed reading (RSVP) space that hadn't changed for years. As screens get smaller with devices like smartwatches, this type of technology becomes even more important and may even be a requirement for reading text longer than a few sentences on such a small screen.

driverdan 12y ago

Here's the patent: https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014011884A1?cl=en&dq=WO+2014-011884&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oZ2PU8n9OsiLqAbesYKgAQ&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014011884A1?cl=en&dq=WO+20... It's pretty ridiculous. It's very obtusely written and clearly cites work from others as the basis for their technique (primarily in description paragraphs 1-6). Then in paragraph 7 they claim "None of the previous research on word recognition has been applied to RSVP."

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

leohutson 12y ago

Anyone know of an alternative to github that is hosted somewhere that doesn't recognise software patents?

Kiro 12y ago

I'm building a Spritz-like application but I don't live in the US so the patent doesn't apply. Is there anything else I should be worried about?

desdiv 12y ago
They also have a WIPO patent[0], which may or may not affect you, depending on where you are. Also, since Github is based in US you might want to look elsewhere for project hosting (assuming that it's an open source project). [0] https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014011884A1 https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014011884A1
- killerpopiller 12y ago
  they don't have a patent. as miket pointed out, it is an patent application and thus unproven and not granted and not enforceable
  - desdiv 12y ago
    Sorry, who is miket?

aikah 12y ago

Sorry but what is it about for people who know neither Spree or Spritz, what patent did Spree violate( ELI5,tried to read the paper but did understand nothing).

Apofis 12y ago

I just realized that this tech would be perfect for Smart Watches.

pollen23 12y ago

Am I the only one who doesn't see what's so innovative about Spritz? About ten years ago or so, when people didn't create startups for every little side-project they had, there were speed reading java applets that did just about the exact same thing as Spritz.