Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Something positive people can do
Author: Dave Winer Posted: 2/28/2000; 5:04:14 AM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 2/27/00 Msg #: 15304 (In response to 15301) Prev/Next: 15303 / 15305
Also, something positive people can do. Create an intellectual property database like IBM's that documents unpatented prior art, so that lawyers defending against patent suits will be as well-armed as those on the other side.Jakob, one of the reasons I wanted to get the outliners out there was so that we could safely move back into outlining without fear from patent lawsuits. As long as we stick to unpatented functionality in ThinkTank, Ready and MORE, we are safe. The prior art dates back to before the USPTO was granting software patents.
Same with "MacBird" which we released in open source at the beginning of the year. It also predates the USPTO policy change. It would be great to see some of the Linux companies with their huge stockpiles of cash to make an investment in documenting prior art. This is something the Web can do better than any other previous medium. We have search engines and hierarchy managing software, epinions and google, two companies you influence.
Let's do something good for the Net here. Let's love the Net. What do you think of the Ask Not slogan?
There are responses to this message:
- Re: Something positive people can do, Ken Kennedy, 2/28/2000; 6:10:07 AM
- Re: Something positive people can do, Lawrence Lee, 2/28/2000; 7:23:58 AM
- Re: Something positive people can do, Gary Robinson, 2/28/2000; 9:38:31 AM
- Re: Something positive people can do, Andy Edmonds, 2/28/2000; 9:58:45 AM
- Re: Something positive people can do, Nick Sweeney, 2/28/2000; 12:59:20 PM
- Isn't this one uses of SourceForge?, Dave Aiello, 2/28/2000; 2:29:31 PM
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