July 23, 2003
Patent idiocy
I hate patents. Though originally conceived as a helpful protection for inventors and entrepreneurs, patents today are anything but that. Cases in point: SCO, for whose claims I have no adjective. Essentially they are claiming that the entire Linux movement belongs to them and are suing IBM for $1 billion. Also, InterTrust, a tiny company that consists of "a patent portfolio, 30 employees" and what could potentially be a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against Microsoft. InterTrust claims a patent on the DRM technolog Microsoft has been implementing in basically everything they sell. If InterTrust wins, they could own Microsoft.
This is, like the RIAA's crusade, completely insane. We've got tiny, miniscule companies who do not currently sell the products over which they are litigating - if indeed they ever actually did - filing billion dollar lawsuits. This isn't an example of someone trying to protect their business. Litigation is their business.
Now it would have been wrong for Microsoft to simply steal from InterTrust and drive them out of business. But it's been more than a decade since InterTrust reached its peak, and today it is a tiny company. And no one is really suggesting that this is because Microsoft infringed upon their patents and stole all their customers away. InterTrust hasn't been doing much business for years. No, this came from a careful and deliberate search for infringement on the part of InterTrust for the sole purpose of soaking MSFT. Lessig is right: if you aren't going to use your copyright/patent, someone else should be able to do so. Use it or lose it.
This is totally unrelated to your topic of discussion; however, is the subtitle of your page (Debts no honest man could pay) a reference to a lyric found in the Bruce Springsteen song 'Atlantic City'? Just curious. Here are some of the lyrics:
...Well I got a job and tried to put my money away
But I got debts that no honest man can pay
So I drew what I had from the Central Trust
And I bought us two tickets on that Coast City bus
Everything dies baby that’s a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty
and meet me tonight in Atlantic City...
Ryan, your rhetoric is strangely persuasive.
Posted by: nick at July 24, 2003 12:23 AMThey are indeed words from the Boss. I've been listening to "Atlantic City" a lot on the porch with Ryan. My favorite Springsteen song, which is saying a lot.
Well, they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night...
Posted by: mesh at July 24, 2003 1:50 AMYeah, it's definitely from Nebraska. The phrase appears in more than just "Atlantic City" though.
Posted by: ryan at July 24, 2003 8:16 AMThe song 'Stolen Car' has been stuck in my head for two years. Good stuff.
Posted by: ron at July 24, 2003 9:40 AMAnd Springsteen, how could I forget? "Nebraska" is the most duende-loaded album of the '80s, excepting "Let Love In."
Posted by: mesh at July 25, 2003 1:15 PMDuring recording sessions, Springsteen seems to become enamored by a certain phrases. He then uses those phrases two or more times throughout an album.
Case in point - "Debts that no honest man could pay" appears in "Atlantic City" and "Johnny 99" on the Nebraska album.
...Now judge judge I had debts no honest man could pay,
The bank was holdin' my mortgage and they was takin' my house away....
Case in point #2 - "You deserve much more than this...." appears in "Prove it all Night" and "Rendezvous." Both were recorded for "Darkness on the Edge of Town," but only one made the cut. "Rendezvous" showed up later as part his "Tracks" box set.