[governance] Two outrageous stories of so-called "intellectual property protection"

Parminder parminder at itforchange.net
Sun Aug 24 02:14:53 EDT 2008


> The two patents APPROVED this month are described below..

 

 

Thanks George for this information. 

 

> Then take action to demand a complete overhaul of the patent system.

 

Indeed, for overhaul of the complete intellectual property 'right' system.

 

This fits into the 'rights' debate we are having. In fact, after discussing
education as a positive right and cultural rights and 'right to development'
as collective rights, the next issue I wanted to engage Milton was on the
basis and meaning of property rights.

 

He seems to classify it as a basic and 'real' right. To quote him ". an
extension of other basic rights, such as property rights."

 

I don't think the way the notion of property today is 'legally and
systemically constructed' can be seen from within the framework of negative
rights. I mean a kind of 'this is my pile of stones I collected, and is in
my space, and you stick to your pile in your space' kind of formulation. So
that mere non-incursion assures achieving of 'rights' which is the
definition of negative rights. Property rights are increasingly a framework
of social and political distribution of resources, attuned to some extent
(and some extent only) with individual's productive efforts, and need for
incentive for productive work. 

 

IPRs look even lesser like negative rights. In fact the right of anyone to
do whatever one wants with an idea one picks up - without anyone else
loosing that idea - looks more of a negative right.. That would be some form
of right to access knowledge. Strong institutional structures preventing
people from using ideas, which are needed to safeguard IPR, looks quite a
'positive' act. 

 

It is not enough to assert (if one does) that CS doesn't give IPR the status
of a right. IPR is becoming the basic organizing principle of new economic
relationships/ order- and thereby social and political ones. Its claims are
often taken to supersede many other social and political priorities/ rights
- like the 'three strikes' rule for IPR violation - whereby there is a move
to allow even private parties - ISPs - to unilaterally act in defense of
such a 'right'. Even if such an action of safeguarding IPR is to the
detriment of other rights that access to Internet enables (whereby a 'right
to the Internet' itself may be valid). 

 

IPR definition and enforcement is becoming such an over-arching political
priority that it can definitely be considered as a strong form of a 'right
in practice'..  Fighting this needs assertion of right to access knowledge
as a stronger right. And in terms of the digital environment, also an
assertion of a 'right to the Internet'.

 

CS cant remain blind to these powerful forces, and claims of 'rights' that
underpin fundamental information society changes, and keep sticking to some
essentialist notions of rights. 

 

Parminder 

 

  _____  

From: George Sadowsky [mailto:george.sadowsky at attglobal.net] 
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 7:51 PM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: [governance] Two outrageous stories of so-called "intellectual
property protection"

 

The two patents APPROVED this month are described below below.

 

It's truly remarkable that such giants of of the information industry can
make such unbelievable leaps into the future.

 

I first thought that these were clever jokes.  They are not.  If you don't
believe them, check them in:

 

        http://patft.uspto.gov/

 

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetah
tml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=7,407,089&OS=7,407,089
&RS=7,407,089

 

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fn
etahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7,415,666&OS
=7,415,666&RS=7,415,666

 

or just Google the patent numbers for some interesting commentary.

 

Then take action to demand a complete overhaul of the patent system.

 

George

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

AWARDED TO IBM!

 

On Tuesday, IBM was granted US Patent No. 7,407,089

 

 for storing a preference for paper or plastic grocery bags on customer
cards and displaying a picture of said preference after a card is scanned.
The invention, Big Blue explains, eliminates the 'unnecessary inconvenience
for both the customer and the cashier' that results when 'Paper or Plastic?'
must be asked. The patent claims also cover affixing a cute sticker of a
paper or plastic bag to a customer card to indicate packaging preferences.

 

 

 

 

 

AWARDED TO MICROSOFT!

 

United States Patent    7,415,666
Sellers ,   et al.     August 19, 2008
Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments

Abstract

A method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact
increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is
such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed. In one
implementation, pressing a Page Down or Page Up keyboard key/button allows a
user to begin at any starting vertical location within a page, and navigate
to that same location on the next or previous page. For example, if a user
is viewing a page starting in a viewing area from the middle of that page
and ending at the bottom, a Page Down command will cause the next page to be
shown in the viewing area starting at the middle of the next page and ending
at the bottom of the next page. Similar behavior occurs when there is more
than one column of pages being displayed in a row.

 

 

-- 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

George Sadowsky                              george.sadowsky at gmail.com

2182 Birch Way                           george.sadowsky at attglobal.net

Woodstock, VT  05091-8155               http://www.georgesadowsky.org/

tel: +1.802.457.3370                       GSM mobile: +1.202.415.1933

Voice mail & fax: +1.203.547.6020       Grand Central: +1.202.370.7734


SKYPE: sadowsky

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