[governance] Two outrageous stories of so-called
George Sadowsky
george.sadowsky at attglobal.net
Sun Aug 24 12:05:40 EDT 2008
Perhaps it is useful to see IPR in the focus of a
'rights' argument, but I think of it more with
respect to development.
It's possible that no one is going to care that
Microsoft has patented PgUp/PgDn, an I can't see
Microsoft demanding royalties on every keyboard
with those keys and from every software program
that has such functionality, but such patents, an
their corresponding copyrights, erode the amount
of knowledge an the degrees of freedom available
for education and development. It's not any one
such action that is serious, but the culture that
encourages the privatization, and the subsequent
monetization, of intellectual property that is
corrosive and counterproductive in terms of the
public interest.
George
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At 11:44 AM +0530 8/24/08, Parminder wrote:
> > 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=%2Fnetahtml%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=%2Fnetahtml%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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