Lawyer Puts $10k Bounty on Blogger's Identity 286
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Raymond Niro of Niro Scavone Haller & Niro is fighting back against criticism from the Patent Troll Tracker blog by offering a $10,000 bounty for the identity of the person behind it. He thinks the blogger might work for Microsoft, Intel, or has connections to a 'serial infringer' and that could 'color' what they say."
This is getting rediculous (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not even been a week since The smartphone was patented [slashdot.org], and now we've got people wanting to sue for criticising patent trolls. I thought America was the "land of the free". Oh wait, it is, if you've got millions of dollars in your pocket and a lot of lawyers.
What's saddening is that this stuff never makes it to the mainstream media.
great publicity (Score:5, Insightful)
Doosh... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is douchebag lawyer speak for "companies that spend money researching, developing and selling products." Unlike his clients who think up obvious ideas and rush to file a patent, without ever doing a bit of work. It's scumbags like this that exacerbate the terrible state of our patent system. I for one can't wait until there's real reform and this guy's out of business.
No Harm, No Foul (Score:5, Insightful)
Since Mr. Niro has not brought legal proceedings against this blogger, I can only quote the next best legal authority on this matter:
Ha, Ha!
Re:So long as said blogger is truthful.... (Score:5, Insightful)
True... but you still have pay for *your* defense - even if you 100% in the right. That sucks.
Re:So long as said blogger is truthful.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Doosh... (Score:1, Insightful)
There's a whole mess of issues here, adverse effects of the current patent system. I have no problem with patents in principle; the average $1 billion it takes to develop a new drug needs to be recouped somehow. But major reform is needed; my quick proposal would be to limit the duration of a patent to five years. An exceptional new discovery (blue LEDs, say) could be grounds for extending the patent another five years, to encourage real innovation. Add another 5 for an absolute maximum of 15 if it will take considerable resources to commercially exploit (say, an innovation leading to a workable nuclear fusion reactor). In short, patent extensions should only be granted in extraordinary circumstances.
Secondly, up the patent filing fee by at least 10x (it only costs a few hundred bucks now), and use that to hire more examiners and experts, so bullshit patents get rejected.
Re:So long as said blogger is truthful.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Doosh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't hold your breath. For the most part it were elected lawyers who made the law in the first place. Make a problem like the patent system, then profit by it.
I too would like to see all software patents expired. It is hindering innovation and diversity in this business. Even if a patent is blatantly prior art, frivolous and meaningless, it can bankrupt most in just defending off an attack by the vultures. Thus, kicks the little guys out.
Re:This is getting rediculous (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a common mondegreen... it's actually "Land of the FEE". Don't sweat it, I used to believe it was "free" myself.
Re:Doosh... (Score:3, Insightful)
Eliminating patent examiners, as they are now, would also be a great start. Have people volunteer from various fields of expertise, and when reviewing a patent, pick 12 randomly to review the application and vote on whether to approve or deny the patent. This would eliminate stuff like "smartphones" being patented, even though they've been in production for years, and talked about for decades before that.
Obviously this is a very complex issue, with many interested parties, and a lot of egos to stroke. But if something doesn't get done about it soon, there's going to be some serious ramifications both in the courts and to the bottom lines of many companies.
Re:Doosh... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So long as said blogger is truthful.... (Score:4, Insightful)
That court at least was of the opinion that if I was doing something anonymously then I clearly knew I was doing something wrong.
(Completely missing the argument that what I did was legal, and I was trying to avoid being in court making the argument that it was legal because I knew one of the other parties was a litigious psychopath... in my opinion
Re:Reality check (Score:5, Insightful)
My girlfriend is a true African-American
She told me flatly that she could cure all of them of their desire to be called "African Americans" by the simple expedient of sending them to her home country for a few months. Most of them would come back here and would count themselves lucky to be Americans. Bad as things can be for many people in the United States, there are places that are worse. Much worse.
$10k is next to nothing (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Reality check (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Reality check (Score:1, Insightful)
I just hate the term "African American". Most of the black Americans in the USA have _never_ been to Africa. So what makes them "African"? If someone watched me commit a crime, would they say it was a German/Irish/English American? No. They would say it was a white guy. So why should I say that all black people in America are "African Americans"?
What if the black person is not from Africa, but Jamaica? Or, what if a black guy, on vacation from England, committed a crime? Should I say it was an "African American" even though the guy is not an American, but from England? How would some bloke from England be an "African American" when he certainly is not an American. Should I just say it was an "African"?
I hate PC-terms. When I recently started a new job I was asked, after getting the job:
() White
() African American
() Hispanic
() Asian
() Native American
() Other
WTF? Why as a "White guy" am I identified by my skin color and that is "OK", yet all other races have a "name"? So if I was Mexican I am "Hispanic", however, if like my good friend, I was born in Puerto Rico, I am some how also "Hispanic"? Oh, and as a programmer, I have 3 good friends I work with every day. Very good guys. One is from the Philippines, one is from Korea (South), and one is from Japan. Very, very different people and ethnic groups, yet they are all "Asian"? Not to mention the people from India I have worked with, I guess they are "Asian" too?
Did I mention I hate PC-term "African American" yet?
Re:So long as said blogger is truthful.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I can say anything without "giving" you the ability to respond. You have to locate and do that on your own. But more importantly, free speech cannot happen if there is fear of repercussion. I'm sure that plenty of people have seen things that they though were wrong in their life but failed to speak out against it because they though it would cause bodily harm, financial harm, or some other harm. I could easily get into the holocaust and other hot topics but lets just say that there are people who see things happen at their job that is illegal or unethical but fail to say anything because they would lose their job and probably be blackballed out of the business. Anonymous reporting of things like this is key to speech about it.
Anonymous tips to the police and news stations about drive by shootings that manage to miss everything but the three year old kid inside a neighbors house playing with the family cat is key to getting heinous crimes solved without fear of retaliation from the thugs who did the shootings.
Free speech without freedom of response is not only meaningful, without it is detrimental to a safe and working society.
Re:Reality check (Score:3, Insightful)
A friend of mine was born and raised in Africa, by white parents who were also born and raised in Afica. He has now moved to the US. Does that qualify him as African-American?
A friend of mine had gas because he ate some poison. So they took him to the hospital and pumped his stomach. Does that make him a gas pump?
Re:Reality check (Score:4, Insightful)
If a person is born in America and stays a US citizen, they're American.
Heritage is all screwed up. How many generations have to be born in America before you consider it part of your heritage?
Unfortunately, truth is not a good defense (Score:2, Insightful)
In our times, it is money, not the truth, that shall set you free.
Re:Doosh... (Score:3, Insightful)
Thing is, though, that ideas in software aren't all that they're made out to be -- getting the implementation right, and having the team that actually built and knows how to build $PRODUCT (and the source code to $PRODUCT, and the developers' documentation for $PRODUCT, and the domain experts who know how to build a $PRODUCT that {complies with regulations,interoperates with other tools in the field,etc}) is much harder than coming up with the idea, so even without software patents there's still plenty of barrier to entry.
Remember, too, how much software was built before software was patentable at all -- heck, UNIX is in that category -- and how much software comes out of countries (like the UK) where software still isn't patentable (well, except for maybe as of earlier this week).
Re:So long as said blogger is truthful.... (Score:3, Insightful)
I also suggest you read up on the whole freedom of the press and anonymous sources thing.
Re:So long as said blogger is truthful.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Reality check (Score:4, Insightful)
On those little quizzes, always select 'other' as the discussion as to why you chose other can be lots of fun. Its a racial question that does not account for South Americans, mulatto etc. If your grandfather was black, your grandmother was chinese and your mother was south american, what race do you belong to? How do you answer the quiz? select 3 or more categories?
ALL PC terms are insulting.