Yahoo's Own Lash Out At Company Over "Weaponized" Patents 89
Velcroman1 writes "Yahoo is suing Facebook for patent infringement — and the people responsible for Yahoo's patents are outraged. Andy Baio sold Upcoming.org to Yahoo in 2005 for an undisclosed sum, and agreed at the time to help the company file for patents based on the site he had invented and the code he had written. Baio was hesitant to do so, but told Wired.com that he thought he was helping as a precautionary measure. 'I thought I was giving them a shield,' Baio said. 'It turns out I gave them a missile with my name permanently engraved on it.' He helped Yahoo file for eight patents, four of which were later granted. And while none were cited in the Yahoo complaint, Baio said a handful were now 'weaponized to use against people like me.'" bdking points out that Mark Cuban is sick of the patent fiasco as well but his approach is slightly different. "He's rooting for Yahoo to 'destroy' Facebook in its patent lawsuit. Why? Because if Yahoo collects, say, $50 billion from Facebook and forces the social networking company out of business, consumers will revolt and demand patent reform."
Does anyone think Facebook deserves this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is Yahoo's lawsuits just karma catching up with Mark?
Re:Mark Cuban: still clueless (Score:4, Interesting)
And you square your beliefs with the SOPA/PIPA backlash... how?
SOPA/PIPA may have never meant to be passed to begin with... if you give the Government an inch, it will take a mile. In that respect, they attempted to take a mile- and the outrage allowed them to take 100 yards instead. They'll come up with another tool, worse than SOPA/PIPA, and use that to grab more power.
Re:Mark Cuban: still clueless (Score:2, Interesting)
This is the danger of declaring compromise to be a virtue. Naive compromisers always lose, and whatever cunning compromiser owns (by any/all definitions) the newspaper usually wins.
Compromise is a tactic, not a virtue.
The vast majority of patents are just ... (Score:4, Interesting)
... used as economic and financial TERRORISM by big corporations.
Tell it to Alfred Nobel (Score:4, Interesting)
Inventor of Dynamite and the conscience easing Nobel Peace prize. Virtually every weapon is built upon something invented for peace. Forged metal works for plowshares and well as swords. You can't expect a promise like "do no evil" to assure that the future fate of developments made under that banner won't turn evil when sold. Dynamite was revolutionary to safe mining. And at the time it was thought might even end war since the prospect was so terrifying.
But I think the real prize here is neither of the options. that is to say Yahoo won't land a killer blow. All it needs to do is win even a token amount.
Then they can sell this "technology" to Google+. This will allow Google+ to be indemnified as it encroaches on Facebook, and also for google to shut out other competitors from apple or amazon that crop up.
Tat outcome would be good in the sense it would provide competition for Facebook. THat's good for everyone. But it's bad from a general competition point of view