about patents

[Scott Elcomb]

On 4/16/06, Daniel Armstrong <dwarmstrong-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 4/10/06, Peter <plp-ysDPMY98cNQDDBjDh4tngg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> >
> > An article well worth reading imho:
> >
> > http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html

A though provoking read, though I'm not sure I could support software
patents, even if the USPTO (or even CIPO) cleaned things up.

As an example, if I go an write an OS what's to stop M$ from coming
along and destroying such competition if they've got patents on some
procedures needed to make a system work?

I remember once upon a time, function calls like printf() and
writeln() were safe to use...

(Wouldn't expect to get sued for using these, but they illustrate the
point, I think.)

> Speaking of patents... There is an article in today's New York Times
> about how NTP  - in pursuit of their lawsuit against RIM - buried
> information about a fellow named Geoff Goodfellow who had done earlier
> work on wireless email. Man, what a bunch of bottomfeeders...
>
> The article is here:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/kxwdr
>
> I'm curious, though, how RIM missed digging up this info themselves.
> Considering the money involved, you would think they would have moved
> heaven and earth to destroy NTP's patent claims.

Another good article, but an even better question.  Mr. Goodfellow was
retained by NTP and signed an NDA.  But still, that doesn't account
for the fact the Mr. Goodfellow was once in partnership with RIM
according to the article...

> Also, the article states that Port 99 is reserved for pushing an
> electronic mail message to a wireless pager - I just looked in
> /etc/services, and I don't see a mention of this. Is the article
> mistaken, or am I missing something?

tcp/99 and udp/99 are assigned to the 'Metagram' protocol:

http://www.insecure.org/nmap/data/nmap-services

--
Scott Elcomb
psema4.gotdns.com

"A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be
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enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a
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can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability."

  - John F. Kennedy
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