Conspiracy theories aside, there's nothing mysterious here. Someone
dropped us a link on Monday morning on the IRC to a bunch of patent
applications filed within the last 2 years by a large corporation (not
Microsoft) which seemed to follow closely some technical details of
OpenSim. That, in itself, was a bit worrisome. But more worrisome to
me was the story behind the discovery of such patent applications: the
person who dropped us the link is trying to patent something related
to OpenSim, and his lawyers bumped into those previous applications.
Which made me realize the pressures that are going on here. First,
while large corporations are well-oiled machines for producing patent
applications of dubious merit, they are also the ones that can afford
to hire people who understand the benefits of working in the public
domain -- like the people from IBM and Intel who have been
participating in OpenSim from the beginning. Hopefully that will
balance out ok. Second, in the US, individual entrepreneurs usually
face the question "where is your IP?" from investors. Entrepreneurs
using OpenSim are no exception. I feel sorry, but ultimately it's
their decision to succumb to the pressure or convince their investors
that patents, in this case, are a waste of everyone's time and money.
Use me as excuse, if needed. I have just become enemy #1 of any
patent application that vaguely tries to grab OpenSim infrastructure
-- it will be crushed or made irrelevant.
Diva / Crista
On Feb 4, 2010, at 1:06 PM, dz wrote:
On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Mark Malewski
<mark.malew...@gmail.com> wrote:
What exactly is going on?
Did someone apply for a patent? Are ANY patents pending? If so,
please let us know what patents are currently pending, so we can at
least look them over and contest them.
Yes Diva,
Please lets be a bit more explicit about why the sudden interest
in patents...
I don't want to read them, I don't want to rant about them, but i
am curious about why NOW? Whats the big happy trigger event????
I spent less than 10 minute with a google query "microsoft virtual
world patents" to collect these 2 interesting gems....
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2009/12/microsoft-rethinking-avatar-creation-tools.html
Microsoft Rethinking Avatar Creation Tools?
Microsoft is apparently exploring ways to make Xbox Live avatars
more like their users. To that end, the company has filed for a
patent that details "an Avatar generator for a virtual environment
[which] reflects a physiological characteristic of the user,
injecting a degree of reality into the capabilities or appearance."
and another interesting tidbit....
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/021009-microsoft-patent.html
Curtis Wong, who is one of four Microsoft Research co-inventors of
the technology, said in a statement: "The goal of this patent is to
make the interaction between the physical and virtual worlds a
little more seamless."
Wong, who has authored 45 patents, also was a co-inventor in 2006 on
Microsoft's 5,000th patent, a technology that let people become
spectators in online video games.
so...whats the game????? When questions get raised about the use
of MONO and if THAT poses a danger to the project the answer is
NO>>>..Microsoft has "released" the parts of mono WE use, and
issued a "promise" that we don't have to worry about meeting up
with a Microsoft legal team in the future..... Where's the
outrage over MS filing "silly" patents?
I certainly don't want to prolong the off-topic discussions about
the future of IP... and I'm not attempting to defend anyone elses'
actions. Except for the off-topic rants...Ive read every word so
far and all I've really heard is "DONT DO IT, ITS BAD and some
references to some event. Until I know what the event was, I'm
certainly not sure how to evaluate a followup comment " No need to
panic, the project is not in danger. "
D
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