> While I definitely agree that online media distribution is going to be > quite big as time goes on. But isn't it also being sectioned off by > the same people already with stakes in it? Looking at most online > distribution systems for games, that is certainly the case. I'm also > think about net-neutrality here as well. I'm afraid that we've already > realized too late that this new delivery system can break down > existing barriers, and it is being re-colonized by corporations. DMCA > is one example of that endeavor.
Here I go, replying to myself... While the following patent is limited to Nintendo's GameBoy systems, it also gets at what I'm talking about with colonization: Eck, Charles P., Scott Elliott, Hiroshi Kamada, Patrick Link, and David McCarten. 2001. U.S. Patent No. 6884171. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Assignee: Nintendo Co., Ltd. On a related, but different note, there was a recent argument between Google and Apple folks on the US patent system: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/02/google_calls_for_us_patent_reform/ I'd tend to agree with Google. Another Nintendo greatest hit, unrelated to distribution, but a favorite of an ex-game-engineering nerd: Comair, Claude, Prasanna Ghali, Samir A. Samra, Sun T. Fam, and Xin Li. 1999. U.S. Patent No. 6563503. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Assignee: Nintendo Co., Ltd. A practice I daresay was used by just about any video game with a scene graph. Surely since the system in question was the N64, a beautifully shrunk SGI workstation, I suspect that demo applications of such abound. Casey
