Good ole SBC/Pacific Bell

Here's another beauty. SBC now claims it has the patent on Frames in websites, and they're trying to collect.

http://netscape.com.com/2100-1106-981446.html

Not only are they a horrible phone company that messes up my client's computer networks, but now they are also a great pioneer of internet technologies.

Maybe Al Gore should work for them, you know, since he invented the Internet.......

sad.

The biggest technology business in the U.S. today seems to be nuisance lawsuits related to copyrights. Want a good business model? Copyright "forms" technology (not the form items.. they're already copywritten by your O.S. vendor - just the forms themselves) and sue anyone who uses them.

I for one have always looked somewhat questionably upon the GNU's GPL because of its strictness. But in light of the feeble attempts of large corporations (and some not so large) to make a profit off of crooked court cases recently (and their successes in doing it), I am turning more and more favorably to using only GPL'ed software, and GPL'ing almost all of my software.

It is a sad fact that American capitalism, in its current form, simply can not survive in the new world of technology. Our lawmakers are of no use because they simply whore themselves to the highest bidder in order to stay in office. The court system has repeatedly proven its general inability to grasp even basic technical terminology and concept. The average individual is the same way. They are blissfully ignorant of the world around them - a typical example of "it doesn't affect me" - except they don't realize that very very soon it WILL affect them... big time.

Maybe I'll move to Cuba to improve my economic chances of survival (I'll probably get arrested for that remark Haha! Of course Mr. Ashcroft, Poindexter... I would NEVER leave the good ol' U.S. of A for Cuba..... I'd go to Mexico )

Can we say "prior art"?

It would only be sad IF they actually had a fighting chance of winning. As it is, this is just another ludicrous claim that doesn't have a snowflake's chance in Hades.

It's just like British Telecom claiming they owned the hyperlink. In the end that suit was thrown out because hyperlinks have actually been around in one form or another since the late 1950s.

Both patents for "frames" date to 1999, I believe, while frames were first introduced to the internet in 1995, with Netscape 1.2, as I recall.

This is really more a case of the lawyers fleecing clueless executives than anything else. And I don't even feel sorry for these people, because their motive for doing this is no better than the lawyers'.


We don't really have capitalism as it was originally intended, anyway. What we have is power brokers trading favors for special government intervention at almost every level of our economy. Business, as good old-fashioned hard work and competition, is almost a thing of the past. I have heard a very interesting term for this: "free-market socialism". The holders of the power in government trade out this currency to lobbyists, PACs, special-interest groups, in return for votes and public support. You can essentially legislate almost any arbitrary restriction on citizens just by having the right lobbyists on your side.

I am convinced that the only place you see capitalism in action nowadays is in small business, and they are being increasingly squeezed by unfair government favor toward large international corporations.

But anyway, I disagree that somehow the new world of technology is beyond the capacity of traditional capitalism. These problems we are having are nothing new. Edison was a terrible patent-monger (at one time he almost ran the American movie industry into the ground), but it goes back much further than that. Between Europe and America, we have a long history of power brokers trying to arbitrarily restrict the increasing flow of information, all the way back from when the powers that be tried to restrict the use of the printing press. These things all happen for the same reasons, and in the end, it always proves fruitless to try and suppress what can't be suppressed.

OK, I know... I've "quit preachin' and gone to meddlin'", but I can't help it .

what if it's true and they did it on purpose. they waited for the right moment. Now almost all new browsers support frames.

=) just saying

Rycamor, man... for your first act as IT Director.. I think you should kill that damn popup when you leave the E-Monee site...

LoL,

I never even noticed that, because I browse with Mozilla, set to restrict pop-ups. Thanks for the heads-up. (pun intended)

I wouldn't hold my breath on this as per the reasons rycamor stated.

Hey ry, your preachin' to the choir.

Sorry, can't hold it anymore - how the hell do you americans pronoune 'rycamor'????!!?

rofl

hmm... 'rofl' is spelled waay differently from 'rycamor', but hey that's english - another spelling with the same pronunciation. Thanks Onslaught!

rycamor is not a real word, nor an acronym. It is intended to remain a mystery, yet to evoke many things...

I must've been lucking out because I didn't hit anything for a long time with popups, so it never occured to me to block them. That made it click though

rofl = rycamor = "joe"

How hard was that???

Any time you need me to translate just let me know.
Honestly, I never even thought about the