BT Hyperlink Decision "Tarkie sent in this Bloomberg blurb noting that British Telecom has lost their patent suit against Prodigy over an old patent that BT hoped would cover the use of hyperlinks on the modern WWW. See our original story or check out the court's decision." [Slashdot.org]

Well, there is some sanity left in the world.  BT's patent was a real stretch.  We're talking about technology that was given away by its creator in the spirit of scientific openness so it could form a foundation for the work of others.  (It succeeded remarkably in that respect.)  To claim ownership of it using a sketchy patent is a slap in the face to all the pioneers who built the Internet by giving away its core technology for the benefit of all.

The same is true, I believe, of Amazon's One-Click patent.  Claiming ownership of a trivial, obvious variation on core work done by scientists for the public good -- they should be deeply ashamed of themselves.

Contrary to what you may have heard advertised on TV, the Internet was not built by corporations.  I take offence at submarine patents claiming they did.

9:00:17 PM   

Sean Gallagher: "Both copyrights and patents, post-DMCA, are chilling to free speech and infringe on users' well-defined rights of the past. They've paved the road for anti-time and -form shifting for personal use, the locking of users into consuming media in a certain way (and with hardware from a certain vendor), and preventing users from becoming anything more than consumers if possible." [Scripting News]

Well put.  And it's that last bit that resonates most strongly with me.  Imagine if apparel manufacturers teamed up with the fashion houses to purchase a bill outlawing sewing machines.  Nobody would put up with it -- there would be outrage from every constituency.  The power grab would be so easy to see, the implications so easy to understand.  The RIAA/MPAA are doing the same thing to the personal computer, but there's no outrage.

11:56:56 AM