Patento.absurdium

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building, Oversight hearing on “Piracy Of Intellectual Property On Peer-to-Peer Networks.” Live Audio Feed - only available during meeting [ Source: Ray Ozzie's Weblog]

I'm tired of the dogma and rhetoric and shrill, outlandish claims. Why can't someone find a good, legitimate use for P2P to shut these lawyers up? I can't be the only person that sees the value of making local storage available as a company resource.

There must be a market for small, decentralized collaborative editing and document management systems. Using a shared network, rather than a monolithic client/server, would seem to be a better, lower-cost approach for small- to mid-size companies.

If Berman and his ilk ever get into the "War on Drugs" they'll be trying to shut down the Interstate highway system because roads are rampant channels for the transport of contraband.

Berman has become a serious public nuisance.

Political News from Wired News - P2P Pugilists Put Up Their Dukes.
In a panel discussion steeped in dogma, adherents on both sides of the Internet peer-to-peer (P2P) debate accused each other of everything from aiding thieves to destroying the Internet.
[ ... ]Panelists at a Cato Institute lunch last week focused mostly on H.R. 5211, a bill introduced in July by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), whose Los Angeles district covers northeast San Fernando Valley, including the Hollywood Freeway corridor.
Berman's bill would give copyright owners the legal right to disrupt the unauthorized use of their copyrighted works on P2P networks using as-yet-undefined tactics and technology.
The House subcommittee on courts, the Internet and intellectual property, of which Berman is the ranking member, will hold a hearing Thursday to explore the alleged piracy of intellectual property over P2P networks. [ Source: Privacy Digest]

Explaining the Patent Policy of the W3C

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Danny Weitzner chairs the working group charged with deciding the W3C's policy on patented technologies. In this interview he tries to shed light on how W3c is trying to address the current patent fiasco and find a solution that makes all 490 consortium members happy. Sounds like herding cats.

Standards chief caught in patent storm. ZDNet Sep 24 2002 3:10PM ET
[...]What happens to your work once you decide about the exception? When a working group has developed a proposed recommendation, that proposal goes to the advisory committee, which consists of one representative of every single of the consortium's 490-odd member organizations. The director (Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee) looks at the comments and decides whether the thing should become a recommendation or not.[...more]
[ Source: Moreover - IP and patents news]