www/philosophy trivial-patent.html

[Dora Scilipoti]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Dora Scilipoti <dora>   11/10/05 22:05:47

Modified files:
        philosophy     : trivial-patent.html 

Log message:
        Arrenged layout a bit for better readability; fixed typo; removed [149] 
[150].

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/trivial-patent.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.19&r2=1.20

Patches:
Index: trivial-patent.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/trivial-patent.html,v
retrieving revision 1.19
retrieving revision 1.20
diff -u -b -r1.19 -r1.20
--- trivial-patent.html 20 Sep 2011 08:15:46 -0000      1.19
+++ trivial-patent.html 5 Oct 2011 22:05:42 -0000       1.20
@@ -4,24 +4,23 @@
 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/trivial-patent.translist" -->
 <h2>The Anatomy of a Trivial Patent</h2>
 
-<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/";><strong>Richard
-Stallman</strong></a></p>
+<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/";><strong>Richard 
Stallman</strong></a></p>
 
-<p>Programmers are well aware that many of the existing software patents cover
-laughably obvious ideas.  Yet the patent system's defenders often
+<p>Programmers are well aware that many of the existing software patents 
+cover laughably obvious ideas. Yet the patent system's defenders often
 argue that these ideas are nontrivial, obvious only in hindsight.  And
-it is surprisingly difficult to defeat them in debate.  Why is
-that?</p>
+it is surprisingly difficult to defeat them in debate. Why is that?</p>
 
 <p>One reason is that any idea can be made to look complex when
-analyzed to death.  Another reason is that these trivial ideas often
-look quite complex as described in the patents themselves.  The patent
+analyzed to death. Another reason is that these trivial ideas often look 
+quite complex as described in the patents themselves. The patent 
 system's defenders can point to the complex description and say,
 &ldquo;How can anything this complex be obvious?&rdquo;</p>
 
 <p>I will use an example to show you how.  Here's claim number one
 from US patent number 5,963,916, applied for in October 1996:</p>
 
+<blockquote>
 <p>1. A method for enabling a remote user to preview a portion of a
 pre-recorded music product from a network web site containing
 pre-selected portions of different pre-recorded music products, using
@@ -30,79 +29,100 @@
 comprising the steps of:</p>
 
 <ul>
-<li>using the remote user's computer to establish a telecommunications
+<li>a) using the remote user's computer to establish a telecommunications
 link to the network web site wherein the network web site comprises
 (i) a central host server coupled to a communications network for
 retrieving and transmitting the pre-selected portion of the
 pre-recorded music product upon request by a remote user and (ii) a
 central storage device for storing pre-selected portions of a
 plurality of different pre-recorded music products;</li>
+</ul>
 
-<li>transmitting user identification data from the remote user's
+<ul>
+<li>b) transmitting user identification data from the remote user's
 computer to the central host server thereby allowing the central host
 server to identify and track the user's progress through the network
 web site;</li>
+</ul>
 
-<li>choosing at least one pre-selected portion of the pre-recorded
+<ul>
+<li>c) choosing at least one pre-selected portion of the pre-recorded
 music products from the central host server;</li>
+</ul>
 
-<li>receiving the chosen pre-selected portion of the pre-recorded
+<ul>
+<li>d) receiving the chosen pre-selected portion of the pre-recorded
 products; and</li>
+</ul>
 
-<li>interactively previewing the received chosen pre-selected portion
+<ul>
+<li>e) interactively previewing the received chosen pre-selected portion
 of the pre-recorded music product.</li>
 </ul>
+</blockquote>
 
-<p>That sure looks like a complex system, right?  Surely it took a
-real clever guy to think of this?  No, but it took cleverness to make
-it seem so complex.  Let's analyze where the complexity comes
-from:</p>
+<p>That sure looks like a complex system, right?  Surely it took a real
+clever guy to think of this?  No, but it took cleverness to make it seem 
+so complex. Let's analyze where the complexity comes from:</p>
 
-<p><i>1. A method for enabling a remote user to preview a portion of a
+<blockquote>
+<p>1. A method for enabling a remote user to preview a portion of a
 pre-recorded music product from a network web site containing
-pre-selected portions</i></p>
+pre-selected portions</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>That states the principal part of their idea.  They put selections
 from certain pieces of music on a server so a user can listen to
 them.</p>
 
-<p><i>of different pre-recorded music products,</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>of different pre-recorded music products,</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>This emphasizes their server stores selections from more than one
 piece of music.</p>
 
-<p>It is a basic principle of computer science is that if a computer
-can do a thing once, it can do that thing many times, on different
-data each time.  Many patents pretend that applying this principle to
-a specific case makes an &ldquo;invention&rdquo;.</p>
+<p>It is a basic principle of computer science that if a computer can do 
+a thing once, it can do that thing many times, on different data each 
+time. Many patents pretend that applying this principle to a specific 
+case makes an &ldquo;invention&rdquo;.</p>
 
-<p><i>using a computer, a computer display and a telecommunications
+<blockquote>
+<p>using a computer, a computer display and a telecommunications
 link between the remote user's computer and the network web
-site,</i></p>
+site,</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>This says they are using a server on a network.</p>
 
-<p><i>the method comprising the steps of: using the remote user's
-computer to establish a telecommunications link to the network web
-site</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>the method comprising the steps of:</p> 
+<p>a) using the remote user's computer to establish a telecommunications link 
to the network web site</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>This says that the user connects to the server over the network.
 (That's the way one uses a server.)</p>
 
-<p><i>wherein the network web site comprises (i) a central host server
-coupled to a communications network</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>wherein the network web site comprises (i) a central host server
+coupled to a communications network</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>This informs us that the server is on the net.  (That is typical of
 servers.)</p>
 
-<p><i>for retrieving and transmitting the pre-selected portion of the
-pre-recorded music product upon request by a remote user</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>for retrieving and transmitting the pre-selected portion of the
+pre-recorded music product upon request by a remote user</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>This repeats the general idea stated in the first two lines.</p>
 
-<p><i>and (ii) a central storage device for storing pre-selected
+<blockquote>
+<p>and (ii) a central storage device for storing pre-selected
 portions of a plurality of different pre-recorded music
-products;</i></p>
+products;</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>They have decided to put a hard disk (or equivalent) in their
 computer and store the music samples on that.  Ever since around 1980,
@@ -113,30 +133,38 @@
 more than one selection on this disk.  Of course, every file system
 will let you store more than one file.</p>
 
-<p><i>transmitting user identification data from the remote
+<blockquote>
+<p>b) transmitting user identification data from the remote
 user's computer to the central host server thereby allowing the
 central host server to identify and track the user's progress through
-the network web site;</i></p>
+the network web site;</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>This says that they keep track of who you are and what you
 access&mdash;a common (though nasty) thing for web servers to do.  I
 believe it was common already in 1996.</p>
 
-<p><i>choosing at least one pre-selected portion of the
-pre-recorded music products from the central host server;</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>c) choosing at least one pre-selected portion of the
+pre-recorded music products from the central host server;</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>In other words, the user clicks to say which link to follow.  That
 is typical for web servers; if they had found another way to do it,
 that might have been an invention.</p>
 
-<p><i>receiving the chosen pre-selected portion of the
-pre-recorded products; and</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>d) receiving the chosen pre-selected portion of the
+pre-recorded products; and</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>When you follow a link, your browser reads the contents.  This is
 typical behavior for a web browser.</p>
 
-<p><i>interactively previewing the received chosen pre-selected
-portion of the pre-recorded music product.</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>e) interactively previewing the received chosen pre-selected
+portion of the pre-recorded music product.</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>This says that your browser plays the music for you.  (That is what
 many browsers do, when you follow a link to an audio file.)</p>
@@ -153,9 +181,11 @@
 
 <p>Now look at a subsequent claim:</p>
 
-<p><i>3. The method of [149]claim 1 wherein the central memory device
+<blockquote>
+<p>3. The method of claim 1 wherein the central memory device
 comprises a plurality of compact disc-read only memory
-(CD-ROMs).</i></p>
+(CD-ROMs).</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>What they are saying here is, &ldquo;Even if you don't think that
 claim 1 is really an invention, using CD-ROMs to store the data makes
@@ -164,8 +194,10 @@
 
 <p>Now look at the next claim:</p>
 
-<p><i>4. The method of [150]claim 1 wherein the central memory device
-comprises a RAID array drive.</i></p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>4. The method of claim 1 wherein the central memory device
+comprises a RAID array drive.</p>
+</blockquote>
 
 <p>A RAID array is a group of disks set up to work like one big disk,
 with the special feature that, even if one of the disks in the array
@@ -239,7 +271,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2011/09/20 08:15:46 $
+$Date: 2011/10/05 22:05:42 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>