[Opensim-dev] personal plea on patents

[Cristina Videira Lopes]

Conspiracy theories aside, there's nothing mysterious here. Someone  
dropped us a link on Monday morning on the IRC to a bunch of patent  
applications filed within the last 2 years by a large corporation (not  
Microsoft) which seemed to follow closely some technical details of  
OpenSim. That, in itself, was a bit worrisome. But more worrisome to  
me was the story behind the discovery of such patent applications: the  
person who dropped us the link is trying to patent something related  
to OpenSim, and his lawyers bumped into those previous applications.

Which made me realize the pressures that are going on here. First,  
while large corporations are well-oiled machines for producing patent  
applications of dubious merit, they are also the ones that can afford  
to hire people who understand the benefits of working in the public  
domain -- like the people from IBM and Intel who have been  
participating in OpenSim from the beginning. Hopefully that will  
balance out ok. Second, in the US, individual entrepreneurs usually  
face the question "where is your IP?" from investors. Entrepreneurs  
using OpenSim are no exception. I feel sorry, but ultimately it's  
their decision to succumb to the pressure or convince their investors  
that patents, in this case, are a waste of everyone's time and money.  
Use me as excuse,  if needed. I have just become enemy #1 of any  
patent application that vaguely tries to grab OpenSim infrastructure  
-- it will be crushed or made irrelevant.

Diva / Crista

On Feb 4, 2010, at 1:06 PM, dz wrote:

>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Mark Malewski  
> <mark.malewski at gmail.com> wrote:
> What exactly is going on?
>
> Did someone apply for a patent?  Are ANY patents pending?  If so,  
> please let us know what patents are currently pending, so we can at  
> least look them over and contest them.
>
>
>
>
> Yes Diva,
>
> Please lets be a bit more explicit  about  why the sudden interest  
> in patents...
>
> I don't want to read them,  I don't want to rant about them,   but i  
> am curious about  why NOW?     Whats the big happy trigger event????
>
> I spent less than 10 minute with a google query "microsoft virtual  
> world patents"    to collect these 2 interesting gems....
>
>
> http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2009/12/microsoft-rethinking-avatar-creation-tools.html
>
> Microsoft Rethinking Avatar Creation Tools?
>
> Microsoft is apparently exploring ways to make Xbox Live avatars  
> more like their users. To that end, the company has filed for a  
> patent that details "an Avatar generator for a virtual environment  
> [which] reflects a physiological characteristic of the user,  
> injecting a degree of reality into the capabilities or appearance."
>
>
>
> and another  interesting  tidbit....
>
> http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/021009-microsoft-patent.html
>
> Curtis Wong, who is one of four Microsoft Research co-inventors of  
> the technology, said in a statement: "The goal of this patent is to  
> make the interaction between the physical and virtual worlds a  
> little more seamless."
>
> Wong, who has authored 45 patents, also was a co-inventor in 2006 on  
> Microsoft's 5,000th patent, a technology that let people become  
> spectators in online video games.
>
>
> so...whats the game?????     When questions get raised about the use  
> of MONO  and if THAT poses a danger to the project the answer is   
> NO>>>..Microsoft has  "released" the parts of mono WE use, and   
> issued a "promise"  that we don't have to worry about meeting up  
> with a Microsoft legal team in the future.....     Where's  the  
> outrage over  MS filing  "silly" patents?
>
> I certainly don't want to prolong the off-topic discussions  about  
> the future of IP...  and I'm not attempting to defend anyone elses'  
> actions.   Except for the off-topic rants...Ive read every word so  
> far  and all I've really heard is   "DONT DO IT, ITS BAD  and  some  
> references to some event.  Until I know  what the event was, I'm  
> certainly not sure how to evaluate a followup comment  "  No need to  
> panic, the project is not in danger. "
>
> D
>
> _______________________________________________
> Opensim-dev mailing list
> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://opensimulator.org/pipermail/opensim-dev/attachments/20100204/51304c13/attachment-0001.html>