Hoby’s Comments

• May 9th, 2012 @ 12:19am

  (untitled comment)

  on SGI Back From The Dead (Again) And Suing Tons Of Companies For Patent Infringement
  What a sad end to such a once-brilliant company.
• Mar 7th, 2012 @ 12:19am

  another idea

  on Disrupting the Disruptors: Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing Service Launches Nationally
  Well, that's another business idea that I couldn't get going before other people thought of the same thing and find traction. It's crazy, even the general layout of the web site is similar to what I was planning.. in 2009.
• Sep 23rd, 2011 @ 3:00pm

  (untitled comment)

  on Entertainment Industry Now Shaking Down People At $10 Per Infringement
  That's pretty disgusting.. a neglectful, spammish way of fleecing the population. It looks like legalized phishing to me.
• Aug 21st, 2011 @ 2:37pm

  weights, purpose, and periodic reviews

  on So How Do We Fix The Patent System?
  I'd say that the three biggest changes that could fix the patent system would be the introduction of: patent holder "weight", patent purpose, and periodic reviews of what effect the granted patents are having on their markets and innovation.
  
  Weights - the more the patent holder "weighs" in their market in terms of holdings, influence, and domination then the less time and protection they'd get for their patents.
  
  Purpose - what are they using the patent for: guiding the market, leveling the playing field, or sitting on it? Requiring the intended purpose to be stated and comparing that to the purpose that actually happens would identify patents being mis-used by patent trolls, innovation stiflers, and monopolizers for easy disqualification.
  
  Reviews - What happens after the patents are granted? Do they have a good or bad effect on the world? Depending on the type of invention, the frequency of the review dates would be different but the results of identifying patents doing harm to innovation and fair competition should do the same.
  
  Apart from those general practices, I'd suggest banning patents surrounding living organisms (particularly "found dna") and changing the pricing structure of filing such that the upfront cost is low but the continued price to retain the patent rises over time.
• Mar 18th, 2010 @ 7:25pm

  Re:

  on Georgia Supreme Court Says It's Okay To Put Non-Sex Offenders On The Registered Sex Offender List
  it's not quite that simple, especially since "correctional facilities" don't very often do as their name implies
• Mar 18th, 2010 @ 7:22pm

  Re: Re: Lists

  on Georgia Supreme Court Says It's Okay To Put Non-Sex Offenders On The Registered Sex Offender List
  Perhaps the best way would be to deepen the lists a little: show not just the offenders but a summary timeline of circumstances, and waypoints of "rehabilitation" like lengths of time since offenses and achievements that mean a departure or exoneration from their previous behavior or ruling.
• Mar 18th, 2010 @ 7:16pm

  Re: Do ya one better

  on Georgia Supreme Court Says It's Okay To Put Non-Sex Offenders On The Registered Sex Offender List
  That's not socialism, it's authoritarianism.
• Mar 18th, 2010 @ 7:09pm

  people are getting list crazy!

  on Georgia Supreme Court Says It's Okay To Put Non-Sex Offenders On The Registered Sex Offender List
  What is it with national lists that make it so authority figures want to keep adding people to them, whether they should or not?
  
  Maybe they actually want to dilute the list, make it so no one cares because it's full of so many crap entries.
• Mar 9th, 2010 @ 11:43am

  (untitled comment)

  on A Look At Twelve Years Of Dangerous Unintended Consequences From The DMCA
  Like I said before it was adopted: Bad idea. No good will come of the DMCA. It doesn't make me feel good to be right about that prediction.
• Jul 15th, 2009 @ 5:08pm

  (untitled comment)

  on Plato And The RIAA Have Some Views In Common: Gov't Should Stop Remixes
  Well I guess that's the deal, you can't get all your advice from any one person - because everyone has at least one wacked out idea about how things should be.
  
  Could be he was forced or paid to say that, too. Or even that he was misquoted/mistranslated.
  
  All I can say is, it's a good thing people didn't listen to him on that little tidbit until the RIAA, otherwise we'd have no rich and varied world of music that the RIAA is working tirelessly to destroy.
• Jul 3rd, 2009 @ 10:21am

  awww yeah!

  on The Myth Of Original Creators
  Hell yeah.. it's like I've said for a while: creativity + sharing = culture.
  
  Remove one of the two and you ain't got diddly.