Patents vs. Secrecy

Patents vs. Secrecy: "Geritol.
(Score:5, Interesting)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27, @08:11PM (#13893921)
'From the article: 'the fact that the Pentagon is classifying things that the NSA believes should be public is an indication of how much secrecy has crept into government over the past few years.'''

Now there's a double helping of Irony.

The pentagon is more paranoid than the NSA.

Plus it was the NSA that was paranoid back during the RSA era."
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Re:There is not enough data...
(Score:5, Informative)
by FellowConspirator (882908) Alter Relationship on Thursday October 27, @11:41PM (#13894663)
FWIW, in 2004 the GAO cited a 95% increase in the number of government documents classfied as secret compared to the preceding 5 years. The same report also cites unprecedented levels of the executive branch refusing to provide requested documentation to congress and to withold information from the GAO itself including hundreds of instances of refusing to provide requested documents to the 9-11 commission including copies of presidential briefings on the subject.

The rate of FOIA challenges and denials has also skyrocketed.

Hmmm... Government getting more secret, AG writing memos about how torture is justifiable, enacting laws that permit indefinite incarceration without being charged, end to judicial oversight of wire-taps, congress considering a shield law for that would make it so only certain people can report government wrongdoing without threat of legal action... At this rate, how long will it be before the bill of rights falls into desuetude?
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Re:There is not enough data...
(Score:5, Funny)
by Zordak (123132) Alter Relationship on Thursday October 27, @11:25PM (#13894618)
(http://www.cranesable.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday December 07, @03:57PM)
Man, it happens every time. There always has to be some killjoy who comes along spouting "reason" and "thiking" and raining all over the parade. The proper response here is to jump to some result-oriented conclusions and indulge in some good old-fashioned reactionary government bashing. Next you're going to start blaspheming and say there might even be a legitimate security-related reason for keeping those patents secret. I mean, what are you, some paid Bush administration shill? Next time, please try to post a little before you think.
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Patenting is an exchange
(Score:5, Interesting)
by vonkohorn (688787) Alter Relationship on Thursday October 27, @09:53PM (#13894312)
(http://vonkohorn.com/)
Patenting is an exchange: the government gives you exclusive rights to control the innovation for a period of time in exchange for your making it public. The idea of classifying any patent breaks the system. That's why there are both patents and trade secrets. Public access is such an integral part of the patent system that we should all take very seriously any attempt to allow any patents or patent applications to be classified.
--
Why can't we vote for or against as many people as we want?
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http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=166630&threshold=4&commentsort=0&tid=103&tid=123&tid=17&mode=thread&cid=13896176

:Chance for change...

(Score:5, Interesting)

by keraneuology (760918) on Friday October 28, @08:54AM (#13896176)
(Last Journal: Thursday October 13, @10:31AM)

Which is why jury nullification [wikipedia.org] is such an important aspect of the modern legal system. Since power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely - ie: congress will always take it upon themselves to pass idiotic and patently unjust laws (see previous comments about US Sen McCain, R-AZ declaring that money is more important than the Constitution) and judges will always side with modern interpretations of law over the US Constitution and common sense - the ability for the jury to declare a law unenforcible is paramount to a fair and equitable society.

A good reference is the American Jury Institute and Fully Informed Jury Association (AJI/FIJA) [fija.org]

Some states get it right:

In the trial of all criminal cases, the Jury shall be the Judges of Law, as well as of fact (Maryland)

In all criminal cases whatever, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts. (Indiana)

In all criminal cases whatever, the jury shall have the right to determine the law (Oregon)

the jury shall be judges of the law and the facts (Georgia)

Chances of the federal government willingly accepting the concept that the lowly pee-ons of the citizenry are smart enough to spot a bad law when they see it? None to rolling of the floor laughing. And even in states where the juries have the right to judge the law the juries are often kept in the dark regarding the true nature of their position.

Other related takes can be found here [backwoodshome.com] and here [erowid.org].

--
"There's only one thing more important than money and that's lives" US Sen McCain, R-AZ - no word on freedom or justice

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Licensing? You got hosed...

(Score:5, Insightful)

by rworne (538610) on Friday October 28, @09:15AM (#13896309)
(http://slashdot.org/)

Disney had better word their ads and store displays more carefully in the future.

Visiting a local video store there was a large poster and floor display advertising the new release of Disney's "Cinderella." The ad said: "Own it today". The key word in the ad was "own", not "license." This display (large cardboard thing that looked like a castle) came from Disney itself and was full of DVDs.

I bought one for the kid to watch and now I am the proud owner of a copy. Yeah, the disc says something about "licensed for in-home entertainment only" when played, but that was in the shrink-wrap and conflicts with the contract I agreed to when buying it. So Disney will just have to suck it up.

Perhaps one should collect these ads to present to a court if there are any DMCA issues. If I have an ad from a copyright holder (like Disney) that literally says I own the property I purchased (disc, case inserts and data on it) instead of licensing it then I am the owner of the copyrighted work that is affixed to the disc and can do with it as I (or anyone else who buys a disc) pleases. Perhaps this is Disney's way of releasing their classic films into the public domain?

--
"Business is business! And business must grow Regardless of crummies in tummies, you know."

The Once-ler
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It only takes one good comment

(Score:5, Informative)

by Sarcasmooo! (267601) on Friday October 28, @09:34AM (#13896423)
(http://www.christianitymeme.org/)

I hope it's not too late in the thread to have this article seen, and I apologize for piggy-backing on the parents comment (hopefully it's close enough to being an on-topic response anyway), but I wanted to point out to people that one person really can change minds inside the government [eff.org] with a well written arguement (you'll have to read a bit to see him mentioned). I wouldn't pretend to know what might get you your 'foot in the door' in regards to changing the mind of a person subjected to lobbying and writing campaigns on a regular basis, but my suggestions are simple.

• Start by not sounding partisan, you weren't always an 'activist', explain why a rational and average American like you would come to your conclusion.
• On that same page, leave whatever philosophy you might have on the approach of a plutocratic revolution where corporate rule enslaves mankind for another letter -- even if you do think it's the root of the problem.
• And again relating to the above, don't speak in a letter as if the recipient is the greedy benefactor of corporate dinners and exotic vacations. Even if they were, making them your villan will put them on the defensive, and no matter what perversions of rational thought are required they will find a way to justify ignoring your statements.
• Don't subscribe to write-in campaigns. Form letters are already ignored, and to combat such an easily abused practice you can bet many letters will be ignored just for resembling eachother or arriving from activism websites themselves.

--
I'm Anti-Christ [christianitymeme.org]
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A Good Idea, but Let's Solve the Problem

(Score:5, Insightful)

by duerra (684053) * on Friday October 28, @07:05AM (#13895659)

While writing to the Copyright Office and expressing concern over whatever anti-circumvention technologies you would like access to is still a good idea, it's addressing symptoms, and not the problem.

Let's not be like the medical industry here. There is a proposal for cure out there. It's called HR 1201, "Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2005" [loc.gov]. Write your local congressperson and get this legislation passed!

--
Most Wanted, A free text-based MMOG [mostwantedgame.com]
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OK, here are my examples:

(Score:5, Interesting)

by meringuoid (568297) on Friday October 28, @07:41AM (#13895790)

... and no, 'I can't watch DVDs on Linux' isn't one of them. These people probably neither know nor care what Linux is, nor are they particularly bothered that we can't watch our imported-from-Japan DVDs of Naruto, so don't bother.

1: it kills 'fair use'. Traditionally, we've been allowed by copyright law to use small amounts of a given work for quotation, for review, for parody... However, the DMCA kills that off. Even if I'm allowed to use that small segment of the copyrighted work for my own purposes, I can't do so if it's technologically protected, even in the feeblest manner: the DMCA forbids that.

2: it encourages monopolies. Other than by means of Hymn, or burning to CD and then re-ripping, I can't play music downloaded from Apple on anything other than an iPod. Or, conversely, if I own an iPod I can't play music downloaded from anyone other than Apple on it. This has a chilling effect on the free market.

3: it threatens free speech itself. Even scholarly, academic discussion of cryptography has been curtailed by the DMCA, in cases where it touched on techniques that have been used to protect copyrighted works. Is it really more important to protect Hollywood's latest blockbuster than to have a free research base driving technology forward?
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2 July 2000. Thanks to Anonymous 2:

Just visited the US Patent office website and looked at there NSA patents -- thanks to Anonymous for pointing them out. You can use the URL

http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=%22national+security+agency%22&FIELD1=&co1=AND&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=pall

As you can see there are some new ones dated June 27:

6,081,634	June 27, 2000	All-fiber optically-controlled optical switch
6,081,323	June 27, 2000	Measurement of Raman gain spectrum in optical fiber
6,080,996	June 27, 2000	Unipolar three-terminal resonant-tunneling transistor

And I've been going crazy trying to figure out why "5,224,756 Integrated child seat for vehicle" is an NSA patent. Can anyone help?

1 July 2000. Thanks to Anonymous.

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NSA Patents 1979-2000

I submit this list of all patents taken by the National Security Agency. It is informative to see what topics they are interested in. And also it is interesting because it is the only thing about their activity we can gain access to -- legally.

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US06070175	05/30/2000	Method of file editing using framemaker enhanced by application programming interface clients
US06043825	03/28/2000	Method of displaying 3D networks in 2D with out false crossings
US06026053	02/15/2000	Photorefractive read-only optical memory apparatus using phase, frequency, and angular modulation
US06017822	01/25/2000	Method of thinning semiconductor wafer of smaller diameter than thinning equipment was designed for
US06013534	01/11/2000	Method of thinning integrated circuits received in die form
US06005986	12/21/1999	Method of identifying the script of a document irrespective of orientation
US05996020	11/30/1999	Multiple level minimum logic network
US05991714	11/23/1999	Method of identifying data type and locating in a file
US05982913	11/09/1999	Method of verification using a subset of claimant's fingerprint
US05937422	08/10/1999	Automatically generating a topic description for text and searching and sorting text by topic using the same
US0590368 3	05/11/1999	Device for modulating an optical signal using a single wave guide
US05841536	11/24/1998	Polarization interferometer apparatus using the polarization dependent phase lag in a birefringent retarder
US05838441	11/17/1998	Wide field of view coherent light detector and locator
US05835912	11/10/1998	Method of efficiency and flexibility storing, retrieving, and modifying data in any language representation
US05832478	11/03/1998	Method of searching an on-line dictionary using syllables and syllable count
US05822049	10/13/1998	Optical fiber coupler type wavelength measuring apparatus
US05812609	09/22/1998	Communication intercept device using digital drop receivers in mu ltiple tiers
US05803771	09/08/1998	Electrical connector that minimizes bent pins
US05752051	05/12/1998	Language-independent method of generating index terms
US05631961	05/20/1997	Device for and method of cryptography that allows third party access
US055 33033	07/02/1996	Device for and method of correcting errors in formatted modem transmissions
US05500899	03/19/1996	Secure voice conferencing apparatus
US05489856	02/06/1996	Laser-programmable clocked-logic integrated-circuit
US05450332	09/12/1995	Method of creating a mebes pattern-generation file for use in the manufacture of integrated-circuit masks
US05428686	06/27/1995	Secure communication system having long-term keying variable
US05418951	05/23/1995	Method of retrieving documents that concern the same topic
US05363171	11/08/1994	Photolithography exposure tool and method for in situ photoresist measurments and exposure control
US05351301	09/27/1994	Authenticator circuit
US05349551	09/20/1994	Device for and method of preforming an N-bit modular multiplication in approximately N/2 steps
US05328046	07/12/1994	Self-locking, tamper-evident package
US05265042	11/23/1993	Device and method for a nonlinear comb filter
US05264794	11/23/1993	Method of measuring magnetic fields on magnetically recorded media using a scanning tunneling microscope and magnetic probe
US05258334	11/02/1993	Process of preventing visual access to a semiconductor device by applying an opaque ceramic coating to integrated circuit devices
US05245659	09/14/1993	Constant ratio coding for multipath rejection and ECCM enhancement
US05245408	09/14/1993	Electro-optic coherent light detector
US05238134	08/24/1993	Limited-reuse tamper-evident container
US05237615	08/17/1993	Multiple independent binary bit stream generator
US05224756	07/06/1993	Integrated child seat for vehicle
US05101374	03/31/1992	Secure, fast storage and retrieval without interactive checking
US05101371	03/31/1992	Apparatus for performing a bit serial orthogonal transformation instruction
US05087946	02/11/1992	Composite instant on fuser element
US05020018	05/28/1991	Outer product optical interferometer with hologram
US05012440	04/30/1991	Outer product optical interferometer with mask
US04972105	11/20/1990	Programmable configurable logic memory
US04928294	05/22/1990	Method and apparatus for line-modified asymmetric crystal topography
US04903339	02/20/1990	Locally nulled sine-wave total power alarm for intrusion detecting optical communications systems
US04858113	08/15/1989	Reconfigurable pipelined processor
US04825442	04/25/1989	Planar optical logic
US04825285	04/25/1989	Hybrid encoder
US04818949	04/04/1989	Microwave and millimeter-wave spectrum analyzer
US04818335	04/04/1989	Tapered wet etching of contacts using a trilayer silox structure
US04758976	07/19/1988	High bandwidth triple product processor using a shearing interferometer
US04755745	07/05/1988	Incoherent light optical processor
US04729632	03/08/1988	Common path acoustoptic adap tive linear predictors
US04709652	12/01/1987	Pneumatic audio sweep generator
US04630285	12/16/1986	Method for reducing group delay distortion
US04579421	04/01/1986	Optical adaptive filter
US04567572	01/28/1986	Fast parallel sorting processor
US04497042	01/29/1985	Magnetic bubble logic apparatus
US04468789	08/28/1984	Method for serial transmission and receipt of binary information
US04468093	08/28/1984	Hybrid space/time integrating optical ambiguity processor
US04440472	04/03/1984	Space integrating ambiguity processor
US04435783	03/06/1984	Magnetic bubble logic apparatus
US04429180	01/31/1984	Apparatus for simultaneous generation of key at two locations
US04413879	11/08/1983	Method and apparatus for side launch excitation of selected modes in graded-index optical fibers
US04383261	05/10/1983	Method for laser recording utilizing dynamic preheating
US04375626	03/01/1983	Precision linear tuning circuit
US04357549	11/02/1982	Automatic frequency alteration circuit
US04350984	09/21/1982	Method of position fixing active sources utilizing differential doppler
US04342111	07/27/1982	Digital bridging apparatus for telephone conferencing system
US04322134	03/30/1982	Electronic lens
US04262992	04/21/1981	Variable integrated optical logic element
US04225938	09/30/1980	Time-integrating acousto-optical processors
US04161036	07/10/1979	Method and apparatus for random and sequential accessing in dynamic memories
US04161032	07/10/1979	Serial arithmetic functions with magnetic bubble logic elements