Tandberg attempts to patent x264 open source algorithm
x264dev.multimedia.cx
x264dev.multimedia.cx
Cisco HR peeps have been quite active in the UK developer community recruiting for Tandberg recently, I'll forward this to one of them to see if can get some attention.
edit: make myself clearer
Even if Tandberg were granted a patent because the USPTO missed the information provided in the post, it would not stand in court.
Such information should be communicated to the USPTO to have them kill the application during examination.
Case closed.
Google translated link: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&h...
And it's a federal court - remember not to drop the soap in the shower!
</sarcasm>
People will always abuse any system, but that doesn't mean the system should be taken away from everyone else. I don't like software patents, but this is not a software patent issue. It's an "intellectual dishonesty" issue -- taking credit for someone else's work.
Software patents need to be harder to get, easier to overturn, and there need to be steep incentives to not submit invalid applications.
The existence of the patent system encourages people to commit such "intellectual dishonesty" by providing a monopolistic and monetary incentive for doing it. There's a difference between a system that is abused, and a system that's fundamentally asking for such abuse.
If he definitely chose to do a dishonest thing, perhaps he should be punished accordingly.
When we have sci-fi nanoreplicators that can copy luxury (flying) cars, food, etc., all scarcity will be artificial.
Alternatively, when we have very convincing VR, everyone will be able to experience what he or she wants to as much as he or she wants to. There won't be anything to trade because you can't give someone something they can't already get. Strong general AI will fill in for everything.
Our puny mammalian brains with their limited sensory inputs will be entertained by not-very-advanced technology that eventually becomes effectively free. It doesn't even take that much fidelity to fool us -- think of how unconvincing dreams are after you wake up. There's seemingly some credulity switch that gets flipped which makes us believe something to be reality without really questioning it. Switch that on while awake and World of Warcraft is probably more than good enough.
Incidentally, I noticed that asking yourself the question, "how did I get here?" ala Inception is really annoying when you're awake. It's difficult to question your reality when you subjectively feel it to be true.
My awake existence is mostly in one place staring at a monitor. I almost never do that when I dream, I'm "physically" doing something completely unrelated.
The music recording industry is effectively already becoming a post scarcity industry, and look how unwilling they are to give up their copyrights. Industries will cling on to things like rights to reproduce, rights to distribute etc. Don't expect these problems to go away because of some sci-fi future tech.
AIs can create pop music in your virtual world if you like that sort of thing. All the other AIs will be talking about it, so you won't need some central source of anything in order to have common ground with people in your reality.
It will be fine if random permutations lead to people in your virtual reality listening to "Yeah, Girl" instead of "Girl, Yeah" or "All Right Girl".
Movies won't be very important when you can interactively experience anything you want. Climb K2 but without the risk of permanent death. Movies will just be a Machinima subset of the interactive simulation if you still want them.
Even here on HN, I've seen posts from people who think patents are intended as a reward for inventors, rather than an incentive to invent. Under US law, inventors and writers do not automatically deserve exclusive rights - those rights are granted only as a means to encourage progress.