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Comment by emsy | Hacker News Reader

I remember that not too long ago, somone commented on HN that he basically pitched this idea to Disney but they declined and said the idea wasn't really good. I hope he shows up and tells us his story.

edit: found it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8839888

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The idea has been around forever, probably from the moment someone figured out how to attach a unique ID to a radio transmitter. I pitched the idea myself (half-heartedly) fifteen years ago which puts me 7 years before this guy. And others commented with their prior art.

http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Theme_20Park_20Leash#10639908...

Yeah, here's a company saying an amusement park was using their RFID wristbands in 2006:

http://www.wristband-rfid.com/en/amusement_parks.html

Here's a 2004 article about using them in Legoland:

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2332669/network-security...

Was it a proper pitch or an unsolicited idea? If it was a proper pitch then I would agree. If it was unsolicited then I would imagine it was more like they already had the idea in the works and he took their generic, noncommittal, or whatever response as a sign they weren't interested in that particular use of the technology. Most companies are smart to not react to unsolicited ideas as to avoid being accused of stealing the idea if they had already thought of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if Disney was simply waiting for the technology to catch up with the idea.

Reminds me of people who send scripts to sitcoms then complain they've been "ripped off" when a similar storyline emerges. Considering there are something like 6 or 7 unique sitcom plots and only so many possible pairings, its pretty obvious that "invention" here is non-existent. Oh you also wanted Rachel and Ross to get together? You don't say.

We've probably been talking about RFID as people tracker for almost 20 years. Personally, I'm really getting sick of the whole "they stole my idea" bullshit from young entrepreneurs. You aren't as clever as you think.

There's a pretty ugly culture around IP.

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