October 1999
- DIVE Holly Sommer
- Admin: Kanga.Nu is going down for couple hours J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: We should be back up now J C Lawrence
- Admin: Archive updates J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: DevMUD is closing J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: Explanation of DevMUD vs MUD-Dev and a minor note J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: For those with an interest in patterns J C Lawrence
- ADMIN: Kanga.Nu Library -- first edition J C Lawrence
- weather Matthew Mihaly
- Alternate Character Sets (Telnet Question) Chimera
- Alternate Character Sets (Telnet Question) Travis S. Casey
- Alternate Character Sets (Telnet Question) Greg Miller
- Interesting little discussion going on at /. Nathan F Yospe
- Dan Kegel: A few notes on writing multiplayer games J C Lawrence
- Dan Kegel: A few notes on writing multiplayer games Bruce Mitchener, Jr.
- Coolmud Ilya, Game Commandos
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Lazarus
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Matthew Mihaly
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Chris Turner
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Colin Coghill
- Affect of personalizing cannon fodder mobs Greg Miller
- patents and muds Bruce Mitchener, Jr.
- patents and muds Sellers, Michael
- patents and muds Mik Clarke
- patents and muds Cynbe ru Taren
Bruce Mitchener wrote:
> Can this list help to serve as an archive of prior art? Has anyone run into
> problems of this nature yet?
In the '80s, I participated in a legal fight to reverse a bogus
trademark.
The case was open-and-shut, the other side was conducted by a
semi-senile fool with the unpaid help of a lawyer friend with no
relevant expertise, they made about every legal mistake possible, we
did everything about as cheaply and well as possible...
... and it still took nearly a decade and over $20,000 to win.
Reversing a -patent- defended by a company with anything approximating
sane, paid legal advice would be -much- harder, no matter how clear
the prior art.
This whole area is dominated by case law made by and for mega-corporations
fighting their private duels: Considerations of public interest and
such get -very- short shrift.
So the practical question is less, "Do we have prior art to show,"
than "Do we have people willing to spend hundreds of thousands of
dollars (doing things -very- cheaply) and years out of their lives to
contest this?"
Barring a friendly billionaire who thinks fighting bogus software
patents sounds like a neat sideline to get into, the answer is almost
certainly going to be, "No."
On the bright side, a lawsuit against an open source project for
patent infringement is going to be expensive to win and unprofitable
even when won: The target is legally diffuse and can easily legally
relocate to a country with sane patent laws.
My Muq server source is currently distributed only from the
Netherlands. Seemed legally advisable. :)
Cynbe - patents and muds Joe Andrieu
- patents and muds Koster, Raph
- patents and muds Cynbe ru Taren
- Pueblo Par Winzell
- Library updates J C Lawrence
- Pueblo Mik Clarke
- patents and muds Richard Bartle
- patents and muds Scott Boding
- patents and muds Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- patents and muds Joel Kelso
- patents and muds Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- patents and muds Mik Clarke
- patents and muds Mik Clarke
- Cannon fodder mobs alternatives Aaron
- Patent problems Richard Bartle
- History of online gaming Koster, Raph
- historians Matthew Mihaly
- historians Laurel Fan
- historians Matthew Mihaly
- historians Laurel Fan
- historians Philip Loguinov -- Draymoor
- historians Matthew Mihaly
- historians Marian Griffith
- historians Mik Clarke
- historians J C Lawrence
- historians J C Lawrence
- historians cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
- historians Matthew Mihaly