Xbox 360 and Windows 7 are to be banned in Germany

RomanNose · 2 May 2012 at 17:45

fez said:
They don't protect a line of code that says:

if(2 == 1) print("error");

If you copied a paragraph from another book word for word and claimed it to be your own you could be taken to court. The clever use of the code to achieve a goal will be what is protected, not just a simple line.

There a few most noticeably

if (s->a < lsz) { s->c += s->a; s->a = lsz; }

function onExit() {
popup = window.open("pop.html", "Don't go!");
popup.focus();
}

sed -i -e "s|http[:]//[^ ]*|<a href=\"\0\">\0</a>|g"
and
sed -i -e "s|\w+@\w+\.\w+(\.\w+)?|<a href=\"mailto:\0\">\0</a>|g"
and
sed -r "s/(([0-9]{3}[\.-])?[0-9]{3}[\.-][0-9]{4})/tel:\1/g"

Really that's not even beginning to scrape the surface of how damaging software patents are, most of them are far too broad. In this economy we should be encouraging innovation and startups, not letting large companies keep the monopolies.

Amleto · 2 May 2012 at 18:43

Moses said:
I've no idea what barnpots are, but I presume you're slating them. I thought it was very difficult to be a judge in Germany (as opposed to the ECtHR, where someone doesn't even have to have been a judge in their home country, lol)... with the state exams, etc, being pretty solid. Why do you say German judges are bad (if that's what you're saying!)?

because they are the only ones in europe that will ban product sales due to IP infringement on very small part of the product.

manoz · 2 May 2012 at 19:05

Aren't Crytek german? They must be ****ed off no end!!

fez · 2 May 2012 at 21:01

RomanNose said:
There a few most noticeably

Really that's not even beginning to scrape the surface of how damaging software patents are, most of them are far too broad. In this economy we should be encouraging innovation and startups, not letting large companies keep the monopolies.

I can understand if you have knocked up a nice bit of regex that is ridiculously badass but I don't agree with the idea of being able to patent something that already existed elsewhere (apples slide to unlock etc).

I have seen blocks of regex that would nearly fill a page of A4 and if I had lost my mind doing that I would at least want to protect it but yes I do see what you mean. Its hard to marry the two though. Look at smartphones pre iphone and post iphone. I company that innovates deserves to be compensated over those that simply stand on the shoulders of giants.

With codecs and things like that I am not sure I agree with patents in a lot of cases as the best codec doesn't always prevail, the best promoted and supported one will win and then everyone else is borderline forced to use it.

Lagmeister · 2 May 2012 at 21:56

To be honest a lot of patents are just insane as it is before you even get to software patents, but I also fall in on the side of taking an extreme disliking to them in the software world.

I can understand wanting to claim ownership to a piece of software but patents are not the way to handle it, but I am a dirty unwashed hippy when it comes to code and will happily use the devils own package repository if it works and solves my problems.

wannabedamned · 2 May 2012 at 22:01

Cant Microsoft just release Windows 7 without the h264 compatibility and also remove it with an update.

They did it with the DVD capability in Windows XP, when DVD software developers started complaining they were holding a monopoly.

OzyOly · 2 May 2012 at 22:14

wannabedamned said:
Cant Microsoft just release Windows 7 without the h264 compatibility and also remove it with an update.

They did it with the DVD capability in Windows XP, when DVD software developers started complaining they were holding a monopoly.

It was the reason for Windows 7n. I'd say screw Germany, they can start using Linux, Open Office and the Z80 Spectrum.

Plenty of other countries M$ make a profit from.

numatic.nathan · 2 May 2012 at 22:37

Just hate to think of all the businesses this will affect. What will happen to all stock companies have when the ruling comes on place? Can they be refunded. Export th goods? Or just lose money?

uniQ · 3 May 2012 at 00:02

Apparently America has 'banned' the ban from happening. What a mess.

realBabelfish · 3 May 2012 at 11:03

RomanNose said:
Why is it ridiculous? Have you seen what is patented, single lines of code have been patented before.
I don't see how a line of code can be justified to be patented. Coding is really just maths used creatively, where do you think logical statements came from? Such as OR & AND? You do understand that algorithms existed before computers?
Yes you don't have to know any maths but logic is a subset of maths and it's used heavily in coding.

as far as i know you cant patent code. you can patent stupid stuff like multi-touching on touch screens. how stupid. apple get away with loads of stupid patents. they go to trial in Texas where judges cant even read emails and allow anything a US company wants.

google Patent Trolls too. some of them are stupid.

realBabelfish · 3 May 2012 at 11:04

RomanNose said:
It's much different with code though, think how much work goes into a book and how much work goes into a line of code.
It's common sense anyway that you shouldn't copyright something that impedes on someone else who wants to do the same thing, which software patents do all the time. You couldn't copyright a sentence used all the time but you can do that with code for some reason.

ive written apps that have far more code than some books.

Burnsy2023 · 3 May 2012 at 19:41

realBabelfish said:
as far as i know you cant patent code. you can patent stupid stuff like multi-touching on touch screens. how stupid. apple get away with loads of stupid patents. they go to trial in Texas where judges cant even read emails and allow anything a US company wants.

google Patent Trolls too. some of them are stupid.

You're right, you can copyright code but you cant patent it though. Software patents are fundamentally flawed though, due to the nature of the beast. How has a software patent ever helped innovation?

Just look at he amazon one click buy thing.