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Saturday, April 13, 2002
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 Saturday, April 13, 2002
started 4/14/2002; 12:26:44 AM - last post 4/14/2002; 9:18:11 PM
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Doc Searls - Saturday, April 13, 2002 
4/14/2002; 4:26:44 AM (reads: 4459, responses: 3)
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Who does your identity belong to? 
| | Simple question, and it's not just about privacy. It's about who you are and how you work in a real market — including anonymously, pseudonymously or polynomonously. Either you're in charge of who you are, or somebody or something outside of yourself is. That to me is the real question at the bottom of this piece in the New York Times. |
Uh oh.
| | David Berlind in ZDnet: IBM, Microsoft plot Net takeover: IBM and Microsoft have been quietly busy behind the scenes for the last two years building a toll booth that could position the two companies to collect royalties on most if not all Internet traffic. The bottom paragraph: |
| | According to documents on the W3C's Web site, IBM and Microsoft not only own intellectual property within specific Web services protocols, but also have no intentions of relinquishing their IP rights to those protocols should they become standards. The documents indicate that the two companies are currently maintaining their rights to pursue a reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) licensing framework as opposed to a royalty-free-based framework. The RAND framework is widely acknowledged as the one that keeps a vendor's options open in terms of being able to charge content developers and Internet users a royalty for usage of relevant intellectual property. |
Thanks to the International Date Line, they'll be doing it all tomorrow
Death and Taxes
| | The flies are mostly gone, but the stench of death still rises from beneath the deck boards behind he house. I think I'll get some critter repellent to spray down there. Might discourage more animals from huddling back there. |
| | I suspect the problem began when the swarm of subterranean termites (black things with wings) began pouring out of the pocket door by the bathroom next to the deck a couple weeks ago. The exterminators who termite-proofed the house before we bought it last year honored their guarantee by drilling down through the concrete slab of the bathroom and, injecting poison into the ground below, and plugging the holes. I suspect some seeped out from under the foundation and into the sleeping quarters the racoon and the 'possum (both of whom had dug little homes right next to the foundation). Kinda makes me feel bad and gives me the creeps, all at once. |
| | Meanwhile work continues preparing for Tax Day tomorrow. Got a huge package off yesterday by 5, but the whole thing won't be over until Tuesday. |
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rusty - IBM/MS "tollbooth"
4/14/2002; 1:04:39 PM (reads: 449, responses: 1)
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I think ZDNet's take on the dangers of patent-encumbered internet protocols is unwarranted. Not because I think patent encumbrance would be a good thing for standards; far from it. But simply because encumbered standards won't be adopted. The standards that are widely adopted are popular precisely because they are free (and, more importantly, Free). If the W3C starts recommending patent-encumbered standards, it will simply be guaranteeing it's own irrelevance.
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Dave Winer - Re: IBM/MS "tollbooth"
4/14/2002; 3:03:42 PM (reads: 587, responses: 0)
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Rusty, I agree with you, except it may take a long time for that to shake out. Patents are like submarines, you could be out for a kayak trip enjoying the scenery, making friends with other kayakers, when all of a sudden a submarine surfaces and aims it's torpedos at you. "Cease and desist," says the captain of the submarine. Then what do you do?
By all appearances, the W3C is in bed with patent abusers. It's time to warn the kayakers that the waters aren't necessarily as safe as they may appear. That message may be repeated every time someone says ".Net is kind of interesting" or "IBM is a leader in web services." It should appear as an asterisk next to their name. Warning: This company is building submarines with torpedos.
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zem - Re: Saturday, April 13, 2002
4/15/2002; 1:18:11 AM (reads: 525, responses: 0)
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"Who does your identity belong to?" and "Either you're in charge of who you are, or somebody or something outside of yourself is." reminds me of a quote I read recently:
"..if you buy steak from the butcher, who "owns" that information? You or the butcher?"
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