jluis 's BestNetTech Comments

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  • On the post: Patents, Copyrights And Trademarks, Oh My!

    jluis ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2008 @ 06:49am

    Re: Re: Material....

    Mike,

    thanks a lot for this. That is the kind of post that i usually would "star" in my reader, but i've joined this blog in Aug 2007, so i've missed it.

    Thanks again!

  • On the post: Patents, Copyrights And Trademarks, Oh My!

    jluis ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2008 @ 07:53pm

    Material....

    Mike,

    i'm not very seasoned on economy in general, but you sound solid and usually mention many terms and/or explain things (like: "Value is *one* component in demand. But price is set at the interaction of supply and demand. This is an economic fact.").

    I wonder if you can recommend some entry level books to read on this subject.

    You know, i would like to understand at least enough as to not consider bullshit everything economists say...

    Hey, did you notice that i'm asking for books?
    Man, i hate reading long texts on the computer screen. I would check an free e-book to figure out if it's good to me (writing, examples, etc), but printing is more expensive than buying (even with international shipping).

    I would also say that this free sampling is just a bit more than today's back cover, and anyway, you can go to many book stores and read the book right there, isn't it?

  • On the post: Patents, Copyrights And Trademarks, Oh My!

    jluis ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2008 @ 07:44pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:....

    Corey,

    i'm not an expert on any of this, but i find it curious that you mention your publisher on all this. I wonder if Bouie, Yagger and others have relied on music executives to support taking down napster and the likes... And yet, here we are....

    I don't know much about economics, but i'll tell you that these guys sound solid in what they say. Also, i'll expand this idea on what i know from programming.

    For decades, it's been an dark science (i.e: to users), to the point of jokes that you probably heard many times. Now, technology is starting to enable users to start programming more complicated things (think excel macros but on the internet and way more sophisticated).

    It seems that i should be frightened by this, but the fact is that it will create more need for my professional work.
    For starters, i do not work for small businesses because of the "nephew" effect (yes, every other person has a nephew that is a genius with computers... the kid games all day long). Having users trying to actually do something will be good for me, as i'll be able to charge reasonable for my services to more people (without having to explain why is reasonable).
    Second, when things get more complex, data integrity starts being a problem (among many others). So, my work will shift from basic programming to more challenging tasks. That is good to keep my interest in my profession.

    With so many (amateur) people creating content today, don't you think that being a professional writer opens some opportunities to you? Take your publisher out of the equation and rethink the whole thing, maybe you'll find something interesting to do that doesn't take your current way of living, but is also a cheap experiment.

    You are assuming that all this means:

    EXTINCTION & I'M A DINOSAUR!!!!

    Well, consider that not long ago, when you needed furniture, you payed to a carpenter. Then all kind of tools started to appear and "Do it yourself" became the "my god, we will loose our jobs" motto of carpenters. Do you make your own furniture? Did the government created the "fund to support out-of-job carpenters"?

    Yes, you will talk about copyright, but being a programmer, many of the things i do could be subject to copyright (and man, i have made things that where years ahead of common technology). The truth is that when you have a business based on policing (from police, not policy), your start spending a lot on policing.

  • On the post: Patents, Copyrights And Trademarks, Oh My!

    jluis ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2008 @ 04:23pm

    example of incentives working

    I think the case they allways post as an example is the fashion industry. They don't have copyright but every year new content is created.

    For patents, as said in the IEEE fragment, you can license or you can invent yet another completely new thing to the same end (that's the incentive to progress).
    The system is kind of twisted in many ways. It's common for patent holders to register for extensions (usually on variations of the original patent to cheat the time limit). To limit this missuse, i believe the Argentine patent and copyrigth office has issued a policy saying something on the line that some extensions have the lifetime of the original patent.

  • On the post: Patents, Copyrights And Trademarks, Oh My!

    jluis ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2008 @ 02:54pm

    Regarding trademarks

    Hi, i will add something about trademarks, mainly from what happens here in Argentina, but i believe it will probably apply also in the US and many other countries, because there are many international agreements (notice: i'm a programmer that worked on a trademark app, not a lawyer).

    The matter with trademarks is that they must be renewed every number of years (here is 5), because (as said in the post) lack of PROVED commercial use may allow another (unrelated) interested party to GET the trademark.

    Most interesting (as said in the post), trademarks are to protect customers in a SPECIFIC MARKET. This means that i can have a "José Luis" branded product in Buenos Aires, and someone else may have a "José Luis" branded product in Mendoza (another city of Argentina) and there would be no infringement (at least, that was a 100 years ago, where markets used to be very-very local). Today is not that easy as markets have expanded, but this may take the form of businesses in different countries in different continents using the same trading mark. This has happened to many (now-global) brand names. They usually end up buying the trademark from the local holder.

    Another thing specific to trademarks is that they apply only to a certain type of product (there are "classes" to this purpose). For example, i can have some food under "José Luis" and someone else can have some services under the same mark. It is atmost allways the case with big brands (like Coca-cola, nike, ibm, etc) that they register their trademarks in all the classes in all the countries, so that no one can use it.

    Other extras:
    1) slogans are also subject of trademark law (think nike "just do it!"). Scents and sounds are also subject of trademarks (chanel has a trademark on the scent of it's perfumes).
    2) very important: a trademark not only recognizes the name, but also the logo (think of nike's check mark, that is also a trademark).
    3) trademarks are PUBLISHED to public scrutiny before they are granted (at least, here in Argentina). The public can then oppose to the request (as in "this trademark is similar to this other"). Patent requests are published too (here), but i'm not sure if one can oppose.

    The following is DUBIOUS (at best) but: someone once told me that the whole trademark law spawned from the use of "uncle sam" by some people (other than the original manufacturer). If this is true, then go figure!

  • On the post: Dear ABC, You Don't Compete With TiVo By Making A Product Worse

    jluis ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2008 @ 06:46pm

    I've kept think about this.

    TV executives are not morons, they are just mediocre in their work. They are used to measure their success by companies getting bigger as a result of economy expansion.

    Now, the business is changing (because of technology and the ability to measure success), and they don't know what to do because they are mediocre, so they blame the first stupid thing that comes to their mind (like remote's fast forward).

    The same blaming did the record companies, telcos when mobile started (but they where able to buy/build mobile operators), oil companies have been pushing to stop alternative energy.

  • On the post: Dear ABC, You Don't Compete With TiVo By Making A Product Worse

    jluis ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2008 @ 06:28pm

    I agree with comment 19. I do have a VCR (and use it because it works for me). I fast forward scanning at the image without paying any attention and i'm very good at it. Is a thing that we (humans) can do in an automatic way, with things that don't interest us.

    Some scientists from the World Health Organization (or your CDC) should investigate this mind debilitating decease that is spreading across big media companies. There is much to learn on how things spread on such closed groups.

    The most interesting thing, however, is that this is not a problem that is related to the DVR, or the VCR, or the remote control (you used to zap, didn't you?).

    Don't you people take leaks in commercials?
    Don't you people go to the kitchen to get some snack?

    Are these guys morons?

    BREATH-TAKING NEWS: tv viewers have been skipping ads from the very first day of tv!!!

  • On the post: FBI Wants To Build Huge Biometric Database

    jluis ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2008 @ 07:00pm

    I don't know much about security, but it seems reasonable that if you want a biometric database to identify terrorists, then you will put terrorist's biometric info on that database....

    Why is it that goverments allways try to do things the wrong way?

    On the other hand, we could put people info on one database when born, and then remove that info from it when they go criminals (of any flavor) or terrorists. That will be easy, right?