1STnTENDERBITS

SpamSandwich said:

I get at minimum two spam calls a day, which I promptly block every time. I have thousands of blocked numbers.

Point is, you shouldn't have to have thousands of blocked numbers.  No one should.  In a perfect world, we wouldn't need to block numbers but this ain't that so no need to go down that dead end road.  In our little imperfect universe, efforts by the carriers can go a long way in alleviating the need for you, me, and everyone else to waste time blocking spam calls.  My hope is they all (carriers) make a concerted effort to make the actions by spammers as difficult as possible.  The cynic in me says that any efforts made to improve the situation will be watered down to useless due to special interest exceptions... exceptions which will be abused by spammers to continue doing what they already do.

This dude wrote 5,478,216,367,954,482,138 words about a Microsoft ad campaign tied to a Netflix show.  Sweet Jeebus.  Will somebody go hug this man?  Tightly.  Maybe with rope.  Anything to keep him from a keyboard.

auxio said:

1STnTENDERBITS said:

auxio said:

Sorry, but you know something is wrong with a system  and then later have that patent bought by a company which has deep pockets to go after companies which, you know, actually create products, and have that company get almost half a billion dollars for it.  A few hours spent and someone gets half a billion dollars.  What behaviour are we incentivizing here?  Why actually do hard work and create things when you can get paid for doing next to nothing?

You know what's wrong?  Every single word you wrote.  Nothing in your quote describes Virnetx.  If you're going to complain, at least understand what you're complaining about.  This patent issue has been around long enough for people to at least be familiar with the parties involved.  

The only thing which is wrong is that they didn't purchase the patents but instead founded a spinoff company to pursue them.  As someone who has spent countless hours creating technology for real products, I find it extremely offensive that if I accidentally created a product which contained something which someone spent a couple of hours/days writing on a piece of paper, my company could be sued for a huge portion of it's revenue and likely taken out.  What's important to the world?  Pieces of paper or products which actually benefit humanity?

The only thing which is wrong is everything you wrote.  Just as I said originally.  Not only is everything wrong, everything is entirely made up by you.  That is unless you have a source for that fan fiction you wrote: "when someone can spend a couple of hours writing an intentionally broadly worded technology idea down on a piece of paper, send it to the patent office,"  I find it extremely offensive that you would post this fiction and expect someone to take it seriously.  There was no accidental patent violation.  Apple knew of the VirnetX patents and ignored them.  Please stop making up these poorly thought out hypothetical scenarios.  They don't help your argument at all.  

So that I'm clear, I'm not defending VirnetX.  I am expressly criticizing your quotes.  They're inaccurate, devoid of any factual info, and just flat out wrong.  Worse, instead of acknowledging that you may not know anything about this case or VirnetX, you double down with more fan fiction.  Not a good look.

auxio said:

Sorry, but you know something is wrong with a system when someone can spend a couple of hours writing an intentionally broadly worded technology idea down on a piece of paper, send it to the patent office, and then later have that patent bought by a company which has deep pockets to go after companies which, you know, actually create products, and have that company get almost half a billion dollars for it.  A few hours spent and someone gets half a billion dollars.  What behaviour are we incentivizing here?  Why actually do hard work and create things when you can get paid for doing next to nothing?

You know what's wrong?  Every single word you wrote.  Nothing in your quote describes Virnetx.  If you're going to complain, at least understand what you're complaining about.  This patent issue has been around long enough for people to at least be familiar with the parties involved.  

Jobs originally wanted FaceTime to be an open standard.  I wonder if VirnetX was the roadblock preventing that.  I also wonder at what point do litigation fees cost more than the verdict award.  Apple seems to be copying Samsung's strategy of appeal... and if that doesn't work, appeal again.