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Kill the Trolling!

KILL THE TROLLING

THE SCENE:

My Lawyer (unnamed for legal reasons ;) and I were having lunch a couple days ago. She just got finished with a big case that settled before her amazing work could be put to use. She’s in patent law. So, naturally, patent trolling came up. She told me how it works.

THE PROBLEM

A patent troll will come up with an idea, hire a law firm to write the patent in as vague a wording as possible to cover the broadest application of that idea. Then, the troll will hire a second firm to sue anyone using anything that might possibly fall under the patent’s terms.

The patent and copyright systems in the United States exist to enable innovation, by allowing the innovator a brief period of profit on his idea before the public can make use of it. This does two things: 1) The innovator can keep himself feed and warm; 2) Society improves from the innovation.

Patent trolls stop this system from working by preventing #2, instead, making people afraid to innovate because they don’t want to get sued.

THE SOLUTION:

This idea was thought up over one lunch and I haven’t put much more thought into it since then, so it’s got some bugs, but here it is. Pick a field currently suffering from excessive trolling (IT or the auto industries come to mind) and start writing some really vague patents. Keep writing them until pretty much the entire industry is covered. Then, release them under Creative Commons. Sue anyone who looks like they’re participating in patent trolling. Everyone gets to use the patents.

The main problem with this is that it costs A LOT to do and there really isn’t much money in it. However, what it lacks in money, it makes up for in PR.

Too Many Secrets


Yes, that title is, in fact, a reference to one of my favorite movies, SNEAKERS. SNEAKERS is about a group of people who are asked to steal a black box that has an ingenious hardware solution to keyless decryption. The creation of the box was funded by the National Security Agency (NSA), and that’s what this post is about.

A few years ago I read a great tome of a book called “Body of Secrets” about the founding and daily operations of the NSA. So, when I read a Wired article by Bamford regarding the construction of a new NSA facility in Utah, I took notice (read the article and the comments, as you have no idea if my summary is accurate or merely my interpretation).

In it, Bamford explains how the goal of this new facility is to gather and data-mine all data on the Internet, as well as the data from other sources of intelligence; and that the NSA has a new supercomputer that it’s going to use via intelligent brute-force attacks, to read the world’s encrypted message. The nasty part is that the NSA’s slurping of data isn’t simply limited to non-U.S. citizens (the NSA is only chartered for foreign intelligence, so, if it’s really doing that, it’s illegal).

What I found really interesting, other than what I mentioned above, is the comments. People were intelligently discussing (with very few personal attacks) the role the U.S. Intelligence community should play in a government “by the people.”

You might be asking, “All well and good, Jonathan. But, why are you writing about it?” The reason I mention it is because it’s a part of my research for the script I’m working on about a computer hacker. And, the NSA is VERY good at hacking computers, so I think it’s useful for me to pay attention to what they do.

Don’t Subscribe

I’m probably not going to say anything on here that you’ll be interested.

Still reading? Here are some of the topics I’m going to blog about: filmmaking, existentialism, politics, American Society, other things I’ve got an opinion on, etc.

Since everything I write in the above categories, or anything else, is entirely my opinion or my experiences, or my interpretation of other people’s experiences, it will most likely have very little use for you.

P.S. I’m only half-joking.

Film Independent: Director’s Close-up

To say that this event is invaluable is a bit of an understatement. I am currently an independent filmmaker. That means I don’t get invited to the Oscars or the chic parties. It also means I can’t simply call up anyone in Hollywood and ask them to talk.

But, Edward James Almos can.

I only say that because he was at one of the forums, talking about how he made his latest film, along with one of the stars, both directors, the casting director and Henry Lennix moderated. (I also literally bumped into Carl Weathers later in the evening.)

Oh, and after the forum was over, they all headed to the bar within the theater and we talked for about an hour. They were all kind, open, and more than happy to talk about the craft of filmmaking.

I don’t mention the names above to name-drop. Well, I guess it is some of that, but there’s a purpose. As I said, I can’t get into their parties. But, thanks to Film Independent, they came to me.

And, that’s only one of the five nights.