uTorrent, BitTorrent Sued For Patent Infringement

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]Blessedman[/nom]Patent Troll. I'm going to patent "A means of transportation that allows for variable acceleration and the ability to stop at any destination the user desires" and sue all the car/truck/bus/boat/bike manufacturer. These are the dumbest patents ever and they shouldn't be allowed.[/citation]
I take it you only read the title of the patent and not the 750 pages of technical document attached
...
Obviously not

 

[tburns1]

I didn't read this, and I don't care.

But what is the relevance of Patchy the Pirate? Oh wait, nevermind ...

 

[hixbot]

The fact the company was ever granted a patent on such a broad P2P concept is the real problem.

 

[Stardude82]

You know the protocol is Free and Open Source. I wonder if the Free Software Foundation will get involved....

 

[tokencode]

[citation][nom]hoofhearted[/nom]This is utter leeching bull#$@1. Cohen deserves the credit. Whatever #@$!! created this patent probably couldn't code "hello world". Just some scumbag, come out of the woodwork. If the judge had any sense, he would challenge the scumbag that orchestrated this patent shit to code a simple FTP client and make him look like the tool he is (let alone come up with something like PTP which revolutionized the whole leeching concept). Cohen wrote the protocol and the code, he deserves the credit. Not this asshole who wrote this little prose desacription, which, by the way, doesn't even get the P2P model, but more the CS model.BitTorrent is a freaking well written protocol, that many use. Patent trolls like this totally lack inovation and creativity.[/citation]


Saying P2P Revolutionized leeching is like saying the US Highway system is aiding bank robbers. While it may be true, I wouldn't call out enabling illegal activity is a "positive" effect of P2P technology. Try using a little more appropriate language, you'll sound a lot more intelligent.... just saying...

 

[swamprat]

[citation][nom]jamoise[/nom]Just had a read of their patent, its based on Server/client situation, where all the data still resides on the server, and just receives data back from the clients on better ways to deliver the data. Nowhere does it say that the clients distribute data between each other or a tracker/seed/peer style setup. this has IMO no relation to how bitorrent works and should be thrown out of court[/citation]
Wouldn't it potentially apply based on each client also being in the place of the server? I don't mean to support a patent troll, just to be picky. If you look at a single packet that goes out over bittorrent, you could look at the patent to see how each client deals with requests from other clients to download that packet.
It still seems a stupid patent and there isn't exactly a lot of 'choosing framerate / choosing protocol' going on, nor inserting adverts etc. It does talk about distributing a file in order regardless of who wants it. I can't see what was new in 1999 when this was filed.

 

[rohitbaran]

[citation][nom]Blessedman[/nom]Patent Troll. I'm going to patent "A means of transportation that allows for variable acceleration and the ability to stop at any destination the user desires" and sue all the car/truck/bus/boat/bike manufacturer. These are the dumbest patents ever and they shouldn't be allowed.[/citation]
You speak wisdom!

 

[fir_ser]

This is bad news.

 

[gm0n3y]

I've been using torrents since ~2002(?) and they were definitely around before that. If this patent was approved in 2007 I assume it was filed after 2002. So how can this possibly apply? If I have a product and a competitor files a patent for my product 10 years later, can he then sue me for having my product? Isn't there some clause for prior-use? The patent board should try to catch those but I guess sometimes they get by. The system is definitely flawed, badly.

 

[Guest]

The guys suing are not "patent trolls", they are the original inventors of Bittorrent that Brahm Cohen stole his design from. They had it long before Bittorent or napster even existed!

 

[captaincharisma]

[citation][nom]Dan Funden[/nom]The guys suing are not "patent trolls", they are the original inventors of Bittorrent that Brahm Cohen stole his design from. They had it long before Bittorent or napster even existed![/citation]

yea just like facebook was stolen lol. they are patent trolls pure and simple

 

[cookoy]

a few dollars here, a few dollars there, i wonder how much of my income goes to feeding these patent trolls