IBM vs. Amazon
For the love of software development - what the hell is this about? IBM, anyone?
The Internet has been amazingly quiet about
IBM’s
litigation against Amazon. It feels to me like maybe the biggest Internet
story of, well, maybe, ever.
I haven’t gone and read the IBM patents yet, because reading patents always
depresses me. If the titles mean anything (not always a sure bet), this might mean that IBM has finally managed to figure out how to
set up that Internet Tollbooth that we’ve always been afraid of. If you’re
interested in ‘Presenting Applications in an Interactive Service’, ‘Storing
Data in an Interactive Network’, ‘Presenting Advertising in an Interactive
Service’, ‘Adjusting Hypertext Links with Weighted User Goals and Activities’,
or ‘Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalogue’, apparently IBM thinks you
need to pay them for the right to do any of those things.
If the courts agree with them, it’s time for me to find a new line of work.“
(Via ongoing.)
