PATENT DOOM IS AT HAND!!!

Ok, that may be a bit strong, but there’s some serious cause for concern, at least for patents issued in the U.S. since 2000. As pointed out in this NY Times piece, a recent paper by law professor Jim Duffy reveals some serious problems with how patent judges have been appointed for the last 8 years. And those problems may lead to the automatic overturning of all such patents on procedural and constitutional grounds.

It’s likely that the Justice Department and Congress won’t let it go down like that. There are billions and billions of dollars tied to those patents, and business is not likely to lay down and let that evaporate. The lobbyists are gonna get fat on this one, folks. Most likely there will be legislation that will attempt to fix this, but that’s really just a patch and I would bet that someone will challenge whatever they come up with. Lawyers are also gonna get fat, baby!

Sigh.

via Boingboing

As of today, Adobe has removed all license restrictions on the use of the Flash SWF and FLV/F4V formats, as well as the AMF protocol. This is exciting news, since it means that more folks can get into the business of building Flash playback devices and systems that can talk directly to Flash. This may be a particular boon for F/OSS projects like gnash.

Of course, there are some real questions about how this will play out. Adobe is still in control of the formats in question; they haven’t announced plans to open the specification process to the public (at least not that I’ve seen). While Adobe pledged to keep the open standards up-to-date, failing to include a process for including community contribution increases the chance of forking the standard. And that dilution of Flash was the supposed reason for the very license restrictions that were lifted today.

In any case, I see this as a step in the right direction. Any Internettechnology wide-spread enough to be considered an de facto standard should be based on open standards. I applaud the efforts of Adobe in at least attempting to strike a balance.

As a counterpoint to my post about Ricardo Semler and his open management practices (and how much I love them), here’s a Wired article on how Apple is evil from a management perspective, but that works, too.

Just goes to show that Larry Wall had it right: TIMTOWDI.

Let me say this first: I am an optimist.

This statement may come as a surprise to those who know me personally (I’m a bit cynical at times), but it’s true. I have faith in all sorts of optimistic ideals and fantasies of the way things should be. And I really believe that there is an alternative path to a happier, healthier life. And this includes the workplace.

Ricardo Semler is a hero of mine. I first encountered his style of business management in an article a few years ago and I immediately got a copy of his book, Maverick! It’s a great read about how he worked with his employees at Semco to transform the way the business was run. They turned the business into a democratic (some have implied communist) system that thrives on participation and openness. It’s a truly glorious thing and it has worked better than anyone ever dreamed.

Many of the seemingly fantastical ideas employed at Semco are the kind of thing the your average business management will either completely write-off as lunacy or perhaps will state “it’s nice in principal, but that could never work here“. Of course, many of the concepts found at Semco are also found at some extraordinarily successful companies (a current well-known example being Google). And Semco is primarily in the business of making things.

While you might believe that “crunchy” things like setting your own hours could only take flight in a “creative” workplace, Semco is in manufacturing, a sector known for pragmatic thinking. When you have to turn out everything from building-sized air conditioners to blenders you need to know that your workforce is going to get the job done. And yet, Semco has not only thrived, they’ve grown and grown.

Mr. Semler is now working to extend his ideas to education and I can say that based on my own experiences I would have loved to go to one of the schools he is working with!

The reason I mention this is that I came across a nice post on Semler at 37signals Signal vs. Noise and I was reminded of how jazzed I was on first reading about Semco. The post is actually a reference to an great post at Bieber Labs, but it also includes links to a couple of video interview with Ricardo Semler which I highly recommend watching.

And now back to dreaming.

Probably not. That, at least, is the opinion of Mike Masnick of TechDirt. Check out the latest entry in his series on “IP” and it’s foundations (and lack there-of) in US law. If you’re not familiar the difference between copyright, patents and trademarks, this series will give you some idea of how they all [are supposed] to work. Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, this is good read on a dry topic. And for what it’s worth the law quoted here pretty much matches up with what was explained to me by an attorney during my own singular foray into the patent process (never again).

I’m not a big fan of software or business process patents myself and I think the protections afforded by copyright have been unbalanced in favor of corporate greed over public good and fair use*. I tend towards the idea that ideas are free and should be disseminated freely as often as possible. And I find it ridiculous that copyright now extends to multiple decades after the originally creator has gone the way of the dodo.

* Disclaimer: This opinion does not necessarily reflect the policies of Bit Group nor does it presume to state the beliefs of everyone here.