from Hacker News

EFF Patent Project Gets Half-Million-Dollar Boost from Mark Cuban and 'Notch'

by jeffool on 12/19/12, 7:37 PM with 66 comments

  • by against-patents on 12/19/12, 8:50 PM

    If you're a designated inventor of a patent or a patent application who opposes patents, you could publicly state your support for patent abolition at the Inventors Against Patents site: http://inventors-against-patents.org

    (A site operator here; the site was launched a few days ago. The idea is that anyone campaigning for a patent reform can use support by designated inventors as a presumably convincing argument in the eyes of the general public.)

    Edit: As Richard Stallman points out in a comment at EFF's site, abolishing software patents can be easier than shortening the period during which a monopoly is granted to 5 years as EFF proposes; he cites a requirement by WTO that all patents are granted for a period of 20 years.

    The nice thing about publicly supporting abolition is that you automatically support "less radical" proposal's like EFF's 5-year reform, and you support all of them at the same time just once and all campaigners can use your support. DRY :)

  • by lolcraft on 12/19/12, 8:09 PM

    Hmmm, that's a bold move from Notch. I wonder how political activism in the US by a Swedish citizen is going to sit. Personally, I would just have thanked my luck for working in a country with sane patent laws.

  • by mtgx on 12/19/12, 8:44 PM

    EFF's ideas for patent reform:

    https://defendinnovation.org

    They sound pretty good to me.

  • by marcamillion on 12/19/12, 10:13 PM

    How does this work exactly....Mark Cuban sponsors a chair and the EFF hires 2 attorneys to execute the mission of the chair. But given that this a $250K grant, that sounds like it covers their salary for 1 year. What happens in the next year? Is this a commitment in perpetuity where he keeps paying these salaries? Or does the EFF have to find money next year to pay these salaries?

    I am not condemning this move, I am really curious about how this stuff works.

    Anyone know?

  • by dawernik on 12/19/12, 8:35 PM

    Yep, enough money for two attorneys oughta do it. Although i have to admit, i would love to have that title 'The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents'.

  • by shawn-butler on 12/19/12, 9:39 PM

    The EFF should stick to its core mission. This is an overreach and is a mistake.

    Worse it's a waste of time, money and valuable attention. If you want political action and have the money and resources then why not form a single-issue political action group, get involved and do something?

    This is just writing a check and getting your picture and name in the media, something by the way at which Mark Cuban, whose hypocrisy knows little bounds, excels.

  • by solutionhn on 12/20/12, 2:35 AM

    If HN was serious about patent trolls, we would have our answers by now. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4927832

  • by M8R-fhlcjm on 12/19/12, 11:13 PM

    what exactly have Cuban or Minecraft innovated?

  • by M8R-fhlcjm on 12/19/12, 11:08 PM

    You won't be able to create an exception for software not to be patentable. It's over, get used to it and move on.