MooJohn
join:2005-12-18
Milledgeville, GA
 ·Windstream
| It's ok for automakers, not for anyone else
I find it interesting that automakers routinely buy each other's cars, dissect them, and incorporate what they find into their own vehicles. They're free to copy the features of another maker as long as they find a different way to accomplish it. Did the first car with an electric throttle instead of a cable prevent others from adopting the same technique? Of course not.
That idea doesn't extend to the fuzzy realm of "idea patents." TiVo rolled out their product and that somehow precludes anyone else from offering a product that records to a hard drive, offers automatic recording of certain shows, or anything else their product did. Who would have thought of a "pause" function that resumed play when you un-paused!? At least Dish didn't include those stupid sound effects with each button press!
We don't have one brand of TV, computer, or automobile, so why are we being forced to have only TiVo? As long as they didn't steal the technology required to provide their features, Dish should be free to offer the same abilities in their product.
Why doesn't the first search engine have automatic "dibs" and outlaw every other search engine that came later? After all, they "invented" the idea of searching the WWW and anyone else's attempts still infringe on their idea even if not on their actual work.
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John M - Cranky network guy |
