From owner-freebsd-chat Wed Jun 21 4:27:12 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mooseriver.com (ip52023.transbay.net [209.133.52.23]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DAE1037BD52 for ; Wed, 21 Jun 2000 04:27:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jgrosch@mooseriver.com) Received: (from jgrosch@localhost) by mooseriver.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id EAA79133; Wed, 21 Jun 2000 04:26:23 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jgrosch) Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 04:26:23 -0700 From: Josef Grosch To: Rahul Siddharthan Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BT patents hyperlinks... Message-ID: <20000621042623.A78879@mooseriver.com> Reply-To: jgrosch@mooseriver.com References: <20000621153448.D21029@physics.iisc.ernet.in> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: <20000621153448.D21029@physics.iisc.ernet.in>; from rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in on Wed, Jun 21, 2000 at 03:34:48PM +0530 Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, Jun 21, 2000 at 03:34:48PM +0530, Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_798000/798475.stm > > They're planning a licensing program for ISP's to use hyperlinks. This issue was thrashed to death a few days ago on Slashdot. The general consensus is that BT does not have a leg to stand on. There are clear examples of previous art which make British Telecoms patent void plus there has been no "vigorous defense" of the patent since the 1989 when the patent was granted. Ted Nelson of the Xanadu project published a paper in the proceedings of the ACM in 1965 which uses the terms "Hypertext" and "Hyperlink" and describes how it works. Nelson gives Vannevar Bush credit for the original concept. Bush published a article in the late 1930's called "As We May Think" which describes the basic concepts. Hopefully the ISPs that receive BTs "invitation" to license the technology will have the balls to tell BT to fuck off. Another example of what a pathetic joke the US patent office has become. Josef -- Josef Grosch | Another day closer to a | FreeBSD 4.0 jgrosch@MooseRiver.com | Micro$oft free world | UNIX for the masses To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message