Re: [OpenVerse] someone patented avatar chat

["W. Kent Starr" <elderburn@mindspring.com>]

On Thursday 26 April 2001 07:45, Dave Gale wrote:
> Check out the story below. Looks like worlds has patented avatar chat.
> Could this be the end of OpenVerse?
>

(1) as pointed out by joshua k, World's patent specifically references a 3d 
computer generated graphical environment _and_ a first person client 
perspective; OpenVerse is 2d _and_ third-person perspective.

(2) US patent examiners are notoriously for being able to ferret out every 
detail of a tree while still having no concept of what a forest is. British 
Telecom claims to have a patent on 'hyperlinking'. Nobody is really worrying 
about that (obviously). Unisys, as we all know, claims a patent on the LZW 
compression algorithm; this probably more directly affects OV than does the 
World's patent at the moment, although, again, very few (other then software 
developers) seem to be concerned about .gif patent infringement and, other 
than licensing the more exposed graphics software developers like Adobe and 
Jasc, Unisys does not appear at the moment to be overly aggressive in action 
(although they are in 'talk').

(3) as Doc Searls, Christopher Locke, et al point out in "the cluetrain 
manifesto" ( http://www.cluetrain.com ) the 'revolution' is underway and 'we' 
have already won. It just remains for the 'clueless' clinging to the 
'business_as_usual' model to either see the light and get with the program, 
or wither away and die. 

(4)Finally, in the first chapter of the above book, Locke writes "Without 
play and knowledge in equal measure, they [cultures] begin to die. People get 
gloomy, anxious and depressed. Eventually, the guns come out." 

The point Locke is making is that people _need_ interactive "play". The point 
I am making is that  virtual world environments provide these "play" 
opportunities in great measure. Where creativity within these becomes stifled 
do to corporate "ownership" (which extends to control) "play" value is 
diminished. To the extent that access becomes cost prohibitive or 
non-existent (er, red heads who part their hair on the right are not 
permitted on World's controlled servers any longer) the "play" value becomes 
non-existent. If it continues in the vein of such things as the World's 
patent on 3d client/server avatar chat, the US Patent office may soon become 
recognized as a socially destructive force; hopefully, for everyone's sake, 
before the "guns come out" en masse.

Regards.

Kent Starr
aka Wyzzrd (Wizzard)
elderburn@mindspring.com  
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe to the OpenVerse mailing list send a message
to openverse-request@openverse.org with the following word
in the BODY of the message.

UNSUBSCRIBE

If you need assistance from a human, email cruise@openverse.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------