Computer Ethics, Fall 2020, Thursdays
November 12
Class 12 Readings
By this point you should have read all of chapters 2, 3 and 4.
You should begin reading Baase Chapter 5 on Crime.
Essentially every software implementation idea is a
straightforward application of standard software engineering. But software
ideas can typically be patented: a new way to do
something, or a feature nobody thought of before, is harder to write off
as intrinsically straightforward.
Examples:
- XOR-mouse patent (we were discussing this last
week)
- natural-order-recalculation patent for spreadsheets
- RSA encryption
- Unix setuid bit on executable files, for privilege escalation
- BT hyperlink patent (example of a bad patent)
- Steir patent
- E-data patent on a sales kiosk that becomes a home computer
- LZW compression
- MP3 audio compression
- i4i patent on markup tags
- NTP/Campana patent on wireless email
- Apple slide-to-unlock patent
- various bandwidth-management patents
Many computer ideas are obvious once the appropriate
context is created; for example, once browsers are commonplace, it is
obvious that running applets within browsers is useful, given that running
one program under control of another was already established (MS OLE, etc)
Here are the practical grounds for appealing someone else's patent
- Find prior art, proving someone else had the idea
before the patent filing date
- Show that the patent is obvious by showing it is a straightforward
application of a known algorithm (Flook)
- Show that the patent is obvious by showing it is a straightforward
combination of prior-art ideas (KSR v Teleflex)
- Show that the patent is obvious by showing it represents doing on a
computer a process that was well-known without computers (Alice)
- Show that the patent is "abstract" (difficult, as the standard for
"abstract" is not clear; Bilski)
What about the XOR-mouse patent?
Are these enough to address the claimed drawbacks of software patents?
Patent trolls
Benson / Flook / Diehr
KSR v Teleflex / Bilski / Alice / Heartland v Kraft
Crime
Hacking and the CFAA
Citrin v Nosal
US v Van Buren
Felony cases