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<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_news_title">Patently Absurd: Facebook now wants to copyright the words "face", "poke", (?!) "wall" and "book"</span></h1>
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<a id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_authorlab" href="http://www.telecomtv.com/go/?ct=9&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10">TelecomTV One</a>
,
<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_posted">26 March 2012</span> |
</div>
<div class="vidbody"> <p>
<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_Subtitle">Patent
absurdity has surpassed itself with the news that Facebook now wants to
copyright English words that have been in everyday use for hundreds upon
hundreds of years. Martyn Warwick considers a range of other
four-letter words that encapsulate exactly what Facebook can go and do
with itself.</span></p></div>
<p>The patents battleground is now so shrouded by the
fog of war that it is all but impossible to tell what's really
happening. But we do know that madness reigns supreme.<br>
<br>
Offensive actions and defensive actions are simultaneous with, on the
one hand, ICT companies continuing to sue and counter-sue one another
over the alleged misuse of patented technologies and designs whilst, on
the other hand, also being engaged in a mad scramble to get their hands
on as many general and device-specific patents as possible, either by
buying them from other companies or registering just about anything
that, at some unknown time in the future, might one day be used a weapon
to wield against enemies or to futher extend power over users.<br>
<br>
Thus, in the last week, it has transpired that the now struggling former
darling of the stock exchange, AOL, has retained the investment banking
advisory organisation, Evercore, to help it sell sell some 800 patents
as it continues to dispose of the family silver and drifts inexorably
closer to a full-scale fire-sale of its entire business. <br>
<br>
At the same time, in addition to its campaign to trademark commonplace
four-letter words, Facebook, which is now defending a claim that it has
infringed on some Yahoo IPR, has bought 750 patents from IBM as a sort
of hedge against possible further litigation by competitors. <br>
<br>
And so the mad merry-go-round accelerates to the point when, eventually
and inevitably, its riders will be flung of in all directions, in a
welter of arms, egs and lots and lots of money.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, on the other side of the patents fence, Google, the "Don't be
Evil" one has a secured a new patent that will allow mobile devices to
be packed with sensors to record data such as close location,
temperature, ambient and local noise, light levels, the composition of
the atmosphere, humidity and so on - all to help Google's corporate
clients bombard users with ever-more closely targeted ads based on where
they are at any given time. <br>
<br>
In other words, if its raining where you are you'll be deluged with
offers for anything from sou'westers, through to umbrellas, oilskins and
Wellington boots, And if you are in a noisy club a little the worse for
wear, in will come the ads for re-hydration products and hangover
cures.<br>
<br>
Indeed, Google's patent application is explicit on this point. It says,
"Advertisements for air conditioners can be sent to users located at
regions having temperatures above a first threshold, while
advertisements for winter overcoats can be sent to users located at
regions having temperatures below a second threshold."<br>
<br>
The new patent will also let the Cookie Monster search offline as well
as online. Google, already a horrendously voracious collector, collator,
manipulator and seller of information about its myriad users says it
has no current intention to activate the patent, but it'll be there in
the portfolio, ready to be pulled out whenever Google feels the
commercial need further to intrude into the private lives of its
punters.<br>
<br>
In a statement Google says, "We file patent applications on a variety of
ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature
into real products or services, some don't.
</p>
Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications."<br>
<br>
However, Gus Hosein, the executive director of the international
organisation, Privacy International, founded back in 1990 to defend the
individual's right to privacy around the world, says, "This is an
attempt to turn our devices into personal spying devices, just so a
company can try to sell you a coat on a cold day."<br>
<br>
Google's latest patent goes under the blanket title of "Advertising
based on environmental conditions’ and follows on directly from tast
month's controversial changes the Internet company made to what it
laughingly calls its "privacy policy" giving itself the right to "pool"
data it collects form 60 diifferent services including Google Search,
Android phones and Gmail to create "personalised advertising" despite
the fact that such practices are almost certainly illegal in many parts
of the world. <br>
<br>
Already various European data protection authorities are requiring
Google to respond to official concerns about the search engine’s new
privacy policy. France’s National Commission for Computing and Civil
Liberties (CNIL), the primary body representing regulators in Europe,
has written to that nice Mr. Page, Google's chief executive, informing
him that it “deeply regrets that Google did not delay the application of
the new policy" and reiterates that it has “legitimate concerns about
the protection of the personal data of European citizens”.<br>
<br>
The CNIL also says that Google's latest snooping wheeze is in
contravention of the European Data Protection Directive on information
that must be provided to data subjects. It is also worried that by
conflating its privacy policies across different of its services and
then routinely taking information from them, Google is making it
effectively impossible to determine which access rights apply to what
personal data applied to a particular service.<br>
<br>
Google thus has to provide substantive and verifiable answers to 69
questions "reflecting the need for legal clarification of your
[Google's] new privacy policy". Google has until April 5 to respond.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile and elsewhere, Sony has filed to patent a smartphone with
enough powerful sensors embedded in its screen to be able to analyse
fingerprints! The submission says the patent will "allow even a user who
is not familiar with the fingerprint authentication to readily execute
an input manipulation for the fingerprint authentication." The point of
this being what exactly - apart from taking us one more step down the
road to global surveillance of all and sundry and subsequent
totalitarianism?<br>
<br>
Thankfully, a US, Congressional committee is requiring 31 companies,
including Apple, Twitter and four-letter Facebook to provide it with
details of how user data is collected and stored via mobile apps.<br>
<br>
<span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)">As for Facebook's monumental arrogance and hubris, well, it's hard to
know where to start. The company has just slipped a tiny clause into its
latest "user agreement" page in its "Site Governance" section, that
will have the most far-reaching consequences as all users, simply by
logging-on to the Facebook site, will henceforth be deemed to be
agreeing to abide by any and all usage terms that Facebook can now or at
any time in the future decide to impose. One of these is that the word
"book" is now the property of Facebook.</span>