#$@&ing Patent Trolls

[IanDanKilmaster]

The abuse of civil lawsuits in the United States continues to go on unpenalized, now more commonly in the form of companies known as patent trolls (yes, like a message board troll, only with patents instead of message boards).

I'm mad because I just noticed this headline while I was looking through my gmail...
which references this story from Reuters...
which is only the latest in long list of recent patent troll suits.

Will somebody please tell me why this bullsh*t is allowed to continue?  Why?!  WHY?!  Why the hell is there in any court in the United States that would take this case, or any other case with a patent troll, seriously.  I'd say it's because companies like M$ and Apple haven't put their collective feet down when dealing with punks like this.  It would appear they would rather get out their checkbooks and pay the problem away, instead taking a perfectly legitimate stance against them and showing them that they can't get away with this.  C'mon, Novell was able to beat SCO, why don't other companies man-up and do the same?  Instead of signing agreements and making payments to hope and pray the problems go away, why not take a definitive stance against this lunacy?

I'm sorry guys, stuff like this just burns my ass.

[CaptBrenden]

-_- as much as I want to be a cop, I loose all respect for the "justice" system once it passes the police level.  Common sence does not apply to the legal world apperently and frivilus lawsuits arnt thrown out.  Its a travesty but alas, I have no thoughts how to fix it.

[IanDanKilmaster]

Well really there's nothing that can be done on a federal or state level, but we can always hope for more judges with better... judgment.

[Bella]

This is why America has more lawyers than any other country People can sue over just about anything or everything : /

But ultimately, the companies being sued probably just want to make it go away ASAP. So instead of having a "backbone", they just pay them off.

I guess Novell was an exception, however.

[CaptBrenden]

Well, in the long run, its cheaper to pay them off. Even wining a lawsuit is expensive, and paying them off is cutting expenses.  Its capitalizum at work. But as you said, it is taken as a sign of weakness and draws more out of the wood work to do the same.  In the long run its probobly more costly not to fight them, but "paid huge legal fees to show them a lesson" doesnt make for a good report to the finance department.

[IanDanKilmaster]

Even from a purely long-term financial standpoint, I can't say it makes sense.  Now I do realize this is why the companies would rather pay them off because actually duking it out with these jackasses could take forever and be quite costly.  Yet at the same time, not standing up to these bastards is going to produce more copycats who think they can get away with it too (and sadly, probably will), which will end up in more payouts and may end up costing more in the much longer run.  The way I see it, these trolls are halting the march of progress and the cost of not fighting them is far greater than that of going to the mattresses with them.

[CaptBrenden]

<_< >_> maybe we should just cut off a horses head and put it in their bed...

[IanDanKilmaster]

<_< >_> maybe we should just cut off a horses head and put it in their bed...

Well, let's just try it and hope nobody from PETA hears about this ^_~, jk.

[NejinOniwa]

.....and that's how the story of "Why I Love Living In A Country Where Law Is Subordinated To Common Sense And The Jante Law And Nobody Even Cares About It, Aka Sweden" goes.

[IanDanKilmaster]

You know, Sweden is starting to sound better and better... you got a brochure, bro?

Seriously though, it's stuff like this that really makes me wonder if I should continue to hold out hope that my great country will ever free itself from the reign of the dysgenics...

[NejinOniwa]

Desho? .w.
Unfortunately I don't have a brochure, but having been in both USA and here I think we can play a little game of "Spot the Differences"!

1. Justice, Law & Order
USA - Overzealous jury-based courts with little to no "case moral" at all. Effective and fast, but not always the most accurate.
Police force has much power, and very little restrictions on how they're allowed to act. Well-budgeted in most places.

Sweden - Somewhat old-fashioned courts with judges that have seen many decades on the job. "Case moral" varies between judges, but is normally on an acceptable level - with the exception of the Department of Migration, which since the insane rush of refugees from the Iraq war fleeing to Sweden (more than 25% of the total, i think, and more than double the amount of the whole rest of the EU together); they seem to be deporting refugees for full sails, and even hold parties for it afterwards (TRUE!). Worth of note is that the system is considerably slow, often.
The police force is living on a not-so-entirely well-fed budget, and have much restrictions on their actions. The system in itself is also lax is many places, with many loopholes in the lawbook.

2. Commoners, Rights and Standards
USA - There are wide gaps between the rich and the poor, and homeless people are as usual as the rats in the NY subway. As emphasized by mr. Moore's recent film 'Sicko', the health insurance companies aren't the most well-willing either - and there's not much sharing of anything in the land of the free, digital property least of all. Also, guns are a thing for every man's pocket and locker, while college education for your kids is often a big dream with small hope.

Sweden - Wielding an old, heavy tax ax, Sweden has little distance between its highest and its lowest. One problem is underemployment, though, and especially among young people - since the education standard is extremely high in Sweden, the companies generally employ as few as possible to keep their costs at bay. The extremely high education standard is due to the extreme luxury of all non-private school education (and there's not many of them) being cost-free and tax-paid, even up to college/university level.
Sharing of digital property as well as physical is commonplace for any Swede - with the latter supported by the ancient law of Allemansrätten (although it didn't actually become codified in the lawbook until 1994), giving commoners right to camp basically anywhere, hunt during the right seasons, use the forest for all they want (sorta) and the such; and the former being another adaption of the above, with frivolous copying, sharing and downloading being commonplace for people of all ages, although mostly practiced by the youth.
Guns, though aren't very usual. There is a lot of paperwork and licensing needed, and they aren't very easy to come by either. Most usual are the "Moosebouncers", the hunting rifles of the more northern-living swedes. An interesting note would be, though, that during a recent campaign where the police offered to anonymously collect unlicensed guns, all sorts of wicked things were handed in - among them machineguns, combat rifles, SMGs, old-fashion cannons and lastly, a damn heavy artillery launcher and an anti-air gun. Now how the hell did he even get that thing to the station?



I might add more to this later. Why the hell did I write so much?

[C-Chan]

Not sure, but you REALLY make me want to visit an IKEA store now!  ^v^

*squeals with delight, and Googles for national anthem of sweden*

<__<

...

>__>

.....

*also quickly looks up average height for Swedish women*

^u^

As far as the Patent thing goes, IDK-san's already covered just about everything I would've said myself.  The day you remove the flagrant monetary incentive of suing people is the day justice once again takes precedence in these kind of court systems.  Till then, this is all essentially "privatized law" -- and contrary to what a lot of mouthpieces say, Privatization can be just as or even more inefficient and detrimental than the lousy public works its meant to replace.