[mythtv-users] Slightly OT - Intel confirm HDCP is cracked

Paul Bender pebender at san.rr.com
Sat Sep 18 00:16:43 UTC 2010


On 9/17/2010 4:19 PM, Brian Wood wrote:
> On Friday, September 17, 2010 05:06:41 pm Michael T. Dean wrote:
>>    On 09/17/2010 05:27 PM, Brian J. Murrell wrote:
>>> Now, what this key will provide is a market for (cheap, since licensing
>>> costs go away)
>>
>> Think you better wait for Intel/DCP, LLC/HDMI Licensing LLC's
>> announcement that they're dropping licensing costs for HDCP/HDMI before
>> you roll out your new devices.  :)
>>
>> IANAL, but I'm pretty sure you have to pay to use the patented
>> technology--whether it's broken or not--until the patent holders tell
>> you otherwise.
>>
>
> Of course, lots of patented devices are made obsolete by technological advances or subsequent discoveries, that doesn't
> mean they are no longer covered by the original patent. I'm sure there are many patents applying to buggy whips which are
> still enforceable.

Be warned, this response is the result of end-of-the-week silliness and 
should not be taken seriously.

While I agree with the sentiment that there exist functionally obsolete 
patents that are still enforceable, I find it difficult to agree with 
the hyperbolic "buggy whips" example.

I doubt that anyone has filed any buggy whip related patents in the last 
50 years. Therefore, even with the (ab)use of submarine patents (which 
the patent office has now attempted to prevent), I doubt that there are 
any enforceable buggy whip patents. This is superficially confirmed by a 
quick search of Google's online patents, which indicated that there have 
been no "buggy whip" patents issued in the last 40 years.


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