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***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/ *****
Has anyone spoken to Mark or Reid about these concerns? They're pretty
good guys who definitely bought this patent in the defensive (Yahoo,
Friendster, et. al. wanted it). They don't want to limit academic work;
they want to make certain that they don't get sued by their competitors.
I can guarantee you that they didn't even think about how this might limit
academic research.
If there's anything that i can do in terms of communicating with them,
please let me know, as i speak to them fairly regularly. Or drop them a
line via their respective sites - they tend to respond fairly quickly.
danah
On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Martina Morris wrote:
> ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/ *****
>
> In some cases, patents may be held as a defensive measure -- i.e., to
> prevent others from patenting and monopolizing something. If you are the
> patent holder, you are free to allow others unfettered access.
>
> On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, A.J. Rossini wrote:
>
> > ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/ *****
> >
> > That is true in general.
> >
> > However, it is possible to patent a use for an algorithm, and that
> > gets a bit scarier, at least for folks doing data analysis. It's
> > already happened for the analysis of gene expression data as well as
> > for statistical algorithms related to prediction for cancer screening
> > (Steve Skates and/or Mass General Hospital is the holder).
> >
> > One could imagine (hopefully unthinkable) worst case scenario, where
> > the originators of various centrality measures recieved patents on
> > their application to understanding friendship networks (again, have to
> > be "specific"), and used them to block publication in journals which
> > require per-page fees where the articles are required to be mentioned
> > as "advertisements", since there was a payment for publication (not
> > sure if they exist in the social sciences, but they in biology and
> > medicine).
> >
> > Again, I'm stretching a bit to make this e, but you probably can
> > understand the concern.
> >
> > best,
> > -tony
> >
> > Bienenstock Elisa <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> >
> > > ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/ *****
> > >
> > > I remembered one more point my friend made: It is not possible to patent
> > > an algorithm. For that reason I am not sure that we have anything to
> > > worry about.
> >
> > --
> > [log in to unmask] http://www.analytics.washington.edu/
> > Biomedical and Health Informatics University of Washington
> > Biostatistics, SCHARP/HVTN Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
> > UW (Tu/Th/F): 206-616-7630 FAX=206-543-3461 | Voicemail is unreliable
> > FHCRC (M/W): 206-667-7025 FAX=206-667-4812 | use Email
> >
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> >
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