Possible threat to MUDs, Java, Web browsers, etc
John Pierce
I know various people are working on handling MUDs via web browsers. Java
(or something similar) , Netscape's planned support for Java and Director,
and various related things (e.g., VRML, embedded MPEG-2 support) are among
the best current and near-future tools for attempting to develop public
domain, fully interactive graphical MUDs. The following may well represent
a threat to developers attempting to use such tools if the patent is truly
as broad as the article states.
-- John W Pierce, Chem & Biochem, UC San Diego
jpi...@ucsd.edu
------------------------ forwarded article ------------------------------------
EOLAS ACQUIRES COMMERCIAL RIGHTS TO KEY WORLD WIDE WEB PATENT
8/21/95 CHICAGO: Eolas Technologies Inc. announced today that it has
completed a licensing agreement with the University of California for the
exclusive rights to a pending patent covering the use of embedded program
objects, or "applets," within World Wide Web documents.
Also covered is the use of any algorithm which implements dynamic
bi-directional communications between Web browsers and external applications.
This development will have a major impact on the ability of Internet content
providers to exploit the expanding interactive capabilities of the Web to
gain advantage in the highly competitive online market.
Currently, various combinations of embedded applets and software development
APIs (application development interfaces) are major features of Web browsers
from Netscape, Spyglass, Microsoft, AOL/Navisoft, NeXT, and Sun Microsystems
(especially Sun's new Java language. A quote from the current Forbes ASAP
states "Browsers and servers may come and go, but Sun's breakthrough Java
language, OR SOMETHING LIKE IT, will be the key to a truly interactive
Internet..."). Talks have been going on for several months between Eolas
and several of these companies regarding both the licensing of the
underlying technology and associated products.
The licensed technology was invented in 1993 by a team led by Eolas CEO, Dr.
Michael Doyle, a UCSF faculty member and past Director of the university's
academic computing center. Prior to joining UCSF, Dr. Doyle was Director of
the Biomedical Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
where he was active in the area of scientific informatics and collaborated
with several members of National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the
birthplace of Mosaic.
According to Dr. Doyle,"We recognized early on that the Web could be
expanded beyond the limits of plain vanilla HTML document browsing to become
an all-encompassing environment for interactive applications. We then
developed an enhanced version of the recently-announced NCSA Mosaic program
that added technology which enabled Web documents to contain
fully-interactive "inline" program objects, called Weblets (by Eolas), which
one could manipulate in place using the enhanced Mosaic program."
The first Weblet created was an interactive 3D medical visualization
application which employed a three-tier distributed object architecture over
the Internet to allow a "farm" of powerful remote computers to generate
images of internal human anatomy in response to the Mosaic user's
interactive commands, all from within Mosaic. This allowed a user with
nothing but a low-end networked workstation and the Eolas browser to
transparently access supercomputer-level power and interactively look inside
an MRI scan of the human body which was embedded within a Web page.
The Eolas technology will soon be available for licensing. Information and
demonstrations are available at the Eolas World Wide Web home page
(http://www.eolas.com). Further information can be obtained by sending
email to in...@eolas.com.
Jennifer Broekman
:The following was forwarded to me today and may be of interest to this group.
:I know various people are working on handling MUDs via web browsers. Java
:(or something similar) , Netscape's planned support for Java and Director,
:and various related things (e.g., VRML, embedded MPEG-2 support) are among
:the best current and near-future tools for attempting to develop public
:domain, fully interactive graphical MUDs. The following may well represent
:a threat to developers attempting to use such tools if the patent is truly
:as broad as the article states.
I find it difficult to believe that any patent this broad could be
granted, but I'm not a patent lawyer, and the people who've answered
my questions about have said that the (US) PTO has been really bad
about checking to see what the actual implications of software patents
are. The way the article presents it, this patent is like Edison
getting a patent on any method of producing light from electricity.
However, since, the way it's phrased at the beginning, they'd be
claiming to own all cgi scripts, I think it's just hysterical hype by
a company that wants to seem on the cutting edge.
:------------------- forwarded article -------------------------------
:EOLAS ACQUIRES COMMERCIAL RIGHTS TO KEY WORLD WIDE WEB PATENT
:8/21/95 CHICAGO: Eolas Technologies Inc. announced today that it has
:completed a licensing agreement with the University of California for the
:exclusive rights to a pending patent covering the use of embedded program
:objects, or "applets," within World Wide Web documents.
:
:Also covered is the use of any algorithm which implements dynamic
:bi-directional communications between Web browsers and external applications.
-jenneke
--
I *am* family. How could I not have family values?
Only Boys Accepting Feminism Get Kissed Meaningfully -- Geoff Marcy
The only unnatural sexual act is that which you cannot perform. -Alfred Kinsey
broe...@donald.phast.umass.edu | http://donald.phast.umass.edu/gs/jenn.html
Frank Crowell
[...]
: I find it difficult to believe that any patent this broad could be
: granted, but I'm not a patent lawyer, and the people who've answered
: my questions about have said that the (US) PTO has been really bad
: about checking to see what the actual implications of software patents
: are. The way the article presents it, this patent is like Edison
: getting a patent on any method of producing light from electricity.
: However, since, the way it's phrased at the beginning, they'd be
: claiming to own all cgi scripts, I think it's just hysterical hype by
Actually Eolas has already acquired the rights. The fact that
a patent is pending is enough to force any serious internet
developer to talk to Eolas. The issue of the "granting of
a patent" is a separate issue, but the PTO has a history
of granting nutty software patents.
According the Eolas, this issue will not affect the
noncommerical users.
Intellectual property acquistion is big business. Within the
next couple of years, I doubt that anyone will be able to build
any commerical vworld product without negotiating a string of
licenses and releases.
Frank
--
___________________________________________________
Frank Crowell fra...@maddog.com
maddog's studio http://www.maddog.com/
Jennifer Broekman
:Actually Eolas has already acquired the rights. The fact that
:a patent is pending is enough to force any serious internet
:developer to talk to Eolas. The issue of the "granting of
:a patent" is a separate issue, but the PTO has a history
:of granting nutty software patents.
Someone should investigate the PTO if they're really giving out
patents for "any method of doing X". The way I was taught, patents
are to protect specific inventions, not broad ideas...
company account
>Jennifer Broekman (broe...@donald.phast.umass.edu) wrote:
> [...]
>: I find it difficult to believe that any patent this broad could be
>: granted, but I'm not a patent lawyer, and the people who've answered
>: my questions about have said that the (US) PTO has been really bad
>: about checking to see what the actual implications of software patents
>: are. The way the article presents it, this patent is like Edison
>: getting a patent on any method of producing light from electricity.
>: However, since, the way it's phrased at the beginning, they'd be
>: claiming to own all cgi scripts, I think it's just hysterical hype by
>: a company that wants to seem on the cutting edge.
>Actually Eolas has already acquired the rights. The fact that
>a patent is pending is enough to force any serious internet
>developer to talk to Eolas. The issue of the "granting of
>a patent" is a separate issue, but the PTO has a history
>of granting nutty software patents.
>According the Eolas, this issue will not affect the
>noncommerical users.
>Intellectual property acquistion is big business. Within the
>next couple of years, I doubt that anyone will be able to build
>any commerical vworld product without negotiating a string of
>licenses and releases.
If you have an idea that can make lots of $$, you just move the server
to a foreign country that doesn't recognize US patents and have fun.
-McDaniel -- speaking for himself.
Brandon Van every
>Intellectual property acquistion is big business. Within the
>next couple of years, I doubt that anyone will be able to build
>any commerical vworld product without negotiating a string of
>licenses and releases.
>Frank
Well put, Frank. But if the commercial universe is determined to be
this ornery about licenses, perhaps it's time for a freeware coup....
Cheers,
Brandon
--
Brandon J. Van Every | Computer Graphics | The sun attempts
| | to be white,
vane...@rbdc.rbdc.com | C++ UNIX X11 Motif | as white as
http://rbdc.rbdc.com/~vanevery | HTML CGI Perl TCL/Tk | daytime.
Frank Crowell
[...]
: Well put, Frank. But if the commercial universe is determined to be
: this ornery about licenses, perhaps it's time for a freeware coup....
I not sure. It's possible that the freeware age is over.
I would support a Linux-like organization dealing with
vworlds products-- servers, clients, worlds, and agents.
I think that vworlds is too important to be put in the hands
of a few major corporations. Certainly if you watch the business
reports, you see that the majors are busy swallowing each other
or forming "strategic alliances". Just as in this century
countries battled each other for oil, in the 21st century corporations
will battle to control electronic information and entertainment.
If the small providers expect to be around, they will have
to form their own strategic alliances with other small providers.
I see a freeware type organization as a possible mothership
for these independent providers.
Brandon Van every
>Brandon Van every (vane...@rbdc.rbdc.com) wrote:
> [...]
>: Well put, Frank. But if the commercial universe is determined to be
>: this ornery about licenses, perhaps it's time for a freeware coup....
>I not sure. It's possible that the freeware age is over.
What grounds would you have for thinking this? Mabye few people are
interested in doing anything of any value for Macs or Windows anymore,
but I'd say Linux is in its heydey. It gets more and more commercial
attention and press all the time. I'd say the main think it's missing
is a good freeware 3d graphics library. Once it has that, many things
will happen. Such a library is going to come from some quarter Real
Soon Now (tm). And Linux is a real good platform to run VR servers
and MUDs from.
>I would support a Linux-like organization dealing with
>vworlds products-- servers, clients, worlds, and agents.
I think a lot of people would. I think a lot of people find the whole
"resource control" picture to be fairly abhorrent. Sure, a few single
individuals can get rich by hoarding information, but most developers
don't benefit, and societally we end up with Television all over
again.
Brandon Van every
>If you have an idea that can make lots of $$, you just move the server
>to a foreign country that doesn't recognize US patents and have fun.
Which foreign countries might those be? How many of them have a lot
of Internet access? Delays in network speed may be a disadvantage
compared to what US providers can do in the USA, depending on your
app.
Frank Crowell
: >I not sure. It's possible that the freeware age is over.
: What grounds would you have for thinking this? Mabye few people are
: interested in doing anything of any value for Macs or Windows anymore,
: but I'd say Linux is in its heydey. It gets more and more commercial
: attention and press all the time. I'd say the main think it's missing
: is a good freeware 3d graphics library. Once it has that, many things
: will happen. Such a library is going to come from some quarter Real
: Soon Now (tm). And Linux is a real good platform to run VR servers
: and MUDs from.
Well I like and use Linux; that's what maddog.com runs.
What I meant by the "freeware age" is the internet spirit:
where software and access has been free. Free to use,
free to modify, and even free to redistribute. This freeware age,
if not ending, is at least quickly changing.
George Reese
: Brandon Van every (vane...@rbdc.rbdc.com) wrote:
: [...]
: : Well put, Frank. But if the commercial universe is determined to be
: : this ornery about licenses, perhaps it's time for a freeware coup....
: I not sure. It's possible that the freeware age is over.
: I would support a Linux-like organization dealing with
: vworlds products-- servers, clients, worlds, and agents.
I am currently involved in doing all the legal work to create such an
organization. I will post more when the dust has cleared.
--
George Reese (bo...@imaginary.com) http://www.winternet.com/~borg/
phone/fax: (612) 829-5495 ftp://ftp.imaginary.com/users/borg
"No one ever conquered Wyoming from the left or from the right."
-Camper Van Beethoven