Instead Of Hiring New Patent Examiners, USPTO Producing Propaganda Films
from the this-is-how-they-spend-their-resources? dept
theodp writes “Introduced by USPTO chief Jon Dudas, a new antipiracy film targeting youngsters opens with an apparently troubled young boy whose demons – a tiny pirate on his shoulder – are driving him to download music, at least until hot young pop music star ‘Margot’ springs to life from a poster. Moved by Margot’s tale of how she copyrighted a 9/11-inspired song she wrote for Afghan children as a 2nd-grader, the lad slaps away the pesky pirate, vowing to put an end to his family’s evil downloading ways.” This is what the USPTO is doing with its money, rather than, say, hiring more (and better qualified) patent examiners?
Comments on “Instead Of Hiring New Patent Examiners, USPTO Producing Propaganda Films”
What do you expect?
What do you expect from our government these days? Look at who the choices were in the last election for the executive branch. Two posers from the same Yale secret society.
It’s amazing things haven’t deteriorated further. Oh wait, they have.
must be another Michael Brown in charge there
who wears a blue tie, sits in on conference calls but doesn’t take notes, and “knows what he’s doing.”
Re: must be another Michael Brown in charge there
“Jonny, your doin’ a heck of a job!”
No Subject Given
This just in. Instead of posting news and let the reader form their own opinions like they used to, the new TechBitch website continues to do nothing but complain again and again.
I sure miss the old TechDirt when it was about the news and not the continued bitches of Mike and Co. Why not just rename yourself to http://www.fuckedcompany2.com and get it over with?
Re: No Subject Given
There are like a billion other websites out there. Go read one instead of Techdirt.
I, for one, enjoy the opinions on Techdirt. You may think they’re bitching but they seem a lot more insightful than the press releases I see everywhere else.
Actually, the only bitching I see is in your post.
As far as I can remember Techdirt has always been like this. Thats why I liked it in the first place, and its why I come back. The fact that it hasn’t really changed is something i like about it. Don’t change it.
Re: No Subject Given
Some people don’t have time. It’s a second job to scourge through raw news and come to a thesis.
Re: Re: Review
People are so out of the habit of critical thinking that an opinion different from their own becomes a problem.
Anyway, what a fine film! Margot is definitely tha hot!!! Does Kevin Federline know about her? Hold onto your man, Britney!
And the little bit of kung fu at the end reminds us that this is not coming from a bunch of namby-pamby Demos.
I worry, though, about what happens to little Timmy when he tries to guilt-trip his big brother.
Re: No Subject Given
Well, this is not a “post your news” website like digg or others. It is a “this is our opinion about this story” website. If you do not agree with something that Mike and company write, feel free to post a comment. When I don’t agree with Mike et al, I’ll post a comment to let them know that they are full of crap. But, I also post a comment when I agree with their opinion or position. How Mike et al react is up to them.
Re: No Subject Given
Like they used to? Are you retarded? Don’t you mean, like EVERY other regurgitated news site does? Screw that!
I like TechDirt specifically because Mike and Co’s cynical opinions are in near perfect alignment with mine 90% of the time. Subjects are looked at from a logical point of view and critiqued with intelligence.
If you don’t like the opinions of the writers’ site you are visiting, go to one of the other 294723947293487923798 sites out there until you find one written by someone equally as ignorant as you.
A viewpoint is implicit in the name...
…techdirt, isn’t it?
I’m new to the site, but they if it is NOT an encyclopedic compendium of tech industry news then it will either have the viewpoint (reflecting its audience) of the typical slashdot/register geek or the MS-certified/military/corporate tech guys.
Hackers or whores if you will.
I am unsurprised a site called ‘techdirt’ would have the opinion of this vile waste of tax dollars that it does.
PS) I DO think it rather simple-minded to make the Patent Office freakshow a partisan matter. At least before Clinton they were realistic about their competence, falling many thousands of applications behind because they could not be reviewed. The worst abuses occurred after Clinton addressed the problem by decree…or so I’ve heard.
No Subject Given
I’d love to watch this for a laugh but I’m not downloading RealMedia player ever under any circumstances. RM is the most bloated and intrusive media player ever. RM format is also shit quality. I can’t even attempt to download it and view it with another player because firefox doesn’t support their rtsp:// protocol…
Re: No Subject Given
You can view rtsp:// protocol videos with VLC (http://www.videolan.org).
But don’t bother with this one, it’s shot at about 3 frames per second. Looks like it was produced around 1994.
Good News
…because even a little cartoon pirate could help ward off disasters like Katrina, and the cartoon sounds likely to encourage piracy rather than the opposite (“Global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s.”)
Also this clearly demonstrates, if it were needed, that the people in charge of patents see their job as protecting vested interests. This is something they normally deny vigorously.
Re: Good News
FSM Brother
Wasted Money
Well looking at the video, at least the USPTO didn’t spend much money making it. The CG on the pirate is pretty lame.
Hiring Patent Examiners
Well, I wouldn’t want to be one. First, you’d start at GS-5 or 7 level (depending on your academic achievement) which translates to 33k or 41k per year starting salary.
Given that, even with the pretty decent benefits (13 vacation days + 13 sick days per year to start) most of the time people with the science degrees want to go and earn some real money in the private sector. Way I see it, only one who can get a bump in salary is someone who was a teacher before (I think, not sure on the teacher salaries, but they must be meager).
Re: Hiring Patent Examiners
Actually, you can start out making 55K if you have a 3.0 GPA.
Why is the USPTO doing this?
Is this really the responsibility of the Patent Office? I wasn’t aware that their charter stated they were to worry about piracy. I thought their sole purpose was to approve patents. Plus, piracy is a copyright issue, not a patent issue so this should be handled by the Trademark and Copyright Office (whatever their true title is).
Re: realplayer/quicktime/vlc
Yes realplayer is horrible. But don’t use VLC unless you want EVERY other media player on your computer to not work because it conflicts so badly. I don’t know what they did with VLC to make it so unreliable, but I’ve given up on it.(random BSD’s and programs freezing constantly)
Solutions (google these):
Get RealAlternative
Get QuicktimeAlternative
Get XP Codec Pack
Get Winamp or MediaPlayerClassic
You’ll have no problems and will be able to play every kind of media file on a reliable, quality player.