Who Would Have Thought The NSA Would Be Considered Too Open?
from the who-said-what-now? dept
Last month we had a story about how the NSA patented figuring out where you were based on your IP address. At the time, we noted how strange it was that the NSA would patent such things — because the NSA certainly isn’t known for its “openness,” and half the reason for the patent system is to get these ideas out into the open. Well, it turns out that the NSA is suddenly opening up left and right and trying to patent all sorts of things… only to find themselves stopped by the Department of Defense who has apparently now become more secretive than the NSA. Update: Then again, no. Kevin Poulsen sends us some additional info that suggests the original story is pretty much wrong. It was the NSA that was blocking patents (and the NSA is part of the DOD). So, um, basically, the whole thing is wrong.
Comments on “Who Would Have Thought The NSA Would Be Considered Too Open?”
Typical
This is expected since half of NSA is the Central Security Service. The Central Security Service is comprised of various Service Cryptologic Elements of the Department of Defense. The NSA side is Civilian… DoD is CSS. That’s why all NSA policies state, ” NSA/CSS “.
Cryptic yet amusing...
This whole story seems cryptic yet amusing. It all has to do, I’m sure, with the mix up in the intel field with the sharing of intelligence between the communities. I’m sure there are some things some people won’t want to share with other people. That’s part of life not just the intelligence field.