Scripting News: Patents meltdown

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Patents meltdown

Fascinating article about patents in today's NY Times.

Going to Europe was great for creativity. With much of the UserLand mess settled, I've been having thoughts about doing more products, but then things pop up that remind me that it's not as simple as just creating a product and marketing it, there are always people who show up wanting to take what you created for themselves. More so these days than ever before, likely because my track record for creating wealth for other people keeps getting better.

It may be time to just write a book, and smell the roses. To the extent that I come up with product ideas that excite me, just describe them here so someone else can make them. There might be a limit to how much you can create in one career, because as the parasites become more clever, my energy declines, as does my ambition.

But then articles like this one in the Times come along and make you wonder whether there's any hope for individuals and small companies, for anyone, not just a person like myself.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:51 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

May Jul