HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

URL: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sG9UMMq2dz4 (Austin Myers)

URL: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxcc3SM_KA (John Olivier)

Above two YouTube videos I’ve been passing around in regard to sometimes peculiar nature of patents law in US and in particular that of eastern district of TX.

https://youtu.be/3bxcc3SM_KA?t=479

John Oliver did a great segment on it a while back:

https://youtu.be/3bxcc3SM_KA

He has already covered it once: https://youtu.be/3bxcc3SM_KA?t=96

So blatant. Who is responsible for that site? Local chamber of commerce?

Here is a humorous view by John Oliver, of nearby (60 miles) Marshall, TX, another venue for patent trolls https://youtu.be/3bxcc3SM_KA?t=429

⬐ glitcher

The site has a list of sponsors:

http://tyler4tech.com/sponsors.html

⬐ justinclift

_ugh_ Juniper Networks is on that list.

Maybe we need start avoiding their products. :(

I don't think it's a coincidence there is that there is a ice skating rink right in front of the courthouse in Marshall, Texas with giant Samsung logos all over it (relevant John Oliver clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxcc3SM_KA#t=7m53s) .

This is also subject in this piece with John Oliver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxcc3SM_KA

⬐ throwawaykf05

I think that was more about trolls rather than big company shenanigans. In any case there are some errors in that video that I pointed out in a previous comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9442161

They got a special mention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bxcc3SM_KA so they must have a website! Good episode by the way.

⬐ throwawaykf05

While that was entertaining and accurate at a high level, John Oliver repeats the same mistakes other media outlets make regarding the finer points of this issue:

1. He references the roundly debunked "Patent Trolls cost X trillion dollars" study and accepts it as fact.

2. He calls ED Texas "plaintiff friendly", which it hasn't been for a while (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1597919) - these days it's popular because of other factors.

3. He shows a video clip of that M-CAM guy, who's famous for claiming there's a "patent on toast" (there's no such thing) in that NPR episode on patent trolls. Which, BTW, had journalism worse than this clip. M-CAM is a laughingstock of the IP licensing world as they appear to have no idea how patents really work.

4. The whole "trial lawyers killed patent reform" thing is a red herring if you just stop a second to think about it. As Oliver himself says a few minutes earlier, the whole patent troll business model is avoiding trials by settling for less than the cost of a lawsuit. In fact 97% of patent lawsuits, patent troll or otherwise, settle without trial. Statistically, trial lawyers have very little skin in the game. I don't know what really killed this patent reform bill (my guess is the pharma lobby), but I'm really curious why people decided to blame the trial lawyers.

⬐ Paul_S

Video not available in my country. Would be more ironic if the segment was about distribution laws.

⬐ Zecc

Sometimes rewriting the URL helps. See if this works for you:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/3bxcc3SM_KA

⬐ Paul_S

Nope, that only works for bypassing the requirement to login for age restricted videos.

⬐ brohee

It's not. It's pretty informative on patent trolls, with people like the Rackspace general counsel being interviewed and calling it an extortion game.

⬐ DyslexicAtheist

try proxtube add-on. it tries IP's from various countries until it finds one that works

EDIT: https://proxtube.com/

⬐ Inufu

https://vid.me/65Qw

⬐ biehl

Interesting - what country are you in? It is available in Denmark.

⬐ denzil_correa

Try Hola unblocker

⬐ captn3m0

Blocked in 4 countries: AU GB IM JE. [0]

Someone posted this tool for the last John Oliver video (Snowden's Interview). Some more digging finds that:

>Apparently Foxtel has the rights to the show in Australia, so the clips get region-restricted there. The show airs on Sky Atlantic in the UK, but the YouTube clips are unrestricted there after the show airs [1]

[0]: http://polsy.org.uk/stuff/ytrestrict.cgi?ytid=https%3A%2F%2F...

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2z7pu7/last_week_to...

⬐ mpercy

John does a good job of explaining the difference between software patents and traditional hardware patents to the layperson. He notes that while hardware patents are usually very specific, software patents can be so general as to cover ideas that the patent holder "had never even dreamed of". He also strongly implies that the US Innovation Act <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation_Act>, after being passed by the House, was killed in the Senate by lobbyists representing trial lawyers.