• @Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee
    hexbear
    14
    9 months ago

    The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), S. 2140, would throw out Supreme Court rules that limit patents on abstract ideas. If PERA passes, it will open the floodgates for far more vague and overbroad software patents. It will even allow for a type of patent on human genes that the Supreme Court rightly disallowed in 2013.

    No one should be allowed to take an abstract idea, add generic computer language, and get a patent. And we should never see patents on the genes that naturally occur in human bodies. But if PERA passes, that’s exactly what will happen.

    Patent trolls—companies that have no product or service of their own, but simply make patent infringement demands on others—are a big problem. They’ve cost our economy billions of dollars. For a small company, a patent troll demand letter can be ruinous.

    But we took a big step forward in the fight against patent trolls in 2014, when a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank case, held that you can’t get a patent by adding “on a computer” to an abstract idea.

    This bill by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Sen. Chris removed (D-DE) would also override the Supreme Court ruling that stopped the U.S. Patent Office from issuing patents on human genes. Patenting human genetic material is wrong and should never occur.

    Tell Congress to reject the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act.

  • @makeasnek@lemmy.ml
    hexbear
    12
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    For those who don't know, if you shop on Amazon, you can have a portion of your purchase price go to EFF every time you do. You pay the same price, EFF gets a slice of the pie, and Daddy Bezos loses a few bucks. Edit: Use the affiliate link not the smile link, Amazon stopped the smile program.

      • Can you provide an alternative that isn't a PITA? Amazon is successful because it makes shopping easy, often more secure than shopping elsewhere, and is more ecological than shopping in person. Where else can I get a dozen completely different category of items without checking out 12 times? Should I drive to 12 different places, and burn all that gas, just to spite Amazon? Where can I shop where I can comparison shop between a hundred different brands and options, to get the item I want and not just what the shop owner carries?

        I'm not being facetious; I want an alternative, but there's only so much inconvenience I'll accept.

        • @Retiring@lemmy.ml
          hexbear
          1
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          I just assume you are in the US and i can’t speak for the situation there. Here in the EU there are plenty of options. Sure it’s a bit more expensive sometimes, but often times it’s not.

          And the convenience, I get it. Amazon customer support is unbeatable. From what I hear it is getting worse, though.

          For me in the EU it is possible, but sometimes a struggle. The ideological thing makes it worth it for me, and if there are more and more people that don’t use Amazon (as often), there may be a time when it dies.

          The only items I bought on Amazon since coronavirus hit are a phone charger, some shirts that aren’t available anywhere else and a pedal for a sewing machine.

          So I can’t tell you an alternative the alternative you are looking for, but for me it is a lot of small to large online stores and some offline stores as well. There isn’t quite something as convenient that has virtually everything out there, afaik.

          • Ok, the EU is different. You have - generally speaking - walkable cities and good public transport infrastructure. Most people live in cities, not suburbs, and even your suburbs have decent walkable shopping and good public transport. I'd do less online shopping if I lived in Munich, or London, or Paris, or even the smaller cities.

            Still, there's a lot of stuff you still need to go online for, or settle for whatever your local small shop has. Sometimes the local is acceptable for not having to shop Amazon.

            You're right, things are different in the states. We're trapped in our Suburbia.

  • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
    hexbear
    1
    9 months ago

    So because this is an opturinty to make.money it will pass. Here in America we live by capitlaism. It doesn't matter if the idea is good or bad, just if someone will make money off of it. Since people can make money off this one it will end up passing. The right senators will be bribed and all our lives will be worse