RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Wireless networks
It may interest you all to know that under the BromCom (sorry, Frontline Technology) patent, you will now be asked to pay licence fees if your school uses wireless networks to access student data: My favourite quote from
If you want to use the broadest interpretation, then think on this: School receptionist: Good morning, City High, can I help you? Parent (using mobile): Hi, this is Mrs Smith. I was just checking my son is in school. Can you check that for me? School receptionist: Sorry, I can't reveal that information to you unless you can demonstrate you've paid your Frontline licence fee... Of course, if any yuppie types in the 80 ever did that, that would be fine prior art. -----Original Message----- From: Robert J Gautier To: Chris Puttick Cc: 'suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com' Sent: 2/20/02 1:09 PM Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Wireless networks On Wed, 20 Feb 2002, Chris Puttick wrote: their
FAQ is the one about if you use a spreadsheet saved over wireless to
collect > student grades you should pay licence fees... > > See www.frontline-technology.com for more info. If you have good press > contacts, connections with networking companies or lawyer friends, let them > know. I for one do not appreciate being told I can't use a wireless network > (in my house, school, company...) and look at information about students I'm > otherwise legally entitled to without paying someone money.
To really take this seriously, shouldn't any school that might use a WAN to access student records get written assurance from whoever provides its telecoms (e.g. BT, NTL) that its data will never be routed over radio? This is a sad example of an `invention' that simply ignores sound design; it really shouldn't matter how the data is moved. It's as silly as patenting file transfer over ISDN. Bob G
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If you want to use the broadest interpretation, then think on this:
School receptionist: Good morning, City High, can I help you?
Parent (using mobile): Hi, this is Mrs Smith. I was just checking my son is
Dosn't need to be a mobile, a regular cordless phone would do the trick.
in school. Can you check that for me?
School receptionist: Sorry, I can't reveal that information to you unless you can demonstrate you've paid your Frontline licence fee...
Of course, if any yuppie types in the 80 ever did that, that would be fine prior art.
Mobile and cordless phones have existed a lot longer than that. Just not as consumer items. Indeed quite a lot of daft patents involve technology which is decades, in a few cases literally prehistoric. -- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763
participants (2)
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Chris Puttick
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Mark Evans