Interesting new patents

[WaltC]

They're "socialistic" in the sense that the government apparatus is restricting private, consensual economic activity. While this is not the original meaning of "socialism" a la Proudhon (or perhaps not even the proper current definition) this has been the dominant meaning for quite some time in most of the world.

Similiarly, "liberal" in the Anglophone world (US, UK, CA, AU, etc) signifies something almost diametrically opposite to its referrent during Locke's or even Mill's time.

So..ok...if the government apparatus restricts people from breaking into your home and stealing your silverware, is that also "socialistic" in the sense that you describe? Or is it "socialistic" in the sense that a majority of the population in a given state or nation agrees that this is a proper role for the government and so enacts a social contract to make it so? I rather think the latter is true.

The term "socialism" to me as defined politically simply means that the government redistributes income by taking it from those who earn more income and giving it to those who earn less income on an *involuntary* basis.

I am completely against computer hardware and software patents as they are currently constituted in the US and applied. I do however wholeheartedly endorse copyrights of computer hardware and software which deal in exact schematics and source code. Patents cover general concepts and as such I think are wholly unsuited to computer technology--as what should be protected is the *specific* device or program itself as opposed to the general concepts they may embody. In the US, lawyers love patents precisely because they are so general that they can be made to cover almost anything. Patents are a lawyer's friends but frankly are a bane to innovation and devolpment, imo.

 

[AndrewM]

Well, depth cube maps are mentioned in the ARB_depth_texture extension spec, which was written half a year before this patent was submitted. However, one could argue that it does not describe calculating the depth compare value from the 3d texture coordinates. With 2d depth maps you use the third coordinate as depth compare value directly.

Oh, who do you think would have helped write ARB_depth_texture?