@Elizafox "But this is the rent we seek! How dare that dumb SCOTUS remove our systemic inefficiency!"

I get that they're going to have to generate worth for a living now, and this does not break my heart one bit. 😀

@tek Gasp, shock.

@Elizafox *does a happy dance and buys a round for the house"

@tek I'm hoping one day software patents are invalidated too.

I strongly suspect they're kept up by companies with weak or no actual products and patent attorneys.

The theoretical basis for software patents isn't particularly strong (though copyright is).

I mean, someone basically patented the link list, for God's sake.

@tek *linked

dammit

@Elizafox Software patents are utter bullshit. I have never, ever, not once, thought "I wish I knew how to do X. I know, I'll look in the patent database!" They only exist to publish co-inventors.

@Elizafox @tek There's always money to be made from disgruntled former employees taking out their grudges in the courtroom

@plsburydoughboy http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2017/05/30/patent-exhaustion-supreme-court-industry-reaction-impression-products-v-lexmark/id=83822/ http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2017/05/30/supreme-court-lexmark-sales-exhausted-patent-rights/id=83824/ for starters.

@viciousviscosity Here's the EFF's take: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/supreme-court-victory-right-tinker-printer-cartridge-case

@ElectricMink Indeed!

@tek

This joins the two court rulings today that helped incrementally advance trans rights as well, making for a pretty decent day.

@ElectricMink I see this one: https://thinkprogress.org/transgender-win-wisconsin-542c6fea92f8 . What's the other?

@tek

ADA covers gender dysphoria:
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/federal-judge-rules-that-transgender-19238/

@tek

*and* gay conversion therapy ban upheld!

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-05-01/us-top-court-rejects-gay-conversion-therapy-ban-challenge

@ElectricMink Oh, outstanding!

@tek

Cool, no? :)

@ElectricMink Very! I've been explaining to my kids that while some things are very goofy right now, on other fronts we're making a lot of progress. There's good news and hope to be found!

@tek

Another area for hope right now - the push for single payer health insurance is gaining headway, not just in California, but states like Nevada are starting to make "single payer" noises.

@ElectricMink I think it's inevitable at this point. My company ran a lot of "what if" articles showing what would happen to prices under Trumpcare and it's not pretty.

@tek

The only good thing about the AHCA is if it becomes the law of the land, there's going to be a *lot* of anger directed at the people who passed it....might finally be the straw the breaks conservatism's back.

@ElectricMink I think you're right. I _hope_ there'd be a "oh shit this is exactly what they promised us they'd do, how could we have known!" moment.

@tek

Yeah, here's hoping.

@ElectricMink And I admit a certain amount of schadenfreude that the people hurt most are the ones most likely to have voted for Trumpcare's proponents. I know this is bad and I shouldn't feel this way, but I do.

"Haha, we'll teach those West Coasters a lesson! Wait, what do you mean 'black lung' is a preexisting condition?"

@tek

Anytime I start feeling a little schadenfraude about that, I suddenly remember *I* have a pre-existing condition that's already resulted in over half a million dollars being dumped into my chest and will, over the remainder of my life, cost hundreds of thousands more in the best case scenario. If I ever lose insurance, I'm hosed, big time.

@ElectricMink Yeah, that's terrible and things like that temper my gloating. I don't want anyone to go through that, even if I disagree with them. But a small part of me thinks that if someone brings around the situation where it's going to happen, I hope they're the one it happens to.

@tek

I hear you.

@maiyannah @sungo I wish that were the case here. I hope that's revisited soon.

@sungo @maiyannah I honestly have know idea what he wants. As much as he's pro-corporate, he hates left coast liberals and I'm sure he'd love to "punish" California by removing some IP protections.

@maiyannah @sungo I'm pretty OK with most of copyright law (except the "nonexpiring" insanity), and trademark law is A-OK with me. But our patent system is just barking mad.

@maiyannah @sungo Definitely. Screw the mouse - Disney died 51 years ago.

@tek @maiyannah @sungo Copyright, etc was supposed to be for a *limited* time. But "limited" was never defined. You are supposed to profit to pay you for your work, but then expire so you are motivated to create more limited time income. Not this forever crap.

@tek @maiyannah @sungo I haven't read it lately, but corps got a longer treatment I thought.

@tek @maiyannah @sungo So 70 years after death?

@sungo @tek @maiyannah Disney made it's money on public domain stories and they don't want anyone else getting the same "fair" treatment.

@sungo @tek @maiyannah @Patrickme honestly, everyone did before Disney. The Victorians would adapt everything and back again, across all available mediums.

And Hollywood was created because they wanted to avoid copyright from the east coast, so they went as far as to the other end of the continent so they couldn't be prosecuted, and those studios turned into Hollywood!

@sungo @tek @maiyannah why should copyright be inheritable? It's to protect the author and author alone, isn't it??