What if you were to add an extra step, like say opening the scan in an image editor and adding the most subtle watermark or something - would that bypass the legal minefield? Could this process be automated?
How is something like this even patentable it boggles the mind!
The reason the online education movement is getting so much attention is because it is targeting a huge need of society that's been neglected for decades, if not centuries -- the needs of the adult learner.
Some say the college "experience" can't be replicated online and they're probably right, but of what use is that to the person who can't afford the luxury of going to office hours or throwing around the football in the quad between classes because he has a full time job and a family to feed.
Nitpick much? If he's grossing twice as much as he did last year, then he doubled his salary regardless of what taxes him or his past employer were required to pay in a given year.
This article was chock full of hyperbole without a single iota of stastical number crunching. I suffered the entire article - because I'm a canuck - and I cannot for the life of me understand the point of this article.
I have to think that as the generations that were brought up on the open web become older and take over the high positions in government and justice, we will eventually see patent trolling become harder and harder to pull off. I can clearly see the economic dangers of certain software patents whereas older folks like my mom and dad god bless em probably wouldn't.
I can't see anyone born after 1980 ever agreeing to award or honour a patent on "the interactive web" or "transferring data over a network". I mean -- really? It defies logic.
In the spirit of this article, I would like to point out something broken with pg's essays (which are otherwise excellent) -- the footnotes should appear in the right margin beside the paragraphs that reference them. Its unlikely a reader will continuously scroll up and down to read them, and by the time the end of the article is reached they have lost all context. The essays on grantland.com are a good example of this done well.