[sudo-discuss] [Mesh] EFF: Mesh Networking, Good. Overbroad Patents, Bad.

Sat Jun 22 02:24:14 PDT 2013

Page 10.

http://dcip.dtic.mil/TheCIPReportNov2012.pdf

On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 1:22 AM, Jenny Ryan <tunabananas at gmail.com> wrote:

> Which article?
>
> Thanks for share!
>
> Jenny
> http://jennyryan.net
> http://thepyre.org
> http://thevirtualcampfire.org
> http://technomadic.tumblr.com
>
> `~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>  "Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories."
> -Laurie Anderson
>
> "Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
>  -Hannah Arendt
>
> "To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
> -Stéphane Mallarmé
> ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Alcides Gutierrez <alcides888 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I was just reading a document last night that was published last year
>> warning of the possible dangers of mesh networking to surveillance and
>> government scrutiny.
>>
>> Alcides Gutierrez
>> http://e64.us
>> On Jun 21, 2013 11:54 AM, "Eddan Katz" <eddan at clear.net> wrote:
>>
>>>  another legal aspect of the sudo-mesh project is patent busting prior
>>> art research. ...
>>>
>>>
>>> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/mesh-networking-good-overbroad-patents-bad
>>>
>>> JUNE 21, 2013 | BY JULIE SAMUELS<https://www.eff.org/about/staff/julie-samuels>
>>>  Mesh Networking, Good. Overbroad Patents, Bad. Help Us Protect Mesh
>>> Networking.
>>>
>>> Earlier this year, we announced<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/eff-partners-challenge> that
>>> along with the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet
>>> and Society <http://cyberlawclinic.berkman.harvard.edu/>, we were
>>> challenging six patent applications that, if granted, could threaten the
>>> development of 3D printing technology. We asked you<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/join-effs-efforts-keep-3d-printing-open>—the
>>> community—for help, and your input was invaluable. We're still waiting to
>>> hear from the Patent Office on those applications, but our work is not
>>> done. We need your help again, this time to challenge dangerous patent
>>> applications<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/mesh-networking-good-overbroad-patents-bad#prior-art-requests> that
>>> threaten mesh networking technology.
>>>
>>> Mesh networking allows users to form their own networks without a
>>> centralized infrastructure, making them inherently resistant to censorship,
>>> surveillance, and disruption. Given recent revelations<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/response-nsa-we-need-new-church-commission-and-we-need-it-now> showing
>>> widespread surveillance of the phone calls and online activities of
>>> innocent Americans and others around the globe, the development of mesh
>>> networks more important than ever. Governments and commercial actors have
>>> taken advantage of intermediaries as “weak links<https://www.eff.org/free-speech-weak-link>”
>>> in order to censor, surveil, and disrupt communications and social
>>> movements. Already in the United States, cell towers have been deactivated
>>> in response to planned protest<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/08/barts-cell-phone-shutdown-one-year-later>,
>>> while activists in countries such as Egypt<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/egypts-internet-blackout-highlights-danger-weak>,
>>> Libya, and Syria<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/syrian-internet-goes-dark-leaving-questions-and-uncertainty-0> have
>>> suffered massive blackouts that shut down all access from within the
>>> country to the wider Internet. Mesh networking technology can help
>>> activists fight back.
>>>
>>> *Wireless Mesh Networks*
>>>
>>> For more than a decade the open-source community has been developing
>>> networks that use multi-hop connectivity to bypass the current
>>> ISP-dominated model of Internet access. These Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs)
>>> have tremendous potential for enabling the free flow of information without
>>> exposure to censorship and monitoring. Because they lack a central access
>>> point, mesh networks are also harder to take down, as the removal of one
>>> node won’t terminate the entire network. And WMNs, by not relying on
>>> infrastructure provided by ISPs, can provide connectivity in areas where
>>> that infrastructure is inaccessible, damaged, or prohibitively expensive.
>>>
>>> The open source community has developed innovative tools and
>>> applications of mesh networking technology including the B.A.T.M.A.N.
>>> routing protocol developed by Freifunk<http://wiki.freifunk.net/Kategorie:English>,
>>> a system for internet access in remote areas of Afghanistan and Kenya
>>> (FabFi)<http://blog.laptop.org/2011/06/21/olpc-and-fabfi-mesh-networks-bring-internet-to-afghanistan/>,
>>> and community controlled telephone systems in Nigeria, Columbia, Puerto
>>> Rico, South Africa, East Timor, and Brazil (VillageTelco)<http://villagetelco.org/about/>.
>>>  Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain and former FCC chairman Julius
>>> Genachowski recently advocated for the use of mesh networks<http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130430-connected-networks-in-a-crisis> to
>>> provide phone access during times of crisis when mobile networks are
>>> overloaded.
>>>
>>> *The Problem*
>>>
>>> Wireless Mesh Networking is still in its nascent stages, and the
>>> innovations and experimentation of the open source community are playing a
>>> vital role in advancing the technology. However, there has also been
>>> significant proprietary and military interest in the technology, and
>>> companies are seeking patents in many areas of WMN already explored by the
>>> open source community. We unfortunately know what can happen when overbroad
>>> patents get granted—the rise of patent trolls<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/02/deep-dive-software-patents-and-rise-patent-trolls>
>>> , lawsuits that can threaten growing businesses<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/1-800-contacts-buys-patent-squelch-competition>,
>>> and threats that target entire areas of technology<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/help-save-podcasting>.
>>> We don't want to see that happen to mesh networking.
>>>
>>> *This is where you come in!*
>>>
>>> We have identified several patent applications that we believe
>>> particularly threaten the free development of mesh networking technology.
>>> There is a danger that these patents, if granted, will lock up the basic
>>> mesh network infrastructure and restrict advancement of and access to the
>>> technology.
>>>
>>> We have been using the Patent Office’s new Preissuance Submissions
>>> procedure, which gives third parties an opportunity to tell patent
>>> examiners when they think a patent application shouldn't be granted. The
>>> procedure requires those third parties to submit publications predating the
>>> application that prove the ideas in the patent were not novel.
>>>
>>> Which is why we need your help. We are again partnering with Ask Patents<http://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/prior-art-request+pre-grant> so
>>> you can help us identify the best prior art to reign in these applications.
>>> While prior art for *issued* patents must date back many years, these
>>> are recently filed *applications* for which relatively recent
>>> publications may be helpful. Look at each “Request for Prior Art” we post
>>> to learn the exact priority date.
>>>
>>> Working together we can protect the mesh networking community from
>>> overbroad, illegitimate patents that threaten to stifle innovation and
>>> access to technologies that preserve personal freedoms.
>>>
>>> APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENHANCING WIRELESS MESH NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS<http://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/4082/apparatus-and-method-for-enhancing-wireless-mesh-network-communications-patent-a>
>>>
>>> ADAPTING EXTENSIBLE AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOL FOR LAYER 3 MESH NETWORKS<http://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/4086/adapting-extensible-authentication-protocol-for-layer-3-mesh-networks-patent-app>
>>>
>>> MESH NETWORK GATEWAY AND SECURITY SYSTEM<http://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/4087/mesh-network-gateway-and-security-system-patent-application-prior-art-request>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mesh mailing list
>>> mesh at lists.sudoroom.org
>>> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/mesh
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> mesh mailing list
>> mesh at lists.sudoroom.org
>> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/mesh
>>
>>
>

-- 
Alcides Gutierrez
http://e64.us
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