At 06:57 AM 7/26/2002, Shobe, Dave wrote:
>A clarification may be in order.
>
>When I saw the phrase "indiscriminate downloading" I thought it meant
>downloading of the program. It is not uncommon for writers of free software
>to want to keep track of, and have some control of, its distribution and how
>it is used.
>
>However, Michael gives another interpretation, that "indiscriminate
>downloading" refers to indiscriminate downloading of patents from web sites.
>
>
>Which is correct? Mr. Ujihara, can you comment?
Sorry to interject, but I hope nobody is playing dumb about what this
really means.
Surely everyone on this list is well aware that the patent offices of the
world that provide online patent images each have terms of service that
forbid massive downloads by any particular user. The patent offices feel
that their servers are intended for use by individuals who are downloading
limited numbers of patents for their own use. The patent offices feel that
users who download images for resale to others, or who download significant
portions of the database (e.g. all patents in a given year) should obtain
the images by other means such as purchasing CD-ROMs of the
images. Somebody quoted the USPTO policy on this point, for example, the
other day in this list.
Mr. Ujihara, the author of GetIPDL, is quite understandably concerned that
if he gives away his software, that some user might abuse the software so
badly (by downloading far too many patent images) that some patent office
might decide to block all future use of GetIPDL at that patent
office. This would harm all the other users of GetIPDL. This is why the
software contains numerous warnings to users that they should not abuse the
patent office image servers by downloading too many images.
Mr. Ujihara is providing this software free of charge. If you don't like
the software, I suggest you ask for your money back and stop using it.
Meanwhile, it is my opinion that we who are all the beneficiaries of the
patent office servers that provide free patent images should all be
grateful to Mr. Ujihara who has clearly tried to minimize the risk that
some user of his software might spoil things for the rest of us.
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