iPhone專利流氓攻擊Twitteriffic
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????目前,，大約有40000名開發(fā)者以在蘋果（Apple）應用程序商店（App Store）出售應用為生。上周五,，一家名為Lodsys的美國得克薩斯小公司向其中部分開發(fā)者發(fā)出專利侵權(quán)信函,。Lodsys公司的關(guān)鍵資產(chǎn)似乎是4項包括應用程序內(nèi)部購買（in-app purchases）等在內(nèi)的專利，這些專利被許可使用甚廣,。 ????盡管蘋果已經(jīng)購買了相關(guān)技術(shù)的專利許可,，但Lodsys首席執(zhí)行官馬克?斯莫爾聲稱，所有使用應用程序內(nèi)部購買的開發(fā)者也都應該向Lodsys付費,。 ????此前,，Lodsys威脅將起訴的公司相對都規(guī)模較小、知名度較低,。不過本周二,，Twitterific的共同創(chuàng)始人塔洛斯?崔在Twitter上發(fā)布了一條僅有4個字的消息：“Lodsys盯上Twitterific,?！盩witterific是最流行的Twitter客戶端之一，在蘋果應用商店上被大肆推廣,。 ????此事可能會破環(huán)應用程序商店賴以存在的商業(yè)模式的關(guān)鍵部分,，不過蘋果目前尚未對此事發(fā)表評論。但一條在本周二上午被瘋狂轉(zhuǎn)載的Twitter消息恰如其分的反映了開發(fā)者社區(qū)的情緒,。這條消息是一位荷蘭開發(fā)者發(fā)布的,，具體如下： ????“這個專利體系完全不能保護iPhone免遭瘋狂拷貝，而現(xiàn)在這個體系被用來敲詐其開發(fā)者,?！?/p> ????關(guān)于此次專利糾紛的背景，請參閱弗洛里安?穆勒于周二在FOSS Patent網(wǎng)站上發(fā)表的問答文章,。如想更進一步了解馬克?斯莫爾,，請參閱帕特里克?羅格在相關(guān)網(wǎng)站上發(fā)表的文章。 ????譯者：項航 |
????On Friday, a small Texas company called Lodsys whose key asset seems to be four heavily licensed patents covering, among other things, in-app purchases, began sending patent-infringement letters to a handful of the 40,000 developers trying to make a living selling applications in Apple's (AAPL) crowded App Store. ????Even though Apple has licensed the technologies at issue, Lodsys CEO Mark Small is claiming that every developer that uses them also owes Lodsys a cut. ????So far, the companies threatened with legal action have been relatively small and unknown. But on Tuesday, Talos Tsui, the co-founder of one of the most popular Twitter clients -- one heavily promoted on Apple's own storefront -- announced in a four-word tweet: Twitterific just got Lodsysed. ????Apple has yet to comment on the situation, which threatens to undermine a key aspect of the business model on which the App Store was constructed, but the mood of the developer community was captured by a Dutch developer's quote that was being heavily re-tweeted Tuesday morning: ????"The same patent system that has completely failed to protect the iPhone from being copied wholesale is being used to extort its developers." ????For background on the legal situation, see the Q&A posted Tuesday by FOSS Patent's Florian Mueller. For more on Mark Small, see what Patrick Igoe has dredged up. |
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