[LINK] More on OS advertising patents

[Karl Auer]

On Tue, 2009-11-17 at 09:36 +1100, Ivan Trundle wrote:
> Steve Jobs at it again. Same comment as before (they might or might
> not choose to either implement it, or allow others to use it.
> 
> <http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220090265214%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20090265214&RS=DN/20090265214>
> 
> "Among other disclosures, an operating system presents one or more
> advertisements to a user and disables one or more functions while the
> advertisement is being presented. At the end of the advertisement, the
> operating system again enables the function(s). The advertisement can
> be visual or audible. The presentation of the advertisement(s) can be
> made as part of an approach where the user obtains a good or service,
> such as the operating system, for free or at reduced cost."

This just about has to be the precursor to a free version of Windows
doesn't it? I can't see anyone *buying* an OS that interrupted them at
irregular (or even regular) intervals to advertise at them.

But it *would* make sense to try to recoup something from a free version
of Windows7 or whatever. The massive market power of Windows would
probably put such a thing on quite a large number of desktops,
especially after people figured out how to block the ads.

Knowing Microsoft, however, the OS would almost certainly be crippled to
prevent competition with their commercial offerings. The usual thing
would continue to work against the new OS as it does against all MS
offerings - vulnerability to every trojan, virus and exploit going.

The ads - *especially* if they were clickable! - would exacerbate this,
and add a whole new dimension to phishing.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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