Information Wants to be Free!

Retain your rights to use my work...

[Patents 2 Order]
(Click on thumbnails to view full size images.)


I'm actually a bit miffed by even having to bother with this formality. I put stuff up on my web sites so anyone interested can review and use or ignore it as they see fit. Enjoy it, deride it, or figure out how to make a million dollars with it, there's no warranty or guarantee here, so that's all fine by me.

In fact, when I'm cruising the net, I'm generally pleased to come across a page where someone has snipped some part of my pages and incorporated it into their own. When I'm given credit I try and drop them a note to say thanks. And, even those of you who have taken a bit of my work and pasted it in to yours with not exactly not taking credit for it, (you know who you are, (and so do I...;^)...)), I don't really mind all that much, and won't try and embarrass you by pointing it out.

However, there is one thing that annoys me (a lot), and that is someone using my information to block the work of others. I'm speaking of patents. In the last few years there have been awarded a number of what in my opinion are (somewhat lame) attempts at "submarine" patents in the realm of Tesla Turbines and turbogenerators. If someone were to go into a commercial turbine venture I'd posit these patents are so weak, (many just being rehashes of Tesla's now expired patents, and others with points so specific they are of little practical value), that they would be of no concern. As I see it, these patents are really more a statement about wide spread failings of the USPTO (particularly in ignoring prior art and no longer using the "obvious to one skilled in the art" filter) and the greed of patent attorneys, than about the patent holders. Be that as it may, recently I have come across a couple of patent applications referencing my web pages in their disclosures. And, that I'm not going to just stand by for. To wit:

NO PART OF THE INFORMATION CONTENT AVAILABLE UNDER THE INTERNET LINK:

http://www.stanford.edu/~hydrobay

(HEREAFTER REFERRED TO AS THE "HYDROBAY ARCHIVE") OR AVAILABLE FROM ANY REDIRECTION OR COPY OF THE HYDROBAY ARCHIVE MAY BE USED WITHIN ANY PATENT APPLICATION AND NO PATENTS ARE TO BE ISSUED ON ANY PART OF THE HYDROBAY ARCHIVE OR IDEAS CONTAINED IN THE HYDROBAY ARCHIVE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR: Alan M. Swithenbank.

(And, it's a pretty good bet Stanford University would have something to say about that as well...)

Further, all original text, images, code, mechanical designs, and electronic designs within the hydrobay archive are now released under one or more of the GPL and Creative Commons licenses, and possibly others. Which licenses will be applied to specific elements of the hydrobay archive will be formally expressed as soon as I have time to sort out what works best for which elements.

Also, to make sure there is no question about publication dates, well prior to each future posting of a major content update to the hydrobay archive, the full contents of the archive including the major update content will have already been submitted to a third party secure archive service, such as:

http://www.protectrite.com/

Hopefully that will be sufficient to keep everything here available to anyone, and we can all get back to having fun!

Use it, don't hog it!


AMUSING RELATED ANECDOTE:

Amusing in a minorly annoying sort of way. I took a phone call yesterday (17 December 2008) from someone claiming that they held the copyright on the "Left Hand Rule." Apparently they are associated with some kind of educational service which includes an element containing the "Left Hand Rule," and their material is copyrighted. He wondered what book I copied the "Left Hand Rule" material from for my website. He seemed quite bewildered when I told him I didn't copy it from a book, but, was just expressing what I had learned in some physics class from 25 or more years ago. In fact, he seemed to be having a hard time believing that the "Left Hand Rule" was available anywhere other than from their copyrighted material. I was polite, but, did essentially explain to him just how clueless he really is. He managed to convince himself that it must be only in advanced physics books he hadn't seen, and allowed that my use of the "Left Hand Rule" was legitimate. "Goodbye." Hang up. ROTFLMAO!!

Whatever...certainly has been a source of great amusement for me and a bunch of my friends, and probably most anyone who actually reads this. (He claimed to have attended Stanford...and, I really thought we grew them a bit smarter than that around here...;^)...)

Now, I'm always up for a good joke, even as the butt, particularly if it's a really good one. But, seriously, if you are so completely clueless that you don't understand copyrighting educational material does not mean you then own the basic physical principles underlying that material, please don't waste my time. I've got way more important things to deal with, like picking belly-button lint.


Last updated 18December2008
Alan Swithenbank, alans@cuervo.stanford.edu