Re: Are ideas in books intellectually protected?

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 13:49:06 +0000, Cynic <cynic_999@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On 10 Feb 2006 02:42:41 -0800, "AN O'Nymous"
<a_n_onymous80@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Is all written material is automatically subject to copyright unless
you sign a disclaimer saying otherwise? Are ideas on how to do things
that are written in books protected?

If Marx was alive, or Arthur C. Clark were so inclined, could they have
claimed royalties for their ideas of Socialism & a self aware AI,
respectively? What about authors of books suggesting how to improve
one's company - are they entitled to royalties if their readers adopt
their methods successfully?

No. Copyright does *not* protect an idea. They would have had to
take out a patent in order to do that.

The best example of an idea that Arthur C. Clark had that was
subsequently developed was his insight into the fact that artificial
satellites could be placed in an Earth-stationary orbit, and the
usefullness of that fact for communications and other things. He
described his idea in a work of fiction when the concept of space
vehicles was pretty much fiction, so it was a greater insight than
might be thought of today now that artificial satellites are
commonplace.

ISTR he first put forward the theory in an article in Wireless world
and a quick search pulls up
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/clarke/ww2.asp

I think he tried to patent the idea in the 70s but was refused on two
counts. 1) The technology didn't exist at the time he wrote the
article and 2) publishing without seeking a patent lost him the right
to patent. This last bit is a hazy bit of memory and I could be wrong.

Tried a search and this was the best I could find.
http://www.byte.com/art/9711/sec5/art4.htm
"According to B YTE senior contributing editor Jerry Pournelle, Clarke
never got the patent he sought for figuring it out.) Most of today's
satellites are GEOs, as are planned broadband systems such as Hughes'
Spaceway and Loral's Cyberstar."


The story was a rather dark one IIRC, and showed how foreign powers
would be able to transmit propaganda directly into the living-rooms of
their target population with no easy way to block it or jam it. He
saw it as a bad thing and failed to see the flip side - that access to
foreign channels means that is it not so easy for your *own*
government to pull the wool over your eyes. Ironically, the reason
for his paranoia in that story was probably due to the cold-war
situation that was developing and the propaganda from his own
government that was encouraging it.

I was a spotty teenager when I first read it, and one of his concepts
in the story was that in order to get people interested in watching
the foreign satellite TV transmissions, the sinister power (Russia)
would piggy-back the proaganda message in between explicit pornography
that was banned in the target country (USA). I remember thinking,
"Wow, I hope it happens soon!"

The equatorial orbit that is it is needed to place geostationary
satellites is known as the "Clark belt" because of that story.

The satellite receiver I have in my home can access over 5000
different TV channels that originate in countries all over the World
and beamed through several geostationary satellites. Many of those
channels are specifically designed to influence people in other
countries, and are broadcast in the language of the target countries
rather than the originating country.

The UK has opted to flood the domestic market with a satellite TV
system that is able to receive only selected satellite channels rather
than having access to all the many available channels. The the most
common motivation for people in the UK to get equipment that can
receive a wider selection of channels is to receive hardcore
pornography that is not available on Sky TV.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Are ideas in books intellectually protected?
    ... If Marx was alive, or Arthur C. Clark were so inclined, could they have ... satellites could be placed in an Earth-stationary orbit, ... different TV channels that originate in countries all over the World ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Euro GPS system
    ... design of the unit does not have dedicated channels like most earlier ... Rather it has a tracking engine that tracks whatever it is told to ... captures a snapshot of the streams of 1s and 0s in a buffer. ... satellites it processes the buffer 8 times, ...
    (sci.geo.satellite-nav)
  • Re: Lidl Satellite reciever etc. from 28th August
    ... The SL 65 receiver, as well as being supplied with a twin LNB ... handset - you'll get all that channels information, ... Are you sure it's the type of LNB that gives access to two satellites? ...
    (uk.tech.digital-tv)
  • Re: Why are some GPSs so much better than others?
    ... satellites about 90% of time and that's not counting the two WAAS ... > the receiver can switch between the satellites rapidly ... > 2) The WAAS satellites share channels with the GPS satellites. ... > additional navigation signals, differential corrections ...
    (sci.geo.satellite-nav)
  • Re: Things we remember...
    ... Three channels is enough to give you latitude and longitude. ... unit can only reliably see three satellites, ... GPS are pretty crummy. ... All of the satellites being above the horizon doesn't hurt altitude ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
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