Didn't you also write a MINSE-like filter to translate Chinese
characters into inline .gifs?
> I'm actually most concerned by the mention of "numerous patents
> pending" at http://www.thirdvoice.com/copyright.htm. Does
> this bother any of you as much as it does me?
Not until you told us about it :)
> Do you have any advice on how to make sure they don't happen to
> patent something as general as third-party Web annotation?
The way crit.org worked was publicly known more than a year ago,
presumably more than a year before they applied for their patents.
Thus the way crit.org worked is not eligible for patenting. However,
you might have to get sued for patent infringement and prove this in
court to get the patent thrown out.
There's a service of the PTO called something like "invention
registration", which costs on the order of $20, which gets your
invention into the databases the examiners use when deciding if a
patent is unoriginal. This may be helpful in preventing the patents
from being issued.
-- <kragen@pobox.com> Kragen Sitaker <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/> According to my medieval text in the seventh century a finalizer raised a dead object named Gorth who infected every computer in Cappidocia ending Roman rule in the region. -- Charles Fiterman on gclist@iecc.com