first truthiness wasn't, and now neither is interestingness

[Darren Dirt]

patent for "interestingness" -- thanks to SlashDot for exposing how greedy the suits at Flickr apparently are...



"plasmoidia" hit the nail on the head -- the patent info. is far too vague!

But if they patent it...

by plasmoidia (935911) on Wednesday November 08, @10:06AM (#16767815)
...are they not supposed to describe in detail how it works? Part of how "Interestingness" works is that no one knows exactly how it is determined, so that it is difficult for someone to exploit the system. Also, the exact combination of inputs changes regularly to keep things... um, interesting. Is it really enough for them to loosely describe a system where they automatically determine a rating from a collection of inputs to get a patent? And if so, should it be? It seems just about anything can get a patent now, which is really a shame. I think the patent system could work just fine if it were managed properly, but in its current state, it certainly seems like it is hurting more than helping innovation...