Re:Told to remove blog posts describing patented algorithm
by weirdwonka on Thursday July 08, 2010 @01:16PM
(#1498011)
The reason for that is that people who have capabilities of doing that know that its not a good thing.
The data can be used for re identification attacks against user privacy.
However, now someone must develop the code. It'll take time. When it is done there will only be passing interest in the whole issue. This is interesting enough that it'll get some action on blogs over the next week, but I don't see this becoming a long-term win for the original author. Just Shazam and the blogs.
[1] One example is "How I Got Sued by Facebook". http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2010/04/how-i-go... . It combines elements hackers love: the rights to your information, an underdog, free speech, and an interesting technical problem (indexing all of Facebook). But no public databases of Facebook user data sprung up as a result.