Kim Dotcom has a patent on 2-step authentication

https://www.google.com/patents/US6078908

by denzil_correa • 13 years ago

64 25 13 years ago

google.com

tracker12• 13 years ago

Trigger cease and desist letters to banks, and online record/movie stores in 5...4...3...2..1 (payback is a bitch)

damncabbage2• 13 years ago

None of this would benefit anyone other than Mr Dotcom.

(Payback to who for what exactly?)

pyre• 13 years ago

The implication is that the tactics used against Kim Dotcom were done so at the behest of Hollywood pressuring the US government to 'do something,' who then in turn leaned on the NZ government to 'do something.' That's the Hollywood part of the comment.

I guess the 'banks' part is because Kim's assets were frozen, but that's not the fault of the banks. There's no need for revenge against them.

dubcanada• 13 years ago

He's had this patent for 13 years, and he hasn't done it yet. Why would he start now?

IvyMike2• 13 years ago

In his twitter feed: "I never sued them. I believe in sharing knowledge & ideas for the good of society. But I might sue them now cause of what the U.S. did to me"

bdcravens2• 13 years ago

Banks ignore. It goes to court. As he's the sole named on the patent, the judge requires his presence in US courtroom. I think it goes without saying that he will never come to the US.

jacques_chester4• 13 years ago

Well it appears on the surface to cover cases where an SMS message is sent to a mobile phone. But it wouldn't cover stuff like having a swipe card + password, or having two passwords etc etc.

Edit: OK, further reading reveals that it's about per-transaction authorisation (eg bank to bank transfers), not authentication. So actually it's quite different from the SMS passcode usecase that Google, Facebook etc are doing.

The equivalent would be getting an SMS with a passcode before sending an email. Not getting it before you log in.

(IANAL, TINLA)

rdl• 13 years ago

Plenty of prior art, though.

__sam• 13 years ago

His twitter account could be of some interest. He seems to primarily considered with the whole MegaUpload thing and is using this patent as evidence of his contributions to tech. (see https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/337358180914982912)

His most recent tweet is him selling this patent: https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/337410056859566080

jacques_chester4• 13 years ago

The problem is that he's spruiking it as two-factor authentication, but the patent itself talks about authorisation.

In the body of the patent itself, authentication is mentioned in passing only:

* That there's an authentication server which knows a password;

* That mobile phones are one channel mentioned in the patent and DES is used in the mobile phone system (at the time) for, among other things, authentication.

* That an authentication server could blacklist a lost identity card.

And that's it.

He's grandstanding.

(IANAL, TINLA)

revelation• 13 years ago

He might have just bought it from someone. A modern L'Hopital, if you will.

(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Bernoulli#L.27H.C3.B4pit...)

zobzu• 13 years ago

thanksfully there's some prior art to 1997, but still. patent system is such a pile of crap :/

denzil_correa2• 13 years ago

For people to understand more on the context of this link posted, "Kim Dotcom accuses Google, Facebook, and Twitter of violating his two-step security patent" [0]. You may also find his Twitter feed interesting [1].

    I never sued them. I believe in sharing knowledge & ideas for the good of society. But I     
    might sue them now cause of what the U.S. did to me


    Google, Facebook, Twitter, I ask you for help. We are all in the same DMCA boat. Use my 
    patent for free. But please help funding my defense.

[0] http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/22/4357500/kim-dotcom-claims-...

[1] https://twitter.com/KimDotcom

bdcravens2• 13 years ago

Patent for free if they fund his defense? Pretty sure that's not my definition of "free"

netshroud• 13 years ago

One dose of extortion coming right up!

Nux• 13 years ago

He's a humanist!

fmax30• 13 years ago

Hmm I am pretty sure that he can sell this patent to a patent troll , which could in effect sue these companies.

legalbeagle• 13 years ago

He has effectively announced that he won't enforce the patent and he has apparently not attempted to do so in all these years. The patent means nothing (except that it could serve as prior art to defeat a subsequent patent claim).

Kim Dotcom has a patent on 2-step authentication

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