Really, I am NOT kidding - IBM is patenting a way to make data degrade on purpose

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ibm-file-degradation-aging-patent,14060.html

Brilliant!! WOW!
Original, "Out - of - the - Box" thinking

So they found a way to remove one of digital media's greatest advantages?

What's next? Pad files with extra 0s so you can only hold a couple pictures on a flash card?

Hold on, I better go patent that.

Apple probably beat you to it

I may be missing something by the way people are reacting, but it sounds like it's just trying to simulate the same aging process that old photos have.

Kind of cool. Pretty pointless, but interesting nonetheless.

well i hope they don't expect to not get sued if or when they sell product that intentionally breaks so that you have to buy more, a certain case against sony comes to mind, unless they put it in the EULA i guess.

It helps to actually read the patent: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20110282838.PGNR.&OS=DN/20110282838RS=DN/20110282838

[0003] When it is desired to print-out an image, for example, of a how a person would look now when only an image of that person at a younger age is available, there are applications that apply known aging characteristics and functions for people such that, given an old photograph, an aging application can modify the image of the person and present an image of that person as he or she would look today. Thus, external applications are available which use algorithms to age for example, images of individuals for government or security purposes. This only ages the image of the person or object, not the photographs themselves. Other applications try to reverse the aging process to see what a document might have said at an earlier point in time. Further, it is well established that aged originals, whether documents or images, are known to add value beyond the intrinsic value of the document itself.

[0004] Moreover, in other applications, for record retention purposes, it is necessary for institutions to save files for a certain period of time, but after the designated time period has elapsed, there is no more need to maintain the files. Typically, in such situations, the files are accessed one-by-one and deleted from a file system since they are unnecessarily taking up valuable storage space

This is basically for better identification and automatic file removal. This is not for actually making files illegible/unusable.

well that certainly is a more informed statement

however, that doesn't mean this won't give others the ability to abuse this. that alone is frightening to me.

Anything can be abused.

It's nothing new and can already be done. The independent claims have to do with the method of aging and tracking aging, nothing else in it is unique.

i stand informed

That certainly helps. The article wasn't very clear at all.

Further, it is well established that aged originals, whether documents or images, are known to add value beyond the intrinsic value of the document itself.

this sounds like a scam to me

Defron says This is basically for better identification and automatic file removal. This is not for actually making files illegible/unusable.

it's file degradation versus removal

from Tom's article : According to IBM, there is a need for a new kind of filing system that "automatically and selectively ages files contained therein such that the files themselves are caused to age with time and are not maintained in their originally stored state." IBM even says that "there is a need to provide such an aging function to apply automatically to all files stored on the filing system without requiring a continuing user monitoring effort."

[censored]! but maybe not :

forum post on Toms sounds funny and everything, but the purpose of this seems obvious to me:
automatically decay your digital purchases (movies, games, music, etc) so that you're forced to double-dip.

Hmm, lines from an article that aren't backed up in the patent, or lines from the patent itself... which am I gonna believe? Real tough call, that one :rolleyes:

The point of file aging is primarily for aging pictures to correlate with the person's current age (which would be the first descriptor I posted -- QUOTED DIRECTLY FROM THE PATENT FILED)

Sensationalism can go away now. Read the actual patent if you want to be informed rather than the eye-and-search-catching headlines that only serve to capture your clicks to increase their viewership and ad revenue (that being Tom's Hardware's Article).

Also, at the end of the day there are more file systems out there than one could count. So even if someone did implement this in a file system, it would be child's play to avoid it.

from the patent :
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates generally to information processing systems and more particularly to a methodology and implementation for providing a file system operable to age files contained therein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Currently it is common practice to scan or digitize documents, books, images and other materials in order to store such materials on a computer system for record retention purposes and for subsequent access and/or print-out. As documents get digitized, they will be scanned and kept as image files that replicate the age of the book when scanned. However, in this instance, the book continues to age, but the digital image does not. The same situation applies to photographs.


.....

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] A method, programmed medium and system are provided for a file system that provides for the aging of information and files stored thereon. Digital data stored on the aging file systems ages appropriately as would normal paper or photographs without the need for an external application. The aging file system uses a number of parameters depending on what type of digital data are stored. For example, parameters like ambient temperature, rate of aging, simulated type of paper or photo paper are selected and may be input to a filing system at configuration time. The system also provides the specification of mount options to specify if a single file system is for a paper, pictures or combinations based on the document "type", i.e. ".doc", ".jpeg", ."gif", etc. The aging file system also creates and stores digital authentication certificates with the digital files, using algorithms to scan the aging factors and create a unique certificate number based on the aged digital information.

...
[0012] Basically, the present disclosure is to have a specific type of file system that is an "Aging File System". Any digital data stored on aging file systems will age appropriately as would normal paper or photographs and since the aging process is accomplished at the system level, there is no need to run individual external applications.


....
[0015] When a copy is retrieved by one of the client devices and printed out, it will exhibit all of the characteristics of the aging process. Thus if a file is retrieved five years after it had been stored on the aging file system 102, a print-out of, for example, the document retrieved will appear as a document that has been exposed to the pre-set conditions for a five year period, i.e. the printed document from the retrieved file will have lightened printing on a darkened or five year aged paper.

Like I said : [censored]!

None of which makes documents unusable/illegible, but provides a VISIBLE INDICATOR for the age of a document, which is a USEFUL piece of information. Not to mention you are completely ignoring the obvious uses for the REAL features this presents, which I quoted (and you so kindly did not)

Viewing this I have to agree that there is the plausibility of misuse of this embedding it into files that shouldn't degrade. As a result people will be forced to "re-purchase" the item in question just like they would if their coffee pot breaks or gets old. Even though companies can do that right now with DRM stuff this seems like they could do it more under the radar. Your stuff breaks they could say "Too Bad" forcing you to re-purchase that software. Hopefully this coding will be used respectfully in the proper applications and not abused by someone.

However I can't help but get the feeling a virus writer out there is already getting ideas about this possibility. They get their hands on it and sneak it onto a system causing the OS to fail as if it were natural stealing information in the process or crippling an infrastructure.

Except it isn't embedded into files, because if it was, it would not fulfill the intended behavior. This is an aspect of the file system. So, as I said, even if someone were to abuse this (which the abstraction does not point to, despite what others are saying -- and even if it did, a patent is just that: an abstraction detailing a method, not an actual implementation (you don't have to invent anything you patent)) you could just not use their file system.

So, as I said, if you don't like it, feel free to choose a file system that doesn't implement it, and there are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_systems

IBM is still around? :huh:

IBM is doing better than they've done in a long time, and recently surpassed Microsoft in market value. They also have a habit of giving away their patents in very generous cross-patent agreements or for free

Visible Indicator of age of document: no, not really, since the artificial "aging" can be set-up to be any "aging" rate, and could be changed to different "aging rates" at different times.

Totally USELESS quasi-information! Not a valid indicator of age, since it would be entirely artificially induced.

re: uses for the "real" features - you can artificially age photos now, benefits of automating the process seems really minimal. Doing it to entire databases, collections of photos/scans seem like a total waste of effort.

The entire reason for scanning in old documents and photos is to PREVENT FURTHER DEGRADATION: to always have the original quality available.

I stand by my description of this patent app as R......d (mentally deficient)

If you bothered with actually reading the patent, you would have learned the rate and method is set on creation by the implementor, and is therefore a known value. and is therefore not quasi-information and is a valid indicator, not to mention one very easily seen. The fact that it is artificially induced is what makes it useful, as you control the rate. If it was naturally caused then you would indeed have issues.

"why" you might ask would you want this still? Say you have a policy where only information within timeframe t can be used, but due to various federal and local regulations you must keep documents for n. You now have an obvious method (obvious to anyone who would need to know) if a document is considered valid for use or is only valid for federal reasons.


Doing it automatically for files in a database would be a godsend in various circumstances, especially in relation to identification. If you don't think so, it's just because you've never dealt with it.


You are correct, you don't want VALID files degrading, but you're scope you are inspecting this is too small.

You've obviously never had to deal with filing in an office where you have to keep documents for X number of years, but becomes an extreme challenge to find out whether the information is still valid for your business or just being kept out of necessity due to federal regulations.

As someone who actually maintains digital archives for a business, I can see the value in this.

From what I've read, they might end up selling it to Google.

1) If you had read the patent app, you would have seen that the "aging" parameters can be changed, and if they are not held constant....

2/3) Either keep the document in original condition, or scrap it - this half-assed bastardization is just plain dumb.

Part of the document should be origination date - so you can set a "kill-by" date rather than artificially degrade the data over time

4) I sincerely doubt that the government would even allow this degradation on any document that they could be concerned with. And artificial aging does not help with deciding whether or not you actually need to keep the data .

What works for you doesn't necessarily fit in my model, and likewise the aging length for you probably isn't mine. Hence the need to be able to change it. If it wasn't changable, it'd be useless. But that change is done by the implementor, not by happenchance. Federal regulations make it hard to just scrap a document, many companies keep documents for decade+ out of fear of throwing away something and having an audit. Having visual cues to whether that information is actually useful to the company would be incredibly useful. If you can't see that, you've never had to deal with archived files.


As someone whose documents are viewed by many, having dates is something constantly overlooked, wrong documents get printed out all the time, and problems ensue. Visual cues would be a killer feature. As mentioned above, removing documents is not a simple process and visual cues to the validity of a document is much preferred.


You are taking degradation far too literal. The content doesn't get harmed (hence my emphasis on it remains usable and legible). The aging isn't to decide whether you need to keep it, but for end users to be able to tell if it is valid information or not (hence my whole thing about time t for valid information to the company, but time n for necessary document retention due to federal regulations)

And as I've mentioned as well: If you don't like this feature, just don't use a file system that implements it. It's impossible for this to be used as a form of DRM because it is an aspect of the file system, not the files and simply storing your files with a file system that doesn't implement it would make it a non-issue. It's literally impossible to abuse this.

Even though it wouldn't fulfill the intended behavior that doesn't mean someone isn't already contemplating the misuse of this coding that's all i'm saying.