I don't think they are going to take the computerized world into the timezone dark ages. I suspect this will all be resolved reasonably, especially if companies who ship this data get involved (e.g. every *nix vendor, Oracle (Java), etc).
Actually I wouldn't be so sure. Very often it's the legal people who push for that stuff and the founders are told to not worry, everything will be fine, until they are left with a PR disaster.
It seems likely that the interest of an Astrology company in historical timezone data is in being able to determine the precise position of the stars and planets in the sky at the moment of someone's birth (which obviously involves knowing what local timezone was in effect at that place and time).
I am sure they see great value in being the only Astrologers who can do this, which means that they need to suppress access to this data.
I am sure they see great value in being the only Astrologers who can do this, which means that they need to suppress access to this data.
It's amazing to think that people might actually care about this kind of "accuracy" in Astrology, but unfortunately, you might just be right. Geez, maybe in a year or so, they're calling the other astrologers phonies because they can't possibly have the right data.
Unlikely that this would be possible as the data can no doubt be compiled from other sources. Besides they're still selling the atlas. Seems more likely that some lawyer has noticed the reference and convinced them to take it up.
The lawyer who filed the documents is a small-town lawyer from East Sandwich, MA who deals in "Civil Litigation, Real Estate, Family & Matrimonial Law, Zoning, Contract, Disputes, Estate Planning, Wills, Health Care, Proxies, Powers Of Attorney". So it doesn't seem likely this was dreamed up by the lawyer as some grand IP case. Time will tell when more happens in the court case.
I wish more people knew this. I learned this first hand. You must watch what your lawyers are doing. Its in their interest to drum up billable hours pursuing stuff like this. It may not be at all in your business's interest to let it happen.
http://alabe.com/photogal.html
I don't think they are going to take the computerized world into the timezone dark ages. I suspect this will all be resolved reasonably, especially if companies who ship this data get involved (e.g. every *nix vendor, Oracle (Java), etc).