RE: [PIUG List] human-being test on Public PAIR

Firstly, let me clarify that I am from Patent Software systems and DB tools
background as part of Patent iNSIGHT Pro (www.patentinsightpro.com), in
which we access USPTO and ESPACE(OPS) via software. Am glad we didn’t acc=
ess
PAIR and as a practice we refrain from accessing locations whose terms of
use clearly prohibit automated access.

I don’t think blocking an IP with abnormal amounts of traffic is correct,
since almost always legitimate companies that usually have fixed IP
addresses are the ones to suffer while people with necessary know-how can
find ways and means to morph/hop IP addresses. Large organizations I know
have 50-70 guys reading/shifting through patent data and even if 20 of them
are on pair they would get blocked that way. They are already suffering this
at the hands of ESPACENET which has this exact system in place ever since it
has launched OPS.

The internet and information is all about know-how and speed of decision
making and solutions like the one USPTO has implemented (or say introducing
a delay, or temporarily blocking an IP address) simply slows down all/most
people and their decision making capabilities and by that very fact are
incorrect approaches to solve the problem. Especially coming from a rich
government body.

Since they are so easy to implement, I would call them as "hey.. I have to
fix this before my boss returns from the holiday" approaches.

Thankfully ESPACE has shown the way out and USPTO has someone to lookup to.

- Manish


Manish K Sinha
Chief Technology Officer
manish_at_patentinsightpro.com

Patent iNSIGHT Pro
Gridlogics Technologies (P) Ltd
4th Floor, Sunflower Commercial,
77/1, Baner Road, Baner
Pune-411045
Tel:+91-20-66202640/41 [Ext 312]
Fax:+91-20-66202640 [Ext 313]

www.patentinsightpro.com
 




-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Oppedahl [mailto:carl_at_oppedahl.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 6:01 AM
To: PIUG Discussion List @ Listbox
Cc: PIUG Discussion List @ Listbox; efs-web-l_at_oppedahl.com;
partridge-l_at_oppedahl.com
Subject: Re: [PIUG List] human-being test on Public PAIR

Mark Schisler wrote on 1/1/2008 5:14 PM:
> Carl:
>
> This is becoming more and more prevalent as bots attempt to
> automatically gather information. Many sites I visit have implemented
> this feature. Let me play devil's advocate, if you were running the
> site and your servers were being overloaded what would your solution
> be? I agree what was implemented is the easy solution.
>
> My suggestion would be a filter to detect abnormal amounts of traffic
> from one IP address and block it. This is getting to be standard
> operating procedure for ISP's. The USPTO could spend a few dollars on
> such a software/hardware solution and add it to their network. Just a
> thought.
>
What you describe makes good sense. And indeed it is exactly what a
sophisticated webmaster will do. For example the Whois at www.netsol.com
does not have a human-being test. It simply looks for large numbers of
queries from a single IP address and gags the user after a few queries.

Another option is simply to inject a five- or ten-second delay before
yielding the answer to the user's query, for every query after the
second or third query. This doesn't meaningfully impact human users,
who probably take five or ten seconds to hand-key the serial number anyway.
But it makes it impossible for the bot to vacuum up all the data as it would
take fifty years to get through all the serial numbers, and by then all the
data would have changed anyway.



-------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PIUG List owner: Patent Information Users' Group Inc. (R), http://
www.piug.org PIUG List rules and guidelines: http://www.piug.org/list.php
PIUG List admin: piug_discussion_list-owner(at)v2(dot)listbox(dot)com
PIUG Discussion List @ Listbox
Modify Your Subscription:
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&
Unsubscribe Now:
1b

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.486 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1206 - Release Date: 1/1/2008
12:09 PM
 

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.486 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1206 - Release Date: 1/1/2008
12:09 PM
 

-------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PIUG List owner: Patent Information Users' Group Inc. (R), http://
www.piug.org
PIUG List rules and guidelines: http://www.piug.org/list.php
PIUG List admin: piug_discussion_list-owner(at)v2(dot)listbox(dot)com
PIUG Discussion List @ Listbox
&id_secret=80961935-b678bd
secret=76057446-50c748

Received on Wed Jan 02 2008 - 18:05:12