For a sliver of a second, I thought I actually agreed with Uri Geller

You remember, Uri, right? Good ol’ spoon-bending-with-his-mind Uri.

CNN headline reads: Uri Geller protests ABC adoption show

And the opening sentences:

I’m thinking, Wow, Uri is taking up a good cause here… A reality show in which people “compete” for a baby? How sick and twisted is that?
Almost (but not quite) as twisted as Uri’s reasons for objecting to the show - not out of a sense of moral outrage, or decency etc. But because:

Turns out he just wrote a book (not yet published) about just such a reality show.

Further reading shows that ABC program is not really a “competition”, meaning there won’t be any, er, Immunization Challenges or anything, but simply a sort of docudrama, but it still feels pretty smarmy to me. No matter who owns the freakin “patent” for the idea.

Uri has always frightened me a little bit. He’s weird (ok, ok, he’s OUT there) and I still get upset thinking about my first grade teacher making me do a report on him. That was just mean, lady! I’ll never forgive you…

I always thought Geller was odd, but this is just plain nuts. I can’t imagine this even going to court.

  1. You can’t own an idea.
  2. If this were a patent issue (which it is not), he’d have to have been granted a patent. I doubt he did.
  3. Assuming he misspoke and thought it a copyright issue, see #1.
  4. In order to win a copyright case, he has to prove ABC had copied the book. Since it’s unpublished, how could ABC even know it existed?
  5. OK, maybe he sent an unpublished copy to ABC. Did anyone from the show ever see it? If not, no case.
  6. If someone from the show saw it, see #1.

:wally

TellMeI’mNotCrazy, when I saw the thread title, I thought your username was a big mistake, but you did redeem yourself.

Unless you still agree with Uri Geller on anything!

But as you say, you can’t own an idea - which is, unfortunately, why the same bad movies get made over and over again :wink:

I am not at all strong on Patent law though - if someone slips in with a “patent violating” item while your patent is pending, and your patent does eventually get approved, how does that work? Is it retroactive to the day of petition?

Remember, just because someone’s a freak and a fraud, it doesn’t mean ALL there opinions are wrong. I bet I agree with Gellar on SOMETHING. (I’m tempted to agree that getting paid $$$ for pretending to bend spoons is a good idea, but I have some principles :()

F.Y.I., the program in question is being discussed in this thread:

one baby, 5 couples, 4 will lose…did I imagine this?

According to CNN’s Web site, the book was published in chapters on a subscription Web site.

The bible cites prior art.

Kings 3:16-27

Beats Uri by a few millenium, so any patent is no good.

Uri Geller is one of those people who is on my private list entitled “Resume Not Included”. It includes such people as Jesse Jackson and other hangers on who never seem to actually have a job so much as a semi-position.

It also includes those people who turn up as news color concerning some odd news event. The crawl under the name usually says something like “Jake Skewly, Lint Evaluator”, or “Marta Vanderhees, Erection Muffler”. How do you get a job description like that, much less make a living at it?

But he has to show that someone connected with the show was aware of the website and visited it. Further, since the idea can’t be copyrighted, then Geller’s SOL in any case.

And the patent office is just going to reject the application; this is not a patent issue.

I always wonder about them too… I think I’m in the wrong industry! (Hanger-on…ing… is an industry, right?)

One of my favories is Robert Bork - Never Got To Be A Supreme Court Justice But Is Willing To Appear On Any News Show and Whine About It.

(gee, that’s an impressive title huh?)

Oh, I certainly wasn’t disputing your opinion of Geller’s SOLness. I was just providing a mild clarification – a fun fact, really – so that it would be easier to express exactly in which way he is SOL.

[Jeff Probst] …Once you’ve found the key, you’ll unlock the medical locker, grab the vaccine, and administer the shot. The first to get all 5cc of small pox vaccine into the baby is exempt from Child Services Council.

<News announcer>

A woman in NYC was hurried to the hospital today, complaining of a blueberry being lodged in her lung. The unfortunate incident apparently resulted when a poster callously posted a wrenchingly funny response during breakfast time, failing to take into consideration the ramifications of his actions. The suspect is said to be the subject of a Steely Dan song. NYPD searches at this moment for someone named “Peg”.

</NA>

If the cops were looking for anyone, I should think it woud be Josie.

Nah, Josie just incites criminal behavior, she doesn’t actually commit it :wink:

The problem is, his quote was taken out of context. What he said was…

“I will speak to my patent attorney – I own the idea… Of doing something this stupid for cash.”

:wink: