Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
1–10 of 44 posts
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#2What a damned foolish patent.
"Methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work"
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=MNgFAQAAEBAJ
Some hipster artist ("hipster" being an appropriate word here) sues a successful implementation of an offshoot of an idea he had 8 years ago, and then says,
"As an artist myself, I feel that KickStarter may be hurting artist by focusing on 'donating money' rather than celebrating the artist for what they do. Their model does not build fan relationships but just continually asks for handouts."
What a jerk. It's been said here before, but it's worth hitting again: "Ideas are a dime a dozen."
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#3What a damned foolish patent. "Methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work" http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=MNgFAQAAEBAJ Some hipster artist ("hipster" being an appropriate word here) sues a successful implementation of an offshoot of an idea he had 8 years ago, and then says, "As an artist myself, I feel that KickStarter may be hurting artist by focusing on 'donating money' rather than…
Patent complaining aside, that quote is off too. The point of Kickstarter is not to ask for handouts, but to offer incentives/rewards/pre-orders based on the amount you donate. If you don't like what you get for what you pay or donate, then choose a different tier or don't give any money.
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#4if you file a patent, and someone else invents the same thing before the patent is issued, seems to me that should be prima facie evidence that the idea was obvious -- since at least in the U. S., patent applications are not published.
Utopian dreaming aside, I've studied the patent a little, and it looks like Kickstarter has a problem.
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#5What a damned foolish patent. "Methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work" http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=MNgFAQAAEBAJ Some hipster artist ("hipster" being an appropriate word here) sues a successful implementation of an offshoot of an idea he had 8 years ago, and then says, "As an artist myself, I feel that KickStarter may be hurting artist by focusing on 'donating money' rather than…
I'm sure this is going to be a very unpopular stance, because it's been unpopular almost every time I've asked it:
Why do artists assume that every instance of something that doesn't involve the typical exchange of work for money is somehow harming their industry? The most vocal of these people are those 'No-Spec' who thinks sites like 99designs are invariably killing everything they stand for. It reeks of that same mentality and resistance to new revenue models that's turning so many people off to the music and movie industries.
Passion for the rhyme can be cheapened by feedback, and I think that's exactly what's happening with these 'artists'. They're looking at what other people are doing, seeing that it doesn't line up with how they think the industry should work, and then pull these statements out of their arses that it's killing their livelihood.
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#6Given that the legal system's unlikely to change, as long as IP lobbyists pay off politicians, I'd like to see Anonymous take on the project of compiling the personal details of these parasites.
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#7But can the people building projects on kickstarter even be called artists ? They got to be called engineers or entrepreneurs... An awesome site and resource for funding being roughed up for protection money.
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#8I am going to take an unpopular stance here... I think.
When patents are enforced by big legal entities, we all scream foul, "Patents are meant to protect the little guy, not make lawyers rich!"
Now we have a musician (a "little guy") suing a much loved successful startup... and we are still screaming, but instead of "Stop the lawyers!" we are yelling "Stop the hipster artists!" (at least lhnn was).
If this musician was suing Real Player or Rhapsody or some entity we didn't all love, I wonder how different the response (here in the comments) would have been?
if(!entity.isUnderdog())
complain();
else
support();
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#9What a damned foolish patent. "Methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work" http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=MNgFAQAAEBAJ Some hipster artist ("hipster" being an appropriate word here) sues a successful implementation of an offshoot of an idea he had 8 years ago, and then says, "As an artist myself, I feel that KickStarter may be hurting artist by focusing on 'donating money' rather than…
Patent complaining aside, that quote is off too. The point of Kickstarter is not to ask for handouts, but to offer incentives/rewards/pre-orders based on the amount you donate. If you don't like what you get for what you pay or donate, then choose a different tier or don't give any money.
Or you want to see something happen but you only want to donate if everyone else does. They hack the tragedy of the commons, and it's been enough for me to support a couple projects.
Re: Kickstarter being sued for patent infringment.
#10Given that the legal system's unlikely to change, as long as IP lobbyists pay off politicians, I'd like to see Anonymous take on the project of compiling the personal details of these parasites.
Personal details lead to personal relationships, which then can lead to innocents being hurt. Not cool.