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SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

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Re: SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

#321

Post by mkmk3 »

dsign wrote: post #27

This is not Meta demanding to see some privilege information that exists in Simula's drawers, but rather commandeering the entire competing organization to do market research for Meta. It is clever and evil, and nothing anybody says after this will make me think that Meta is not anti-competitive nor that they have an once of ethics. As a consumer, I doubt I will ever again consider their VR products; I rather give my…

I'm not against having Simula foot the bill in preparing whatever materials they may need to prepare to aid in the FCC's investigation - I think that's a reasonable cost of doing business, one that ought to scale with the size of the company, no? However, I agree that there may be valuable information you'd rather your competitor not have access to at your expense. Is there instances of, or analogues in other domains, of information relevant to the persecution of one party, belonging to another party, being reviewed in confidence by a third party? Or failing to find a fair solution in terms of that approach, how much can that information be trimmed?

Re: SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

#324

Post by weego »

benreesman wrote: post #170
danra wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> corporate funding of all the open-source projects that wouldn't exist without the megacorps This is a fallacy: It's possible comparable open source contributions could have been made without the graces of the corporates. For example: The giants tend to buy out their competition early, so how could it mature enough to be able to contribute comparably, or possibly better, to open source? IMHO the open source contribu…

There really isn't any way to confirm or refute that kind of argument. What would happen if regulation or social norms or whatever prevented big tech companies from existing? I don't know and (frankly) you don't either. I use emacs a dozen plus hours a day, and GNU wouldn't exist if RMS hadn't been bullied at the lunch room in the MIT AI Lab. Would the world be a better or worse place if he didn't have a personal jih…

I'm kind of confused but maybe it's my age. My career ran parallel to the birth of open source and it was explicitly a reaction against megacorps behavior and practices.

The participation in it part is newer, they were initially very hostile (I was warned any number of times aligning strategies against oss projects incase it was 'detrimental to my career')

Re: SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

#325

Post by tpxl »

alasdair_ wrote: post #290
Bloedcoin wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm following well enough. Have you checked the last Google Io? They don't hide that they collect data. Android is still open. You can't expect Google to just give you a android distribution without their stuff for free just because. You still can use it.

>They don't hide that they collect data. They have a mode in Chrome called "incognito mode" that, to the average person, strongly implies it doesn't collect data, yet of course it does.

Citation needed.

It says what it does right there when you open it, and collecting data _and sending it to google_ would be pretty damn weird in incognito mode.

You're not invisible to websites, ISPs, ... and it says so right on the page.

Re: SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

#326

Post by SCLeo »

cableshaft wrote: post #40

>We're don't view ourselves in competition with Meta >...Meta sells reasonably good gaming headsets to customers who want to be entertained in VR; we're selling general-purpose productivity devices which are aimed at replacing PCs and laptops. Hate to break it to you, but if you don't think that Mark Zuckerberg is actively trying to create VR devices that are general-purpose productivity devices aimed at replacing PC…

If I am not wrong, this is an antitrust suit, meaning it is about what they are selling, not what they are developing. If the product has been launched, there literally cannot be a monopoly.

Re: SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

#327

Post by jolmg »

LeonenTheDK wrote: post #8

Well that is unfortunate. I would not want to be in Simula's position, I'm sure they've got enough on their plate without having to deal with stuff like this that they barely have an impact on in the first place. I understand that Meta needs to prove they're not a monopoly, and apparently the way to do that is through other companies laying their cards on the table, but my goodness would I feel uncomfortable giving c…

> I understand that Meta needs to prove they're not a monopoly, and apparently the way to do that is through other companies laying their cards on the table, but my goodness would I feel uncomfortable giving core business plans, outlooks, and associated data to a huge (and arguably unethical) company like Meta.

This seems too considerate to Meta. IMO, part of Meta's intention is to hurt SimulaVR. It wouldn't be by accident.

Re: SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

#328

Post by kanetw »

weego wrote: post #324
benreesman wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There really isn't any way to confirm or refute that kind of argument. What would happen if regulation or social norms or whatever prevented big tech companies from existing? I don't know and (frankly) you don't either. I use emacs a dozen plus hours a day, and GNU wouldn't exist if RMS hadn't been bullied at the lunch room in the MIT AI Lab. Would the world be a better or worse place if he didn't have a personal jih…

I'm kind of confused but maybe it's my age. My career ran parallel to the birth of open source and it was explicitly a reaction against megacorps behavior and practices. The participation in it part is newer, they were initially very hostile (I was warned any number of times aligning strategies against oss projects incase it was 'detrimental to my career')

Yeah, I agree. I distinctly remember open source becoming more corporate as the years got by, and corporate becoming more open source aligned.

Re: SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

#329

Post by nonplus »

vineyardmike wrote: post #274
kanetw wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course anything Meta does is a bit worrisome. I just don't think we're in the same niche-- IMO Meta is fundamentally built on data collection, and VR is just a side effect. Unless Meta decides to abandon that, I think we'll have a niche.

> IMO Meta is fundamentally built on data collection Isn’t their whole Metaverse thing a gamble to get away from that? Why does data collection prevent creating a good VR experience. If anything it should align goals well (spend as much time in VR as possible, so as much in VR as possible). Besides, most DataCollection companies offer CollectionFree enterprise contracts… which is where the money for this probably is.…

> Isn’t their whole Metaverse thing a gamble to get away from that?

Many of us think Meta is trying to gain as much market as they can early, so they can leverage eye tracking and mm wave tech for very invasive biometric collection and ad targeting in the future. Reasonable minds can disagree on that.

Re: SimulaVR Has Been Subpoenaed by Meta Platforms, Inc

#330

Post by MikusR »

MadcapJake wrote: post #294
kanetw wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, of course, it's a tough space to be in. Just saying that we need to carve out a niche where Meta can't compete vs try to fight Meta head on.

I am failing to see a separate niche here. There are only so many ways you can break down office productivity focus and still have a market to support you. Your team should accept the facts and stop trying to wiggle out of competing with your--frankly--main rival in this space. It doesn't do any justice to avoid this truth. Honestly, I'd be shocked if you weren't already closely monitoring their work and its reaction…

Based on comments in this thread, SimulaVR thinks of itself the same way Microsoft did when they made Windows phone.
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