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Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

arstechnica.com

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Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#201

Post by OoTheNigerian »

Anytime I see the latest "outrage" on HN, I laugh and remember us, citizens of my country that want to protest as long as they are not required to personally sacrifice too much.

Most of these companies depend on you hackers (I do not write code) to be successful. If you decide to pull your apps from the app store, stop buying their products and write a post telling everyone why you made the move, they will be hurt. Even if the embargo is for one year only!

But of course that will not happen. No one likes to be inconvenienced personally. It will mean loosing revenue. Other people (the EFF)should fight the battle. You donate your $10 to EFF and believe you have fought the good fight.

Nothing will come out of this. Google will band with a few chaps on the other side (Facebook Twitter etc), a few hundreds of millions will be spent on lawyers and they will settle in one way or the other. After all, they are working together on other schemes (just like the politicians).

Of course, Facebook will one day eliminate all privacy settings, or Google will put ads in our inbox and there will be outrage again.

Of course nothing will come out of it.

I try to limit my outrage these days. I suggest you should too.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#202

Post by 37prime »

6thSigma wrote: post #124
37prime wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The suit was filed after google struck the deal to buy Motorola, but not officially finalized. Google announced Motorola Mobility acquisition in 2011. The suit was filed in 2012.

I believe they were still seeking regulatory approval of the acquisition when the lawsuit was filed. Either way, Apple sued Motorola first in 2011.

Any quotes on that?

Apple sued Motorola (2012) http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/apple-sues-motorola-over-...

Motorola Sued Apple (2011) http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/12/motorola-wins-injunctio...

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#203

Post by Ygg2 »

nu2ycombinator wrote: post #85

It is simple Microsoft and Apple are trying to get their paid 4.5Billion dollars from Google. It is a strategic mistake from Google side deciding not to be part of that team to buy the patents from Nortel.

Right. Right. Because Google suing their OEMs as part of "Rockstar" group is sooo much better. Really helps building the trust of Android.

MSFT/AAPL and the rest made a strategic decision to win those patents and destroy Android. They gave Google a choice:

A) Don't take patent - get opened for lawsuits

B) Take patent - lose trust because we are going to sue the shit out of Android OEMs

C) Buy all patent for an overinflated price

I just hope Google gets a team and invalidates all those patents, but I fear large patent price tag came for a reason.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#205

Post by cromwellian »

001sky wrote: post #171
cromwellian wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IE wasn't released unbundled from the OS as source for anyone to fork, so it's a false equivalence. If IE was released like Firefox/Mozilla was, no one would be complaining.

It was bundled, not dumped. But the bundle had more impact than an independent "dump". So, by substance if not by form, it is a comparable analogy. MS did not want to get shut out of desktop browser. Goog did not want to get shut out of mobile browser. They were both playing the same move strategically. Give away that which my enemey needs to sell to survive....

MS could not get shut out of the browser desktop market, period, there was zero chance of that ever happening, since they controlled the platform, >90% of the market. iOS is a locked down ecosystem, if iOS wanted to block Google ads, or change the default search engine, they could do it and Google would have no recourse. Big difference.

Note, Android allows Firefox, even as a default browser for opening links. That's impossible on iOS and on Windows RT.

I don't have any problem with people shipping free software, even Microsoft. The issue is whether consumers and developers have choices.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#206

Post by dzink »

This is a survival tactic for the consortium. If you look at the bunch - all of them have hardware businesses with margins that are getting continuously eroded by Google's "free by ads and cheap manufacturing" model. If they don't make it expensive for Google to erode mobile margins, they won't last long in that market. The 0.01 Billion in bidding difference they got the patents with is quite suspicious too.

The real pickle stems from all of the money feeding the patent trolling business. That industry needs to die a quick death, and instead it is getting fed by the buckets. Who knows where it will spill to next (killing fledgeling hardware/internet of things firms?).

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#207

Post by _Simon »

cageface wrote: post #42
throwaway98604 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm honestly starting to regret choosing to learn Objective-C now. I am seriously considering learning Android development and ditching my Macbook / iPhone for a Nexus 5 and some sort of linux distro. People like me are making this whole situation significantly worse by contributing software to Apple's platform.

If it makes any difference I'd say Android development is mostly a lot more logical and sane than iOS, particularly now that Apple is shoving the tragic catastrophe of an API that is AutoLayout down everybody's throat. Don't let the fragmentation FUD scare you.

>Don't let the fragmentation FUD scare you.

But we should all just accept that Google does no wrong by listening to a perennial Apple troll? Do me a favour! That's the problem with you open source terrorist; it all black and white. Google as just as bad as everyone else. They are not doing this out of altruism! If they were, we'd have the source for the Google apps on android, the search algorithms and web apps and they'd all be BSD, not the cancerous GPLv3! They really don't care about your silly ideologies. They care about revenue. That comes from advertising, which requires spying! For fuck sake man, THEY WORKED WITH THE NSA!!! They are pulling the same trick that Microsoft did with nascent IT departments; they convincing you that they are your friends. Hell, they already fucked consumers by giving power back to mobile companies. What is with you people? I frankly cannot believe the utterly childish language I'm seeing; especially from the likes of pg! I suppose you'll be telling me that Samsung are an example of a morally upstanding company next.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#208

Post by bad_user »

Apocryphon wrote: post #134
haberman wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple threw down the gauntlet when they made it clear that their devices would be a walled garden where they would have absolute control over what apps you can run. Prior to Android, your choice was between your carrier overlords and the Apple overlord. Not only was that limiting for users, it was a vulnerability for Google business-wise to have their direct competitors as gatekeepers between their services and their…

But with Android, the choice is between your OEM overlords and the Google anti-fragmentation efforts overlord. Yes; you can flash your own ROM and switch to CyanogenMod or Replicant. That is the freedom you are guaranteed in Android. But how many people actually take advantage of it?

I take advantage of it. I love it that I can take advantage of it. I also helped about 5 other people take advantage of it, by installing Cyanogen on their obsolete phones (I'm not from the US and down here people keep their phones longer than they should).

What you say is a classic logical fallacy. Do you repair your own car? Personally, I like having the freedom of doing repairs on my car outside of "authorized" repair shops, even though I know nothing about cars.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#209

Post by shin_lao »

pg wrote: post #61

It's a little early to say for sure, but I predict this will do more to hurt Apple's reputation in the tech community than anything they've done before. And that is not a good community to alienate. I would not be surprised if they look back on this move one day and feel that they ended up net worse off as a result. Apple used to be careful not to alienate hackers. And Microsoft has been gradually digging itself out…

I don't think this is how things will turn out.

People will like Google less and less because you can't do anything without them and there is no alternative, and what will happen to Google is exactly what happened to Microsoft: antitrust lawsuits, patents lawsuits, etc.

This is not because Google is "evil" or anything, just because they are #1 and therefore are target for more and more people.

In the end, this is all for the better because this may help alternatives to emerge as it helped alternatives to Microsoft to emerge.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#210

Post by bad_user »

__david__ wrote: post #94
pg wrote: post #61

It's a little early to say for sure, but I predict this will do more to hurt Apple's reputation in the tech community than anything they've done before. And that is not a good community to alienate. I would not be surprised if they look back on this move one day and feel that they ended up net worse off as a result. Apple used to be careful not to alienate hackers. And Microsoft has been gradually digging itself out…

That may be true, but it would be misplaced. I think we should channel our outrage into changing the screwy US patent system so this kind of stuff would become moot.

No. Voting with your wallet works. We need to start treating companies like they are members of our society - if one of your neighbours turns out to be a jackass to your other neighbours, do you tolerate him just because, hey, he just wants to make a profit?

Fuck that. Companies must learn to play nice and it's insane to treat them differently than we treat people. It's a huge double standard and if you expect the system will change without us punishing companies with our wallet, then you've got another thing coming.

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