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Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

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Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#71

Post by adventured »

revelation wrote: post #11

Google has completely jumped the shark and is now being controlled by mindless business drones that will drive the company into the ground in just a few years. For your consideration: They allow a patent troll to potentially set a legal precedent for what constitutes a big part of their app infrastructure. They probably figured that its cheaper to build around the patent and let this one developer eat shit. They are…

"Google has completely jumped the shark and is now being controlled by mindless business drones that will drive the company into the ground in just a few years."

I think you missed the part where they have a near monopoly in search and that currently there is no real competition for that crown. There is absolutely nothing that is going to run Google into the ground in a few short years.

Once a company becomes as large and critical as Google, it becomes an integral national service provider (think Boeing or Ford or Walmart or Goldman) and gets special protection via all the lobbying they do and all the friends they have in DC. Particularly once a company like Google lets the government in to regulate them, as Microsoft and Intel and IBM and others have done, that seals the deal. Which is why the Feds just backed completely away from their anti-trust interest; they could have just as easily pursued Google forever, but they got what they wanted. Any idea the value that organizations like the NSA derive from Google? With that partnership established, any idea the lengths they'll go to in order to protect that treasure trove?

Your time horizon is way too short. Nothing is going to touch Google this decade. You don't understand how the US economy actually works.

Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#72

Post by mike_esspe »

hakaaaaak wrote: post #48
coditor wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least Apple helped in their version of this. Google ignoring their own technology and customers is the epitome of Be Evil.

What I never understood is why Google's motto wasn't "Be Good". Logically and linguistically, "be good" is simpler than "Don't Be Evil", even if they aren't logically equivalent. And, as any psychologist will tell you, you don't say or think what you are trying to avoid; instead, you focus on something else that achieves the same goal, so if you were trying not to be evil, the word evil shouldn't even be in the motto…

Probably because it's easier to agree on what is evil, than what is good.

Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#73

Post by simonh »

devmach wrote: post #41
emmelaich wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe German trademark law has been (ab)used, too, so don't think you're completely safe.

I'm aware that i'm not completely safe but from my perspective it looks like, if the situation affecting the economy , Europeans will react and do something about it. Patent trolling is a problem in U.S. since a long time but nobody want's to fix it. Politicians seems doesn't care, big corporations simply pay fees and reflect them to their customers or like in this case, companies let patent trolls screw their suppli…

Concur. It's not just that the legal regimen in the USA is much worse that elsewhere (though there's a credible case that it is). It's that the way the legal and political systems are locked together in a death grip that makes meaningful reform seem very unlikely. The legal and political systems in Europe aren't ideal by any means, but for example we've been able to stave off the worst excesses of the software patent lobby fairly successfully.

It's possible the SOPA protests and the furore over the treatment of Aaron Swartz will make a difference and the US can turn a corner on these issues after all. We can hope so.

I've worked at two companies now where there were graphical methods of displaying data that previously existed on paper, but we could not implement them in software because they were patented in the USA. One was in celular radio network planning and something to do with interference calculation, the other was in displaying a 'ladder' of bids and offers in financial trading systems. You could use these methods to display data on printed paper, or in a PDF on a screen for example, but if you generate the results in software and you're breaking the law in the US. Insane. But it's not practical to have one version for inside the US and another for the rest of the world.

Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#74

Post by Kliment »

devmach wrote: post #18
Permit wrote: post #2

I honestly don't even know what to say when these things come up nowadays. It just seems like the bullshit won't end. I can't think of any options that even exist to fix this broken patent system.

I'm studying in Germany abroad and i have a u.s. green card. After reading so much crap about u.s. patent system, i'm really considering staying in Germany or immigrate to another country ( like Singapore ?? ) and start a business there. I know, one person doesn't make a difference furthermore i'm not a "very important super mega top ninja hipster talented programmer" and every county has it's own problems. The thing…

German patent law is super-evil too. As far as I understand it, patents are presumed valid for the duration of a patent suit, so you get hit with an injunction even if you countersue.

Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#75

Post by throwaway2048 »

sneak wrote: post #25
revelation wrote: post #11

Google has completely jumped the shark and is now being controlled by mindless business drones that will drive the company into the ground in just a few years. For your consideration: They allow a patent troll to potentially set a legal precedent for what constitutes a big part of their app infrastructure. They probably figured that its cheaper to build around the patent and let this one developer eat shit. They are…

http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2013/01/26/takeover/

That is a ridiculously black and white analysis, people doing evil don't set out with some vague malevolent goal to make the world a worse place for everyone else. Many times they view what they are doing as a good thing.

I am very afraid indeed of people claiming to do things for my benefit.

Evil is banal, it is every day, and more than likely it happens right in front of your eyes.

People need to shed this comic book villain version of evil, where anybody that acts evil is clearly just a bad person, and starts out with a goal of wanting to hurt everybody else.

Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#77

Post by EliRivers »

Permit wrote: post #2

I honestly don't even know what to say when these things come up nowadays. It just seems like the bullshit won't end. I can't think of any options that even exist to fix this broken patent system.

I don't know a damn thing about the law so I'm asking this in the hopes of education; I live in a country that doesn't recognise software patents. Presumably I can still sell software overseas, to places where software patents are recognised. What's stopping people such as Mr Meyer creating a company in my country that exists purely to create the effect that all sales of his software come from my country?

Not trolling or snarking; I genuinely don't know what the situation would be in that kind of case. Company employee in a the US making the software just as before, but technically working for company in a country that doesn't recognise software patents, and that company is the company selling the software to people in the US.

Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#78

Post by tubelite » 

  Under the spreading patent tree,
  I sold you and you sold me.
When we're done with the well-deserved two minutes hate of patent trolls, lawyers and the broken legal system, perhaps we can consider the willing and eager participation of thousands of engineers in the corporate patent process. While it does not apply to the patent under discussion, the majority of software patents are produced not by individual inventors in garages but by employees in cubicles, then assigned to their employers.

Rationalizing comes easy, especially with the prospect of a fat per-patent bonus: "Everyone else is doing it, it's just self-defence", "If I don't, someone else will, might as well be me", "Most of these are silly and will get overturned in court anyway", "My promotion prospects depend on it"...

I was one of them. Forgive me, for I have sinned.

I fear few of my ex-colleagues would agree, though. When will the penny drop, I wonder? Will you be shocked - shocked! - when one of your patents is used offensively in a lawsuit? When you hear about Lodsys and Uniloc and realize that it's not just impersonal big companies who can afford it, but individuals who are victims?

Oh well. I'm off to buy an indulgence by contributing to X-Plane's defense..

Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#79

Post by Vivtek »

EliRivers wrote: post #77
Permit wrote: post #2

I honestly don't even know what to say when these things come up nowadays. It just seems like the bullshit won't end. I can't think of any options that even exist to fix this broken patent system.

I don't know a damn thing about the law so I'm asking this in the hopes of education; I live in a country that doesn't recognise software patents. Presumably I can still sell software overseas, to places where software patents are recognised. What's stopping people such as Mr Meyer creating a company in my country that exists purely to create the effect that all sales of his software come from my country? Not trollin…

I'm interested in this question, too. As I understand it, the patent law in the country of sale governs each sale - but I'm open to the possibility that I don't actually understand it.

Re: Creator Of The X-Plane Flight Simulator Seeks Help Fighting A Patent Troll

#80

Post by giulivo »

I think the software patents regulation should to be reviewed but I see the current situation with software patents regulation very similar to what happens with copyrighted closed source software.

To my understanding, they both prevent innovation.

Wikipedia on copyright: gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights.

Wikipedia on patents: The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or distributing the patented invention without permission.

To me it looks like Laminar Research decided to use their right to distribute the software with a license which prevented people from distributing the sources, from copying the binaries, from improving/redistribue the software, from studying the software.

They decided to raise some money for their hard work forcing people to pay for the usage of such a software.

Isn't Uniloc just trying to raise some money from a patented invention, forcing Laminar Research to pay for the usage of such a patent?

To me it looks very similar to what Laminar Research did. They're playing by the same rules.

If Laminar Research has rights to protect its source code, why hasn't Uniloc rights to protect its invention? What am I missing?

I don't think the problem is just about who had invented firstly the technology. We shall all be paying Tesla for the AC current then!

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