Sony Dismisses Claims Against Playstation Emulator

Gridle writes "According to this CNet article, Sony has voluntarily taken back the patent infringement case against Connectix, the makers of Virtual Game Station, a Playstation emulator for Macs and PCs. Here's the press release from Connectix."

Comments

More details from Connectix CEO

[isaac_akira]

Short interview with Connectix CEO

He mentions that a key point is that the technique of reverse engineering was completely cleared, opening the door to creating PS2, Dreamcast, and even X-Box emulators in the future (once PC hardware speeds are capable of it).

- Isaac =)

Re:Hmm..

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

People, that's theft of intellectual property -- that's the same stuff that Microsoft is getting in trouble with the DOJ.

Um, no, that's "reverse engineering" -- a widely accepted practice. If Connectix had actually stolen patents, that would be "theft" of intellectual "property" (*), but of course, the point of the lawsuit would be to establish such infringement. No lawsuit, no establishment.

As for the MS/DOJ thing, it is not about patent infringement or IP. It is about predatory monopolistic practics at MS.

Also blockquoth the poster:

If I make a product, patent and trademark it, and someone comes along and makes a product that does in essence, the same thing my product does, causing me to lose sales, I'm going to sue for patent infringement.

A patent does not guarantee the right to make a profit from an invention. It does not guarantee the right to an exclusive market due to an invention. It does not prohibit others from fulfilling the same need you've chosen to address via the device patentned.

A patent does prevent someone else from implementing a solution in exactly the same way you do. In other words, I can't simply duplicate McCormick's reaper, but I sure as heck can come up with my own device for harvesting grain. It is not the concept of rotary blades that is patented; it's the particular form that is protected.

Admittedly, the federal courts and the PTO have really murked the waters by allowing software and "business model" patents (egregiously wrongly, IMHO). But even they don't say "MS patented Word, so no one else can make word processors" -- even ones that read Word files.

--- (*) Intellectual "property" is to property as fool's "gold" is to gold... It can't be "stolen", although one's rights vis-a-vis it can be infringed. Current usage is a deliberate obfuscation to play on the connotations of "theft".

Pros and Cons for Sony

[Toddarooski]

The way I see it, a PlayStation emulator isn't all that harmful to Sony -- after all, as lots of people are quick to point out, Sony doesn't make any money selling their hardware. Often, they'll sell it for a loss and make their money on royalties for their games. (They get a pretty hefty chunk of change on every PSX game sold.) If they can make money selling games without having to take a loss on the hardware, they'll probably be pretty happy.

The biggest drawback for Sony that I can see is that a game running on the Sony emulator (in my experience anyway) isn't as good as when it runs on normal PSX hardware. I suppose that someone who had never seen a PlayStation before and tried playing Soul Blade on their Bleem emulator might think, "Boy, Playstation games aren't all that good."

Another more dangerous (but perhaps less likely) potential problem is the fact that maybe these console companies could steal each other's publishing deals. Suppose to make Tunnel Raider V for the PSX, it'll cost me $5/game in royalties for Sony. Suppose Sega offers me a better deal -- say, $3/game -- to make the "Dreamcast Bleem Emulator" version of the game (which, totally by coincidence, happens to run on the Playstation as well). That could really screw over Sony. I don't think it's a particularly likely scenario, but it's possible...

Of course, most of this is a moot point now that most people are looking forward to the PSX2, which is probably the real reason why Sony isn't continuing their legal battle.