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Microsoft Sues TiVo To Help AT&T
Julie188 writes "Microsoft is suing TiVo, claiming patent infringement. Microsoft is doing this because TiVo has sued AT&T — and AT&T happens to be Microsoft's largest customer of Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV technology. Microsoft says that TiVo has copied Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV technology in its DVRs. If Microsoft wins, it would effectively block TiVo from selling DVRs without a licensing deal with Microsoft."
You launch yours, I'll launch mine, and the usual trolls will launch their own just because they can. With any luck, they'll cause enough chaos to bring the issue to light and bring us closer to IP reform.
You gotta love how companies have found exactly what to do with patent infringements - put them in a bag and keep them stored away well under room temperature until the right moment when these can be enjoyed - such as, at a time when they can be used to scare or threaten competitors or help achieve a goal. Patent infringement is not patent infringement until such time when it can be exploited to the limit.
Humans are so damn smart it is scary.
Is this an example of "the enemy of my friend is my enemy" or the beginning of "mutual assured destruction"?
Suing TiVo for delivering content ?
Next is Neanderthal suing them for using fire or a wheel ?
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?
The ATT/Microsoft/Motorola DVR sucks giant donkey dicks. You can bet that ATT only wished they could use Tivo technology. We had Uverse installed and ended up using our Tivos downstream of the ATT DVRs, they sucked that bad. The smart thing would have been for ATT to license the Tivo design instead of the locked-down bogus Microsoft design.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
So, what happens if there is a set of law suits with a circular dependency and ALL plaintiffs win? Does that mean we lose?
Live by the patent, die by the patent...
The same nonsense that allowed Tivo to run amok is now being turned back against it.
None of these shenanigans should be tolerated by anyone at all.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I'm not so sure its that funny.
Isn't tivo just serving as a surrogate for Linux here? After all, I believe Linux is at Tivo's core.
Does this not continue the chain started when Microsoft sued TomTom? Is it not a pattern of harassment of companies making money with a Linux core?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Well, so says Stallman, but Torvalds sees nothing wrong with that.
Besides, this is a nuance probably lost on Microsoft.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Nevermind
$ make available
My U-verse DVR is so much more usable than a Tivo because of all it's stupendous theft-worthy features.
Typical foaming at the mouth anti-MS zealots, fail to read TFA and spreading FUD in knee jerk reactions.
It's Tivo that's the enemy of the new digital era.
It's Tivo that's suing willy nilly.
The latest legal salvo comes a few months after TiVo launched its own strike against AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), alleging that their video services illegally use its TV "time-warping" technology in their digital video recorders. AT&T's U-Verse TV service runs on Microsoft's Internet video technology.
TiVo hasn't been shy about using the courtroom to protect its intellectual property. The company also has a long-running dispute with Dish Networks Corp. ( DISH) and sister company Echostar Corp. (SATS) over the same DVR technology. The company has agreements with most of the cable companies and DirecTV Group Inc. ( DTV).
I'm a former AT&T U-Verse customer, and a former TiVo customer. I switched to U-Verse from T/W because TimeWarner refused to provide adequate support for the CableCards they supplied in my TiVo - channels would randomly go missing causing difficulty or programs to record an hour of black. Had TiVo for years and loved it. Always explained it to people that I'm a tech/programmer who spends all day fighting with computers. I loved that I could come home and not fight with my TV (until the cablecards, that is).
The U-Verse DVR *sucked*. If you pressed the "skip ahead" key at just the wrong interval, it would inexplicably jump to the end of the program with the "do you want to delete this?" prompt. To which I would invariably yell at the DVR "no you dumbass, I just wanted to skip ahead two minutes". The software, frankly was awful in a multitude of ways. I switched to DirecTV, and the DVR software is better, but still stinks compared to TiVo.
For me as big of a fan as I am of Linux, etc it wasn't about the OS. It was about the user experience. The U-Verse DVR did stupid, unexplainable shit often enough that I cancelled it after a little less than a year.
There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
I'm not so sure its that funny.
Isn't tivo just serving as a surrogate for Linux here? After all, I believe Linux is at Tivo's core.
Does this not continue the chain started when Microsoft sued TomTom? Is it not a pattern of harassment of companies making money with a Linux core?
In a word, yes. Jeremy Allison (of Samba fame) just gave a talk about this not two hours ago at linux.conf.au in Wellington, NZ. He stated that this would likely be Microsoft's modus operandi against Linux and FOSS in the near future.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Reputation should not matter and each case should go to the courts on its own merits. However Microsoft is an old whore with a wicked, dirty, reputation. Judges and juries have got to go into a Microsoft trial with a bit of an urge to tie a hangman's knot and I don't blame them. Considering the several billions in losses that Microsoft has already received in various trials perhaps they should be shy of the court house and not think about dragging people to trial.