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Android Tricorder Killed By CBS
First time accepted submitter josn writes "Today I found out that Moonlight's Tricorder app, which I always install on Android devices, is gone. Google received a DMCA letter from CBS. I think it is a shame that CBS thinks it needs to kill a free and open source project giving a ad-less app. I, for one, sent a message to CBS explaining that this fan-supported app is not bad, but good for them, and asked them to reconsider. I hope, especially for the author, who must have spent a lot of time on this app, that they do."
I love that app. Does anyone know, for those of us who still have it installed, Android App Market doesn't automatically uninstall apps without user permission (like they'll remove books from the Kindle) in cases like this, do they?
...I'm a doctor, not a copyright lawyer.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
we see the power of the android system.
I can still load the app from other sources.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
CBS. What have they done, that is worth shitting on, in 30 years?
I say that a bunch of Anonymous types ought to buy microwave equipment and blast their Sat feed offline.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
A little googling turn up this. Looks like it would have been fun to play with.
Its not what it is, its something else.
No it's spelled right - the tricorder app is known for only being able to perform subtraction operations. :)
As if a stupid little app that just looks like a Star Trek tricorder doesn't qualify as "complete shit". Whoever developed that ought to be using their time on more productive pursuits.
Like what? Posting on Slashdot?
Just sayin'
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I can only find one tricorder app on the Android market. And the one I have installed has gone missing. At least they didn't remotely remove it.
Meh, hopefully they can bring them back with a similar name. Quadcorder maybe?
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Everyone always thinks it's an evil corporation trying to spoil fun but there's a fundamental reason. If they don't defend trademarks and copyrights then other corporations can use the names to sell products. What's to stop Apple or Microsoft from releasing a new PDA or tablet computer called a "Tricorder"? They can say CBS failed to enforce the trademark so it no longer applies. What if the device sucks and the name Tricorder takes on negative image or worse yet becomes a bad joke? Then their trademark overall is damaged and it wasn't even from a product they produced. Trademarks are like left over budget money, use it or loose it or in this can enforce it. Change the law so they don't have to enforce every instance and create a system where freeware and small providers can ask to use the name and maybe things would be different.
The app is surprisingly useful: accelerometer, audio spectrum analyzer, compass to name a few... it does everything you'd expect a "real" tricorder to do, with the only limitations being the phone hardware.
You can't copyright the word "tricorder". The app (according to the posts that someone else posted here) doesn't infringe on any copyrights of screen design or anything like that (and it looks more like the LCARS interface from TNG, which CBS holds no claim to - that would be Viacom, owners of Paramount).
There is only one live entry for a registered trademark for "tricorder", and that's held by Paul Allen's company named Kiha Software, which holds the trademark as it relates to mobile device programs.
So, where does CBS get the balls to get this app taken down?
Corporate ownership ----- At Star Trek's creation, Norway Productions, Roddenberry's production company, shared ownership with Desilu and, after Gulf+Western acquired Desilu in 1967, with Paramount Pictures, the conglomerate's film studio. Paramount did not want to own the unsuccessful show; net profit was to be shared between Norway, Desilu/Paramount, Shatner, and NBC but Star Trek lost money, and the studio did not expect to syndicate it. In 1970 Paramount offered to sell all rights to Star Trek to Roddenberry, but he could not afford the $150,000 ($848,000 today) price. In 1989 Gulf+Western renamed itself as Paramount Communications, and in 1994 merged with Viacom.[70]:218,220,223 In 2005 Viacom divided into CBS Corporation, whose CBS Television Studios subsidiary retained the Star Trek brand, and Viacom, whose Paramount Pictures subsidiary retained the Star Trek film library and rights to make additional films.[71]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek (bottom of page, which has original sources)
That corporations would be a little less eager to tempt Anonymous.
It's available on google code still. It's a little bit of a pain to build...I had to combine the HermitAndroid and HermitLibrary src into the Tricorder project, and then delete said libraries. (but I build with CLI, eclipse may end up being easy peasy) svn checkout http://moonblink.googlecode.com/svn/trunk moonblink-read-only As I'm not an anonymous coward, if I distributed the APK, would the DMCA trolls smash my head open?
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
Klingon cruisers are definitely equipped with photon torpedoes in-canon; they use they against V'Ger in ST:TMP. Birds of Prey fire torpedoes in ST6. It is a cloaked Bird of Prey that fires while cloaked, so its possible previous variations were different; Christopher Lloyd'd (Kruge's) ship in ST3 destroyed the Grissom with an undisclosed weapon that were probably disruptors, though later, after being damaged it alternates and fires what are almost definitely torpedoes.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
svn checkout http ://moonblink.googlecode.com/svn/trunk moonblink-read-only
(remove the space...can't stop it from being turned into a link)
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
Look and feel can be covered by a design patent.
However I would think any such design patent would be expired or moot given the time frames involved.
I hadn't heard of this app before. Thanks to CBS giving it some free publicity, I have now, and found the apk on another site.
Pretty cool app. Thank you CBS and your lawyers for cluing me to it.
Substitute Ferengi (fused with tribble DNA) for MPAA and that should help the conceptualization.
The summary includes a link to the wiki article about it being killed by lawyers. This in turn includes the text of the DMCA takedown notice. Take a look:
Now, I used to have an app on my Palm PDA that pretended to be a tricorder but didn't actually do anything (other than make some chirp noises and display various jokes). That's not what this is; this "tricorder" app displays the outputs from various sensors on an Android phone. You can get a magnetic compass, sound data from the microphone, GPS data, etc. The DMCA takedown isn't about this functionality, but just about the LCARS interface.
The solution is obvious: reskin the app, using an Android sort of theme, and for extra safety change the name. The result shouldn't bother CBS anymore.
I don't even really like LCARS much.
P.S. I presume that CBS will go after the people who install LCARS themes on their desktops. What a waste of time.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I had a joke app like this on my old PalmOS devices. It didn't have any real scanning functions, it had configurable messages you could bring up after a "scan" by pressing one of the scroll buttons on the PDA. I programmed messages into it like "No intelligent life found" and "Biohazard: Extreme bacterial infestation detected" and "Methane eruption source located"
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
If it's about the trademark, why file for a DMCA takedown, since that's for copyrights, not trademarks.
According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorder In Gene Roddenberry contract if any of the technology in star trek gets invented they can use the name free of charge. Is it that now he is gone they will ignore that part of there original contract?
The take down the free Android version but leave the pay-for iPhone version?
http://web.me.com/mike.mcfin/iLCARS/iLCARS.html
I wonder why CBS was so clueless? It was FREE ADVERTISING! Its not in a competing market . Everyone who gets this fun app, or shows it to their friends is reminding everyone of the Star Trek series and movies. Some (small, but not zero) number of those people will go home and rent or stream one of the shows.
It was a really fun app - and impressive for just how much the sensors on a modern phone can do.
I have two problems with what you're saying:
1.) Moonblink's Tricorder app was neither made nor intended to divert profits or attention away from the Star Trek franchise/collection of works. In fact, it was written in homage to the series, and it's really hard to imagine how it could even unintentionally harm CBS in any way, shape or form, especially given that the app (and the part of Star Trek it's emulating) is fairly trivial. It was basically harmless. CBS squelching it seems more out of spite or misguided self-preservation than anything else.
2.) What if CBS doesn't make a Tricorder app -- or doesn't even intend to? If CBS can't produce or deliver something which a lot of people enjoy (or so it seems), and a fan of the franchise can and does, why should CBS actively prevent the fan from doing so? If they can't do it (and don't even want to), no one can? That seems awfully childish. Especially considering -- and I'm repeating myself here -- the Tricorder app posed absolutely no threat to the brand, and may have even earned it a tiny bit of recognition. It never purported to be official, authentic, or representative of CBS in any way, shape or form (actually, I think it purported to not represent CBS at all).
This isn't piracy. This is an original creation that bore a mere cosmetic resemblance to certain elements of a fictional universe and was not released for a profit -- additionally, its source code is freely and publicly available. There was no real or even potential harm being done to CBS, Star Trek, or anything related, as far as I can see. Why should CBS be acting against things that do it no harm? Is there something I'm missing?
Well, ever since they stopped the Star Trek series, it's still been going on in the minds of fans.
The only chance CBS has of truely killing this brand is by making sure it isn't referenced anywhere.
It's the only way to ensure they will fail when they will inevitably try to resurrect the Star Trek franchise.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
The app is surprisingly useful: accelerometer, audio spectrum analyzer, compass to name a few... it does everything you'd expect a "real" tricorder to do, with the only limitations being the phone hardware.
exactly, it is surprisingly useful. Surely it's possible for the app author to have the app exist just without a lCars skin? (maybe someone else can make one)
I mean, seriously, fuck you CBS, for ending my last bit of nerdiness fun with Star Trek. CBS have well and truly killed the innocent fun of ST more effectively than any Borg could. If I could shit in their mouths I would for the crap that dribbles of their chins.
Thank you moonblink for giving us this app while we could have it, and I will continue to enjoy it on my droid while I can. However it is OSS, where can I get the source and can you GPL 3 the shit out of it so that, somehow, CBS can't use the code base?
If Star Trek was a real utopian future, it would be an Open Source one I simply couldn't imaging a situation below happening
My ism, it's full of beliefs.