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Patent Troll Sues X-Plane
symbolset writes "X-plane is a cross-platform flight simulator app, notably the only serious one that supports Mac OSX and Linux. It was the first to include NASA data in their terrain modelling. It's now under threat by an NPE (Non-Practicing Entity) called Uniloc. Uniloc is suing for things X-Plane has done for decades. X-plane cannot afford to defend this suit, so if somebody doesn't step up and defend them then we lose X-plane forever. Quoting: 'I have spoken to a lawyer about this, and I am told that it will cost me about $1,500,000 (one and a half million dollars) to defend this suit. He also told me that it should take about two to three years to defend. This is more money than I have made selling Android Apps in the first place.'"
Where did "selling Android Apps" enter the picture? Turns out the patent has nothing to do with "things X-Plane has done for decades". Couldn't the editors have checked that?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
...but (FTFA)
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
This article has a picture of the perp: "Uniloc founder hits back after Minecraft fans vent fury in "disgusting" emails ".
From the caption: Ric Richardson, who sued Microsoft in 2003 for violating his patent relating to technology designed to deter software piracy. The parties settled out of court. Guess he's going to be busy with more e-mails and other stuff (pizzas, subscriptions, "police woman" strippers, etc.)
I'm curious, what happens if they simply let this float to the courtroom?
I'm sure the developers of Flightgear would be pleased to hear their efforts aren't serious.
One day I'll come on slashdot and read "Patent Troll had his legs broken by unknown assailants, was tarred and then dumped in a bin of shredded legal papers. :
... and I ain't bitin'
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
* Laminar Research is being sued specifically for the Android version
* Uniloc is suing Laminar Research because X-Plane phones home to validate it's license
* X-Plane is using a system for license validation provided by Google. Nearly everyone else in the Android market is using this same code, so Uniloc is not going to stop here.
I would say Laminar Research needs to get EFF on the phone but I don't know if they would help defend a commercial product.
You need to move to a free country. Innovation is dead in this country. If you don't have several million dollars, you're nobody. You aren't entitled to legal protection, you're just a consumer waiting to be extorted. I'm not saying this to be sarcastic or political; I mean it. Move your development overseas, contribute under an alias, use Tor, whatever it takes. The United States is not a place for innovators or creators to be right now. It is, however, a great place for lawyers and thieves.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Is that you Mr. Uniloc?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Isn't it cheaper, not to mention more socially responsible, to simply bomb that company's headquarters?
Ezekiel 23:20
http://www.x-plane.com/x-world/lawsuit/details/
Details on the site say that it is things OTHER PROGRAMS have done for decades, not explicitly X-Plane.
Claims that their patent is violated if you are "making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing Android based applications for use on cellular phones and/or tablet devices that require communication with a server to perform a license check to prevent the unauthorized use of said application"
Telling the troll to spend all the money on defending onself seems to be the best bet to win.
I don't know what the situation is here of course, but it'd be a serious shame if the X-plane product folded. For the last few releases, it's been clearly a notch or two above the Microsoft simulator as far as a "hardcore hobbyist" sim goes, and it isn't like there's a massive company behind it. They're a pretty small operation I think, trying to do something cool in what is for most purposes a dead gaming genre.
Be a real shame, it would.
I would say Laminar Research needs to get EFF on the phone but I don't know if they would help defend a commercial product.
beyond just the license, the EFF might not feel especially warm feelings towards someone whose software 'phones home' without the user's permission.
coding is life
What makes X Plane more serious than Flight Gear, let alone the only serious one?
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
I actually have mixed feelings about this one. From http://www.x-plane.com/x-world/lawsuit/details/
Paragraph 12 of the lawsuit states: ”Laminar Research is directly infringing one or more claims of the ’067 patent in this judicial district and elsewhere in Texas, including at least claim 107, without the consent or authorization of Uniloc, by or through making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing Android based applications for use on cellular phones and/or tablet devices that require communication with a server to perform a license check to prevent the unauthorized use of said application, including, but not limited to, X-Plane.”
At first I considered donating for the defence, but to donate for defending DRM? Nah, I'll spend that money on popcorn instead.
Looking at the patent, it looks like the patent is on a:
"system comprising: a portable licensing medium configured to communicate with the electronic device and to store license data, the license data configured to be used by the electronic device to determine whether to allow access to the electronic data; and a registration authority configured to communicate with the electronic device"
This sounds like (as referenced in the notes of the patent) a smart-card or dongle system that is centrally administrated. There is no "Portable Licensing Medium" on an iPhone or Android phone that I know of, so there is only 2 of the 3 objects needed by the patent: the Electronic Device (The Phone) and the "Registration Authority" AKA the License server. If they stored the license data on the SD card of an Android phone you may be able to stretch it, but there is no external media slot on the iPhone to store the license key.
I can relate.
sounds like Google needs to tell this troll to bugger off
Where there is obvious prior art - large claims are felony fraud.
Knowingly filing flase claims is a felony in many US states.
Many US states have also ruled that lawyers have an obligation to avoid frivolous, fraudulent or excessive claims.
For example, the judge that sued for $30M for his ruined suit pants was fired and disbarred.
Such people are both dishonest and mentally ill.
They are unfit to practice law.
There are so many unemployed lawyers in the US today, we should actively seek to disbar the bad ones.
Never heard of X-Plane before, but I just bought the Android version. I wuld never have heard aboutt his otherwise. Patent Troll, meet Streisand effect !
The lawsuit lists the addresses of the "Uniloc" corporation. Could we start an "occupy" protest there? If we can't stop the patent system, can we take the law into our own hands?
You Bastard! Now Uniloc will know who else to sue!
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
of U$A broken legal system.
Seriously, come and live in a free country, like somewhere in the European Union.
I got hit by a patent troll a few years back. I used the same technique that I'd used when MSFT once approached us and said they thought we might be infringing on their IP and could we prove that we're not. And again when another large company said we needed to change our logo because it looked like we had dotted a capital 'i', and they owned that. Just ignore them. We got one additional letter from the patent troll, and that was the last ever heard. As someone else has said, these people are looking for deep pools of money.
In the first instance, ignore. If they demand that you must do something by some certain date, ignore. When they send the follow-up, ignore. If they come back a third time, then send a really badly written letter produced on a manual typewriter or written in crayon with a hand-written envelope telling them what they're claiming isn't applicable, but provide no details. Make yourself look small, impoverished and hard work.
Wow, this troll thinks they own ALL implementations of "Software Activation" of any kind.. What a bunch of nimrods! Even their own website is super focused on litigation! http://www.uniloc.com/index.php/intellectual-property/
I can see it now
"Okay we need to find prior art for to break this patent?? Okay task the interns from SanFran unit Baker 12 to run nodes 6854623D - 6854902E to find prior art"
then they come to the courthouse with A LITERAL SEMI-TRUCK LOAD of prior art (and when did WINDOWS start doing GA checks??)
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
"X-plane is a cross-platform flight simulator app, notably the only serious one that supports Mac OSX and Linux."
And here I've been using http://flightgear.org/ all this time. I thought I was using a serious, free, GPL open-source flight simulator that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.. I'm glad this slashdot post came up to tell me I was wrong.
Dude charges for X-plane.. When you decide to charge for software you accept all the financial responsibility for defending it against litigation. Welcome to it.
Is at that fuck again. Fuck them.
This is a detailed and substantiated story. You seem real trustworthy. No need for links, names or anything like that to prove it. I feel ya, bro.
No, seriously, without any details it just makes a nice karma-whoring post (seems to be effective, too). It's a waste to post in as AC, though.
Austin Meyer is a total asshole. As a paying customer, he treated me like a pirate the one time I asked a support question on his web site. I hope he loses a lot of money.
Just the one?
Did it occur to him that perhaps there might be a lawyer who is willing to defend this for less?
Make a Kickstarter project to raise money for the defense!!!!!!!
IANAL but here was the story from earlier today Easy Fix For Software Patents Found In US Patent Act. I think will go and email the x-plane guy about it as it could be that "Stanford law professor Mark Lemley" may be willing to do some pro-bono work. Or easily ask the EFF and google to chip in. Can't quite see how this company is getting away with this.
Jesus Christ, I cannot believe this. This is really horrible news. Not only is X-Plane the best flight sim out there and I'm flying it for more than 8 years now, it also always used to be the best example for me that a smart guy can make a living nowadays simply by selling software. (They started as a one man company and I think by now are about 4 or something; it's hard to tell because there are so many dedicated hobbyists helping out for free. Not even Microsoft could harm Austin, and now that.
I hope the people at this "Uniloc" will rot in hell!
X-Plane wasn't free software. It wasn't even open source software (still a bastardization). It was a closed-source pay-to-play game, which do not have a spot in the future of gaming. Good riddance to trash.
He's using the google API
Another mobile app dev gets the shaft from a patent troll. Well, I bought the app for my iPad and have had it on my Mac for years, so I think I've donated to the legal defense fund. I do have to say that Google should be addressing this as I can't see how they are not responsible if it's their API presumably violating the patent. Not sure how the devs using the API could be held accountable, but that's why I have a friend who is a patent attorney.
A firearm, bullets some beans and bus fare.
The beans are so the bus experience is authentic.
No money for law suits? Simple: kill those criminals who sue you. That would bring some reason back into this sick world.
He should try contacting the Electronic Frontiers Foundation to see if they could help him.
It seems a USB key plugged into a smartphone would qualify.
And under the tortured logic of lawyers and patents I wonder if a cryptographically signed electronic file could qualify as "a portable licensing medium". Heck, a piece of paper with a barcode or QR code might actually qualify.
Now we see why things are so so screwed up when it comes to IP as the lawyers are not going to kill of their cash cow.
That is just ludicrous.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/14/1339255/easy-fix-for-software-patents-found-in-us-patent-act
Quote:
"(Note: I have enough money to defend thus suit all the way through trial without it being a severe financial hardship, so please do not give if it is a hardship for you. But, if you would like to make a contribution to help with the cause because you want to help stop people like this, then it will surely be appreciated!)"
If the suit costs too much to defent, instead of simply walking away, open up the source under a gpl license, including the data if it can be gpl'd, otherwise LGPL the data or use a similar FOSS license for it, or just donate the data to the public.
The project will live on, the developer can hide his money and continue to make money with support.
Open, baby! Open! Open baby! Open!
He was clever with his language to say that he has not made $1.5M selling android apps, but he certainly has made that and much much more selling the PC apps.
He flies a $500,000 Cirrus SR-22, and drives a Corvette.
see slashdot story from yesterday: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/14/1339255/easy-fix-for-software-patents-found-in-us-patent-act
from scanning over it the patent describes "System and method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data" which is not a valid patent claim (as it is "the target" and not "the means of reaching the target").
Flight Gear, FAA, check.
Check out their Professional and Institutional Page:
http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/Professional_and_educational_FlightGear_users
this is cool:
NASA/Ames Human Centered System Lab - 737NG full scale cockpit simulator developed by LFS Technologies. FlightGear provides visuals for four large screen wrap around displays, improved turbo-fan math models, detailed fuel system models, and extendable network interface to cockpit displays and electronics.
You.. you do realize who NASA is? ;)
and FAA:
ATC Flight Simulator Company builds FAA approved flight simulators, that use FlightGear for the visuals.
- although from looking at their web page it's an older version of Flight Gear but impressive multi-simulator setups.
As for X-Plane, it's a great simulator.
The X-Plane guy is very cool.
The patent troll can go to...
Of fark.com. He recently had to defend against one of these patent trolls. His advice on a TED talk was (if I recall): fight the infringement, not the patent. His response with a lawyer was actually pretty cheap, and asked the plaintiff to circle the infringement and to disclose various things about the shell company. The other side doesn't want battle in court, either. Drew settled for nothing.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
Flight Gear, FAA, check.
Check out their Professional and Institutional Page: http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/Professional_and_educational_FlightGear_users
this is cool: NASA/Ames Human Centered System Lab - 737NG full scale cockpit simulator developed by LFS Technologies. FlightGear provides visuals for four large screen wrap around displays, improved turbo-fan math models, detailed fuel system models, and extendable network interface to cockpit displays and electronics.
You.. you do realize who NASA is? ;)
and FAA: ATC Flight Simulator Company builds FAA approved flight simulators, that use FlightGear for the visuals. - although from looking at their web page it's an older version of Flight Gear but impressive multi-simulator setups.
As for X-Plane, it's a great simulator. The X-Plane guy is very cool. The patent troll can go to...
You know what reading this makes me sure of? That Flight Gear's visuals must be nice. But why don't they use it for the simulation of flight?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Disclaimer: I am a patent lawyer, but not a lawyer for any of the companies named. I am not your lawyer, and this isn't legal advice. It merely represents my own opinion and is for (my) entertainment purposes only.
The business model may suck royally - making a demo that last's 5 minutes, and forcing you to download tons of GB of data even if you are just trying the game - seriously [though the IDEA of download it all, if you like it, just register and you have the full version is a good one] - but the sim, from what I've heard and seen, is incredible - I would hate for this to fuck all that up.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
----
If you believe you can hide in this online world and that the "powers that be" aren't capable of reading off everything you download and that you are really hiding anything, then you are a complete fool.
it is just an android issue, so kill x-plane for android, or find another way to stop people stealing (not having lawfully obtained) software and the issue goes away.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Stress is caused by the difference between what is happening and what one thinks should be happening. In this case, the main stress is caused by spending money and time on a case where you may be ruled against (though I do not see how). Along the way there will be ups and downs as things slowly move forward. There needs to me no stress what so ever.
Here are a couple of ways to look at this situation;
1. I am spending hard earned money to prove that the lawsuit is invalid and I will come out victorious. I may loose and all that money will be wasted.
2. I am spending money to prove my case to the best of my ability. I may win or I may loose but the money is gone and there is nothing I can do about it.
In the first instance one is focused on the uncertain outcome. That causes stress as the possible outcomes change. In the second instance one is focused on the process which causes much less stress. When the question of "Did I do the right thing?" comes up, and it will, just say "I did what I did to the best of my ability" and the stress will melt.
I hate to say it but NASA is a whore when it comes to flight sims, they seem to use every manufacturer or developers flight simulation stuff.
Posting to undo accidental moderation. It was slightly trollish, but I'd meant to mod Funny.
Much Madness is divinest Sense --
To a discerning Eye --
Much Sense -- the starkest Madness
If shit hits the fan then dump the source code on the internet under an open source license of some sort.
1. I don't have any love loss for the guys that make x-plane. I had some technical issues way back when with the game where it would not run, but yet stated that it would run on my hardware and version of OS-X on the side of the box. I emailed the people there (Is it a 1 man office?) and after a few email exchanges was basically told "too bad" and that the requirements were just guesses. I was beyond pissed! If you post requirements on the side of your game, MAKE SURE IT ACTUALLY RUNS ON IT!!! I'm still mad to this day. Anyways...
2. Why doesn't someone (not I) just slip over to Texas and off everyone at places like Uniloc? I mean, come on. It would send a clear message to any future patent trolls out there. Not saying I would do that, but I am saying, that sooner or later, something like this needs to happen. These trolls won't learn their lesson until it does. If their shadow troll company loses too many cases and folds(righthaven), they'll just create another one and continue business as usual and the little guy still loses. So seriously, why does no one (permanently) stop them?
Just my 2 cents.
Seriously asking the community for help?
Open source your game when you "loose" it in the lawsuit...
Thanks,
--TIm