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ZeniMax Files Injunction To Stop Oculus From Selling VR Headsets (gamespot.com)

ZeniMax, the parent company of Fallout and Skyrim developer Bethesda, has filed for an injunction against virtual-reality company Oculus over the recent stolen technology case. The company had accused Oculus of stealing VR-related code, and was subsequently awarded $500 million by a Dallas court earlier this month. ZeniMax has now filed additional papers against Oculus, requesting that Oculus' products using the stolen code be removed from sale. GameSpot reports: Specifically, ZeniMax is seeking to block sales of its mobile and PC developer kits, as well as technology allowing the integration of Oculus Rift with development engines Unreal and Unity, reports Law360. If the injunction isn't granted, ZeniMax wants a share of "revenues derived from products incorporating its intellectual properties," suggesting a 20 percent cut for at least 10 years. ZeniMax argues the previous settlement of $500 million is "insufficient incentive for [Oculus] to cease infringing." Oculus, meanwhile, says that "ZeniMax's motion does not change the fact that the [original] verdict was legally flawed and factually unwarranted. We look forward to filing our own motion to set aside the jury's verdict and, if necessary, filing an appeal that will allow us to put this litigation behind us," the virtual reality company stated.

77 comments

  1. Don't support Bethseda or id by Luthair · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Easy solution, you don't like what these people are doing don't support their products.

    1. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by kronix1986 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Right, which is why I won't buy anything from Oculus given Palmer Luckey (their illustrious founder) bankrolling a pro-Trump shitposting group during the election cycle. https://arstechnica.co.uk/tech...

      "The stream of racist, sexist, and economically illiterate memes appearing in support of Donald Trump during this years' interminable American presidential election is being bankrolled in part by the 24-year-old inventor of Oculus Rift."

      Oculus and Luckey can go fuck themselves.

    2. Re: Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Add Facebook to that list.

    3. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 1

      I like what they're doing a lot. Fuck Palmer Lucky and fuck Oculus.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    4. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Right, which is why I won't buy anything from Oculus given Palmer Luckey (their illustrious founder) bankrolling a pro-Trump shitposting group during the election cycle.

      Do you litmus test every product you buy to make sure its execs agree with your political views before you buy from them? Because I don't. But, then again, I'm not some 3-year-old child throwing a temper tantrum because his candidate lost.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    5. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      why wouldn't you want to? sure, their games kinda sometimes suck and policies and drm suck too. but dammit, they're suing the zuck. that alone makes me wanna go out and BUY something of theirs in support.

    6. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by kronix1986 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Alt-righters crying about citizens exercising their free market rights? It's political correctness gone mad, but you're hardly the first alt-right snowflake who flips out when people refuse to give Drumpf and his merry band of white supremacists any money.

      Thank god the free market allows us to avoid buying products sold by racists, neo-Nazis, fundie Christians/Islamists and any other deplorables, eh?

    7. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Mashiki · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      If you're fighting against a cartoon frog, you've already lost. Just a FYI. Meme magic is superior anyway.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    8. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, meme magic made the president despite a reported 95%+ chance of losing in over 300 polls. So much for reality having a liberal bias.

      Sometimes you just have to accept the empirical evidence of a situation.

    9. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wot? He effectively had an aggregate 20% chance. That's 1 in 5. That's better odds than Russian Roulette. That's not disproving/proving "reality having a liberal bias", it's fucking math, dummy.

      That said, no one should argue the Great Meme War had an impact, in a way like the Sanders grassroots campaign impacted the Democrats.

    10. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by WaffleMonster · · Score: 1

      Right, which is why I won't buy anything from Oculus given Palmer Luckey (their illustrious founder) bankrolling a pro-Trump shitposting group during the election cycle. https://arstechnica.co.uk/tech...

      Palmer is a libertarian who didn't even vote for Trump.

      "The stream of racist, sexist, and economically illiterate memes appearing in support of Donald Trump during this years' interminable American presidential election is being bankrolled in part by the 24-year-old inventor of Oculus Rift."

      Exactly I couldn't have said it better myself. Talking shit about Obummer makes you racist. Talking Shit about Shillary makes you sexist. Talking shit about Netinyahooooo makes you anti-Semitic and voting for Donald Drumpf means you heart Hitler.

      The only one I'm confused about is Billy boy C... when people bring up his murders and rapes and shit. What are they? Billy is white, male and not Jewish. Totally stumped.

      Oculus and Luckey can go fuck themselves.

      Absolutely. Fuck Palmer for selling out and Fuck Oculus for being owned by Facebook.

    11. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well...It's not like I felt bad for pirating Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Dishonored, Evil Within, Wolfenstein, Rage (piece of shit), and probably some others I've forgotten about or wasn't aware of before hearing about this incredible level of faggotry.

    12. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Are you suffering from Trump Acceptance Resistance Disorder?

      Will the protesters eventually come to accept reality? Not just the reality of President Trump (HE WON) but the reality that you can't hold a job and be a full time protester at the same time (unless George Soros hooks you up with that sweet daily protest payout cheese that is.)

    13. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Soros cut them out - so they feel cheated. Understandable, they are like chimps in a zoo.

    14. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      That's actually complete bullshit which mainstream left media pushed and hammered around as usual.

      I've done some reading into this and there's several leaps to conclusions made as part of this story.

      Firstly, we don't know that Palmer had any knowledge of the activities of this group other than "meme magic" and general internet trollery and sillyness, a far far fucking cry from genuine Nazi / racist posts that the group is accused of.

      Secondly, upon doing some reading, I can't find any evidence that this group did anything than produce one single lame billboard which simply said "too big to jail".
      Seriously, I had real difficulty finding actual evidence of what they produced, infact on my search all I found was a couple of posts by people saying exactly the same thing "What did these people actually do?" and thus far, no one can provide anything but one lame billboard.

      It's entirely possible infact that Palmer was actually simply ripped off by Nimble America and the only way they stopped him litigating / calling them out is doing the billboard.

      While Palmer said some dumb trolly stuff, considering his age and reflecting on myself, I've said dumb, hyperboilic trolly shit online over the years when younger too.

      I suspect he did lie about being a Gary Johnson voter and he did infact vote Trump.
      I suspect he owned the Reddit account he was accused of owning, which said some lame and stupid things if I recall about democracy.

      All said and done though, what he does with his PERSONAL money in his own time is none of my business, it was kinda dumb and handled poorly but until someone can actually provide for me irrefutable evidence that he ACTUALLY KNEW that this was a "Neo Nazi" group AND some evidence of their "Neo Nazi" postings and work, then I don't know what to say, just people leaping to conclusions because "I hate Trump, all righties are Nazis!"

      (Note: Not an American, I have nothing in this game, except I am sick to high heavens of misrepresentations of the truth in media, be it omitting details, exaggerating details, clickbait headlines, leaps to conclusions and other such things.)

      Note 2: If you can and will provide evidence that Nimble America really genuinely produced nasty shit, I'll gladly apologise, however I still may not be convinced Palmer was actively aware of this and pushing it. Possible but nothing anyone can ever know for certain.

    15. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by harlequinn · · Score: 1

      He didn't say he was an alt-righter. I don't see anywhere you can infer it from either.

      Writing "political correctness" and "snowflake" as a stab back to the right is too obvious - I don't know why people keep trying it. On top of that, you're not using either term correctly (since it has nothing to do with political correctness and you have no evidence of him being a snowflake).

      Can you answer his question? Do you litmus test every product? I get the feeling you don't. As others have pointed out, you probably haven't and can't verify the story about Luckey either.

      Try harder.

    16. Re: Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MAGA!

    17. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The left pushing fake news? I was told those were the smart ones!

      Seriously, "how-your-oculus-rift-is-secretly-funding-donald-trumps-racist-meme-wars" is something you'd expect from conspiracy blogs ranting about chemtrails.

      The article itself says "It's unclear how much Luckey has actually put into the group.", i.e. it's nothing but speculation and agenda-driven clickbait.

    18. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump is and 8 year pause of the globalist-communist-new-world-order-agenda!! MAGA!!

    19. Re: Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, just a garden variety asshole.

    20. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and any other deplorables

      You mean the millions of unemployed in the rustbelt, or the those squeezed dry by austerity, of the workers who've lost their jobs to outsourcing and H1-Bs?

      Don't worry. You won't have to boycott those trump voters. They don't make anything anymore.

    21. Re: Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is boycotting products for political reasons in any way an example of free market choice?

      It's the *exact* opposite.

    22. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you think Palmer Luckey funded all pro-Trump memes, esp. the questionable ones?

      Are you feeling well? Do you think you should be talking to someone?

    23. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am poor , which is why I won't buy anything from Oculus given Palmer Luckey

      There you go i fixed it for you !

      have a nice day

    24. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      tough words bro! MAGA! your on your way to the top, maybe one day you'll get a job and you can pay for your deploreable parent's oxy instead of tax payers! Hope you get to that before Trump takes your mommy and daddy's ACA coverage and SSDI aware =) MAGA BRO

    25. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't need to accept anything, I can forever operate at a level of amused detachment. I'm white, rich, male, and educated. Trump & GOP policies will take resources from Trump supporters and put them in my pocket. Sure he'll destroy things I care about, but I will likely be able to buy myself out of the problems. It will unduly benefit me and all my other urban, rich, liberal friends. I can assuage any guilt by redistributing these resources as I see fit.

      Meanwhile I can fight him at every opportunity *while* enjoying the tears of uneducated, drug addicted rural whites as he and the GOP raid their SSDI, healthcare and pills =) MAGA mother fucker!

    26. Re:Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I won't give money to Oculus because they are owned by Facebook, because they require that you run spyware to use the hardware and because their product is inferior to the Vive.

    27. Re: Don't support Bethseda or id by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Parent might not want to play the inconsistency card or the ad hominem card or the hypocrisy card or the childish card.

  2. Biggest troll there is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A troll with money is a terrible thing isn't it.
    They never did anything even related to VR. Only because that one guy who used to work for them also worked on the side on VR, they claim his work is theirs. This is why contracts that says the company own EVERYTHING you make or work on while in employment, should be illegal.

    1. Re: Biggest troll there is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be honest, I don't know anything about this case either, but zenimax isn't publicy doing anything related to VR at this time... Although the tes and fallout series would be excellent candidates for VR games, i doubt, that they would develop something on the hardware side which would be of interest to oculus. In my opinion it could really only be a side project of some employee which maybe changed the team and brought his work with him, so I guess the parent isnt totaly wrong here

    2. Re:Biggest troll there is... by Truekaiser · · Score: 1

      Be careful when you sign employment contracts. Some stipulate that as long as you are employed your creations belong to the company.

    3. Re:Biggest troll there is... by geoskd · · Score: 2

      They never did anything even related to VR. Only because that one guy who used to work for them also worked on the side on VR, they claim his work is theirs. This is why contracts that says the company own EVERYTHING you make or work on while in employment, should be illegal.

      There is a huge overlap between fast and powerful rendering engines and VR. Even while it was still Id, Carmack had an express interest in VR, and that was no small part of the value Id had when it was sold. For Carmack to subsequently leave and take that value with him to join a startup *using* much of the material he developed while at Id (note I said material, not knowledge), is simply unconscionable, and Carmack and Oculus are in deep shit as a result.

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  3. How can Oculus know which code to remove? by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Carmack posted something pretty long saying he was not only extremely disappointed in Zenimax's expert witness, but was essentially barred from seeing the evidence he used. How can you remove stolen code if you don't know what to remove?

    While it appears that Zenimax is going for the jugular here, it is almost certainly a negotiating tactic to get a large stake in Oculus. They're not interested in VR, but it would be a safe way for them to keep a foot planted in the market should it become big enough.

    1. Re:How can Oculus know which code to remove? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're not interested in VR

      I like the part where you're talking out of your ass.

    2. Re:How can Oculus know which code to remove? by MikeJones8766 · · Score: 1

      right after receiving the lawsuit notice, Carmack used google search on how to wipe his hard drive and then did so on a bunch of computers and usb drives.

      Got a source for that?

    3. Re: How can Oculus know which code to remove? by stevedog · · Score: 2

      I am strongly in favor of Oculus in the overall case, and I had never heard anything about the part with Google searches or lots of different devices, but unfortunately, the fact that he wiped his computer almost immediately after hearing about the case was one of the few pieces of meaningful evidence Zenimax had, without which they likely would've lost the case altogether.

    4. Re: How can Oculus know which code to remove? by stevedog · · Score: 3, Informative

      Here's a source (and apparently there was a Google search): http://www.pcgamer.com/zenimax...

    5. Re: How can Oculus know which code to remove? by MikeJones8766 · · Score: 1

      Interesting, thanks.

    6. Re: How can Oculus know which code to remove? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Two takeaways here:
      1) Don't steal code.
      2) Don't use Google search for sensitive topics.

    7. Re: How can Oculus know which code to remove? by citizenr · · Score: 1

      which is exactly what anybody with extensive hentai pr0n collection would do /a friend told me, yes

      --
      Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
    8. Re: How can Oculus know which code to remove? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like SCO vs. Linux all over again. Given the money at stake, it just seems a way of grinding down the competition.

      The two bits of source code that would ve relevent are the detection of orientation/position plus smoothing/filtering and the rendering of the scene to align with the two eye lenses.

      Both are basically mathematics.
       

    9. Re: How can Oculus know which code to remove? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why wouldn't he already know about CCleaner and its "wipe free space" feature?
      Everyone IT-literate should already know that.

      Who's to say the "search" wasn't done after the fact since the evidence is being withheld from cross-examination?
      A timeframe of minutes makes me wonder.

  4. Sensible legal move. by NimbleSquirrel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Regardless of how I feel about each of the parties, in the long run I believe that Facebook/Occulus have the resources to drag this case for years by which point either VR will be dead or the lawyer's fees will outweigh any potential wins either party would make. Zenimax should know this, so filing for an injunction is really a sensible legal move here.

    On one hand this will allow Zenimax to effectively re-argue the IP portion section of their case to a Judge instead of to a Jury, especially since it was determined that there was an NDA breach and misappropriation of source code. There is a chance (albeit a very slim one), that this could even go in their favour.

    But, on the other hand (and what I believe this is really about), is Zenimax showing Occulus that they won't back down in the face of Occulus's public claims to appeal the original case. This is about forcing Occulus to negotiate a settlement and bring and end the case now.

    Of course it could be that Zenimax want to win this case at all costs, in which their chances if getting a quick and easy win are slim-to-none.

    1. Re:Sensible legal move. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      judges being more open to injunctions has shortened the case time in many IP cases.

  5. Holding Back Progress by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 1

    I think that it is crap like this that is going to delay the release of decent VR well past the point it becomes viable and enjoyable, and maybe even tank the entire endeavor. All these companies trying to be first out the gate, by hook or by crook, and ultimately holding the entire technology back.

    --
    I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
    1. Re:Holding Back Progress by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 3, Informative

      What Oculus is doing is not the entirety of VR. HTC Vive is far superior technologically and in the overall user experience.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    2. Re:Holding Back Progress by aktw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is hardly what's holding consumer VR back. Lack of compelling user-experiences outside of some very niche examples are.

    3. Re: Holding Back Progress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Porn. It's not going to be niche.

    4. Re: Holding Back Progress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HTC's Lightroom motion capture may be superior, but that's about it. All the innovation of the display itself with low latency, low persistence, low motion sickness, was figured out by Oculus.

    5. Re: Holding Back Progress by Khyber · · Score: 1

      No, that was figured out by companies which had worked with VR/3D headsets LONG ago. Guess you never played a mech battle game in the arcade where you had to pull down a helmet over your head (and hold onto the control sticks attached to it) back in the 90s.

      High-res dual LCD screens, high refresh rate. Too bad the game itself was low resolution.

      This shit isn't new, at all.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    6. Re:Holding Back Progress by rsmith-mac · · Score: 1

      It's nice to have competition in the marketplace; I don't think things would be nearly as good with just HTC or Oculus.

      However the Rift and Vive are not perfect substitutes. The Vive Lighthouse system is fantastic for room-scale, but (relatively speaking) a pain in the ass to install if all you want to do is sit in a chair. And the lenses HTC uses induce a lot of chromatic aberration, which really does a number on text. So having either the Rift or the Vive pulled off the market would be a notable loss.

    7. Re: Holding Back Progress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You really should try PlayStation VR instead. It's far superior in precisely those areas.

    8. Re:Holding Back Progress by GuB-42 · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Vive is not "far superior". In fact most testers seem to prefer the Oculus headset. The Vive wins because of its room-scale tracking and better controllers. It means the ideal system would be a mix of the two.
      The point is that they should work together. The technological challenges of VR are too great to waste resources fighting each other. If they overdo it they may kill off VR for everyone.

    9. Re: Holding Back Progress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have been doing this for decades..in the era of UNIX workstations, you would have the problem of different releases of applications only working with certain versions of VR hardware API's. Wanted to use a Nintendo PowerGlove? That only works with WhizzyViz 2.5 . They haven't got a driver for 3.0

      Theb they would chsrge mega-bucks fir the development version. Whixh wouldn't run released applications. You can buy the consumer edition for $200 but you can''t develop applications on it.

       

    10. Re:Holding Back Progress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right that they should work together. Unfortunately, that's not what Oculus seems to want.

    11. Re:Holding Back Progress by JThundley · · Score: 1

      AMD should stop making processors. The more they fight Intel, the more resources are wasted by both companies that could be spent on making better processors.

      A little bit of a bad analogy, but I'm glad there's competition. I'd hate to only have once choice and have that choice be a monopoly.

    12. Re:Holding Back Progress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The technological challenges of VR are too great to waste resources fighting each other.

      BAHAHAHAHAHA ohhh that's too funny. Both of the aforementioned VR offerings are crap, but not because the challenges are too great. There's a ton of ideas from the 50's and 60's that are getting dusted off because now we have the computing power to actually do them. This stuff is so thoroughly researched it's like inventing a new vacuum cleaner. The only problem the Shittycon Valley asshats have is how to create a you-have-to-come-to-us-for-everything monopoly market... they keep tripping over themselves to do that. That's why their shit always sucks. That and they are all just dumb kids who copy off each other's homework.

  6. But what does this really mean. by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    I just went to burn a CD for the guy the state pays to work with me four hours a day, three days a week. Windows Media Player was throwing an obscure error and VLC wasn't being helpful either. So I did a search for an easy to use program to burn MP3's to an audio CD. I suppose that could be described as researching how to burn MP3's to an audio CD, but I knew exactly how I was supposed to use whatever software I found to do it, I just needed to find software that would just work without complaining.

  7. All I really need for VR by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Is a phone around a $100 that will work with one of those face adapters. https://www.virginmobileusa.co... looks like it will suffice and it just went on sale.

    1. Re:All I really need for VR by Wescotte · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately a phone doesn't really have the power for high end gaming and currently lacks the ability to do positional tracking. This pretty much leaves you with 360 degree video which is really the worst aspect of VR right now.

      If we can get positional tracking and the ability to stream from a PC source (ie Riftcat’s VRidge) then mobile VR has a fighting chance.

  8. Robert Altman is a cunt by 0111+1110 · · Score: 2

    Zenimax games are so bad they are not even worth pirating. Robert Altman is a cunt. Once he took over the company from Chris Weaver it all went to shit. Arena and Daggerfall were good games, but the rest were just a race to the bottom LCD-fest whose only purpose was to make money.

    --
    Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    1. Re:Robert Altman is a cunt by zephvark · · Score: 1

      I expect I should not feed the troll. However, Daggerfall was never a good game. Its largely computer-generated dungeons were insanely repetitive, and the game exploded every time you sneezed. You'd probably die trying to take the elevators, you'd fall through the world in any number of ways, and you'd get arrested by magical police for taking a nap in an entirely empty building... although there was a way to pass loot through the dungeon wall to your horse.

      Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim have various issues, but they are considerably more stable and playable.

    2. Re:Robert Altman is a cunt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Overall I don't play their games anyway. I did play Morrowind for a while but got bored. Never bothered with the sequels. I don't care at all to play Fallout except for 1 & 2 which I bought back in the 90s. I have no reason to start playing FPS games. So it makes it easy for me to ignore them.

      I suspect another poster is right and Facebook will probably just buy them out, fire the management team and keep any developers on board to make VR games.

  9. Violent Buyout Incoming by skaag · · Score: 1

    What might happen, sometime soon: Zuckerberg buys ZeniMax, then proceeds to fire them all and liquidate their assets. It's kinda like taking your cash from your left pocket, to the right pocket, except you eliminated your enemy in the process.

    --

    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...

    1. Re:Violent Buyout Incoming by bongey · · Score: 1

      Yes considering they are only worth 2 billion, and suing for 2 billion is a bit crazy.

  10. Zenimax ButtHurt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Zenimax got half a billion dollars and they're still butthurt?
    Facebook should countersue them into oblivion!

    1. Re:Zenimax ButtHurt by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 1

      Facebook would need to work out a deal with Mehrunes Dagon before being able to sue Zenimax into Oblivion.

    2. Re:Zenimax ButtHurt by geoskd · · Score: 1

      Zenimax got half a billion dollars and they're still butthurt?

      They haven't got the money yet. Thats part of the issue. Oculus filed for an appeal, and as such do not have to pay the judgement until the appeal is over.

      This is a pretty common tactic for a company, even if they know they will probably lose on appeal. The idea is to delay the payment as long as possible on the off chance that the plaintiff will simply fold up shop and go away. At the very least, they can enjoy a few more years of profits in the mean time which may or may not enable them to gain a greater market share, making the judgment easier to pay.

      To counter that, the plaintiff files the injunction. Basically it is argued that the appeal is nothing more than a delaying tactic, and if the judge agrees, then there will be an injunction. This puts tremendous pressure on the defendant to simply pay up. If they don't think the appeal can be won, then they will simply give it up and pay up. If they do think they can win, then they have massive incentive to make sure the appeal happens fast. It effectively pulls the rug out of the "delay the inevitable loss" tactic. The down-side for the plaintiff is that the judge will never allow it unless (s)he believes the defendant is just stalling.

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  11. Instruction set by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Processors have an instruction set. So if you write code to do a task, and then you write it again for someone else, is it not going to be nearly the same? The instruction set limits you. Software patents are stupid.

    1. Re:Instruction set by geoskd · · Score: 1

      So if you write code to do a task, and then you write it again for someone else, is it not going to be nearly the same?

      Hahahahaha, No.

      There are multiple ways of solving, even simple, problems. Some are better than others. Some require a leap of intuition that most people simply will never have. Software patents are no better or worse than any other patents. *All* patents are stupid.

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
    2. Re: Instruction set by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With modern PC's there are about a dozen ways you could implement an algorithm; single-thread CPU, multi-threaded CPU with TBB, OpenGL/DirectX with compute shaders, CUDA, OpenCL, using C++/STL/Boost abd/or AVX instructions.