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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.
Easy solution, you don't like what these people are doing don't support their products.
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.
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.
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
This is hardly what's holding consumer VR back. Lack of compelling user-experiences outside of some very niche examples are.
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.
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.
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