is it just me or is the headline to this story simmilar to saying "bill gates lovers open source, because he worked with steve jobs, who loves company x, who donated to company y, who pressed a law suite aganst sco, for alleged copyright infringment, because sco is suing linux users, who it claims stole their code."?
i did not RTFA but my understanding says its a sun problem with java (if a problem at all!) it is just a case of a user ignoring a security dialog box, and letting java modify their hard drive....
i did not RTFA but my understanding says its a sun problem with java (if a problem at all!) it is just a case of a user ignoring a security dialog box, and letting java modify their hard drive...
not arrogant, ment more as a joke seeing as how the article is about massive bandwidth networks... some people have no sence of humor, not to mention now noone has an excuse not to have RTFA
i think your refering to the speed of the connection to the net, where as the article is (i think) refering to home networks, the slashdot post makes it look like it applies to total net connection though, i doube this works past the transformer comming into your home at that speed, if at all!
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - Three Japanese consumer electronics giants have created a new technology to transport Internet and media signals around the home via the electricity network, Panasonic said on Thursday. Sony (6758.T), Mitsubishi (6503.T) and Matsushita-owned (6752.T) Panasonic have set up the SECA powerline alliance.
Desktop Duel Preview the major OS updates from Apple and Microsoft. Is OS X reason to switch? Plus, the latest Linux goods.
They have developed a system to transfer 170 Megabits per second of data through the power lines of a home, Panasonic researcher Ingo Chmielewski told journalists at the electronics trade fair CeBIT.
He said the technology is already available and introduction depended on government authorization.
The speed is three times faster than wireless technology Wi-Fi and is fast enough for high definition television signals. Unlike wireless alternatives, the powerline technology performance is stable throughout the home. SECA will compete with existing technology from the HomePlug alliance of 50 companies, including Japanese group Sharp (6753.T). The two systems are not compatible.
HomePlug's current standard is only 14 Mbps but it is thought to be working on a faster version.
Sony is also a member of HomePlug, according to the consortium's Web Site and it was unclear if it would be part of both. Sony was not available to comment.
Asked why the three companies came up with their own technology and risked yet another format war in the consumer electronics world, Chmielewski said: "We think our technology is better."
yes, but you try telling big buisness that. all phb's think change = bad! and if they can get sompthing free that doesnt change a whole lot thats what they want. because it wasnt broken before, so why fix it. (i know it was / is broken but it worked so they done see it as broken)
i was just about to say the same thing when i read the parents post, openoffices target audiance are ms office users who when migrating to linux dont want to have to relearn the whole UI, rather just pick up where they left off. Big buisness support this modle so they dont have to retrain alot of their employee's when migrating they simply pick openoffice which is so simmilar to MS office it requires almost no retraning!
my backup browsers are:
lynx and links under linux (usualy when i need to use them is when my gui died)
and for windows... well my backup... wait ive never had a problem with firefox or windows gui so ive never needed a backup!
yeah but dog part value really depreciates once it has met its Dog Equivelant At The House. The market for those parts usualy only resides in 3rd world countries not willing to pay high American Expenceses
why is this post classified flaimbait when all it is is the article, and obvisouly it has brought the text of the article to people who may not otherwise have read it (as shown by the replies)
September 19, 2004 -- Google, $1.67 billion richer from its August initial public offering, is spending its money poaching the brightest minds from arch-rival Microsoft and other tech giants.
Based on the half-dozen hires in recent weeks, Google appears to be planning to launch its own Web browser and other software products to challenge Microsoft.
Google has wooed Joshua Bloch, one of the main developers of the Internet programming language Java, from Sun Microsystems.
The company also hired four people who worked on Microsoft's Web browser, Internet Explorer, and later founded their own company. One of them, Adam Bosworth, is credited with being a driving force not only behind IE, but Microsoft's database-management program, Access.
Most recently, Google grabbed Joe Beda, the lead developer on Avalon, Microsoft's code name for the user interface that will part of the next version of Windows, called Longhorn.
Beda even keeps an online diary of what it's like to be a "Noogler," as new Google employees are called. He won't reveal what he's working on but mentions that each Noogler is given a hat with a propeller on the top.
"Google is a magnetic pull for smart technology people," said Gary Stein, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "They're really trying to broaden their tech base. This is all about putting smart kids in a Google sandbox."
Neither Google nor the employees will comment on the hiring spree, but analysts note that the talent allows the company to challenge Microsoft on its own turf.
Stein said Google could -- and probably is -- working on almost everything. He believes the company will launch a product that searches for online music, because it already has a program that trolls the Web for images.
Other blogs and analysts believe Google is working on an instant-messaging program and a Web browser to challenge Internet Explorer.
The browser strategy is supported by other clues as well. Last month, Google hosted Mozilla Developer Day on its campus, a gathering of programmers that work together to build sequels to the re-named Netscape browser. Mozilla, which is "open source" and available to anyone, could be shaped to Google's specifications and be embedded with Google search, Gmail free e-mail and other Google applications.
"I'm willing to bet that somewhere in the Google computer system are the seeds of a browser," Stein said.
The broader concept Google is pursuing is similar to the "network computer" envisioned by Oracle chief Larry Ellison during a speech in 1995.
The idea is that companies or consumers could buy a machine that costs only about $200, or less, but that has very little hard drive space and almost no software. Instead, users would access a network through a browser and access all their programs and data there.
The concept floundered, but programmers note that Google could easily pick up the ball. Already, its Gmail free e-mail system gives users 100 megabytes of storage space on a remote network -- providing consumers a virtual hard drive.
"I think a similar thing [to the got network computer] is developing in a more organic way now," said Jason Kottke, a New York-based Web developer who follows Google's moves. "People are ready for it. Instead of most of your interaction happening with Windows or Mac, you're spending a lot of time with Google-built interfaces."
On his blog, new Google employee Bosworth describes a "Web services" world where a project could be checked and updated from any terminal on the road -- while other employees can make changes from other places.
Bosworth wouldn't reveal exactly what he's up to at Google, except to say the software he's developing is for "mere mortals. In fact, my Mom."
For as much as outsiders are speculating about Google's next product, so employees inside the company are doing the same thing, Stein said.
"Google's strategy is to throw a handful of seeds and to see what grows," he said.
Daniel Berninger, an old friend, a seriously smart guy and VoIP guru of sorts, and more recently senior analyst, for Tier1 Research, has been a great man to bounce ideas off. He and I have chatted about many things, and each time I come away learning something new. So last week he argued, "in the battle between Bellheads and Netheads, we're all Netheads now." Could not agree more. Here is his long missive on the VoIP insurrection, the best and most definitive essay you will ever read on this technology, where it is headed and why it is important. This is the second of my guest columns series where I bring the experts who know a thing or two about their respective areas of expertise.
What just happened?
The $3 billion dollar budget at Bell Laboratories did not include a single project addressing the use of data networks to transport voice when VocalTec Communications released InternetPhone in February 1995. As of 2004, every project at the post-divestiture AT&T Labs and Lucent Technologies Bell Labs reflects the reality of voice over Internet Protocol. Every major incumbent carrier, and the largest cable television providers, in the United States has announced a VoIP program. And even as some upstart carriers have used VoIP to lower telephony prices dramatically, even more radical innovators threaten to lower the cost of a phone call to zero--to make it free.
The VoIP insurrection over the last decade marks a milestone in communication history no less dramatic than the arrival of the telephone in 1876. We know data networks and packetized voice will displace the long standing pre-1995 world rooted in Alexander Graham Bell's invention. It remains uncertain whether telecom's incumbent carriers and equipment makers will continue to dominate or even survive as the information technology industry absorbs voice as a simple application of the Internet.
The roots of the VoIP insurrection trace back to four synchronistic events in 1968. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled MCI could compete with AT&T using microwave transport on the Chicago to St. Louis route. The same year, the FCC's Carterfone decision forced AT&T to allow customers to attach non-Western Electric equipment, such as new telephones, and modems, to the telephone network. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency issued a contract to Bolt Beranek and Newman for a precursor to the Internet. And in July 1968, Andrew Grove and Gordon Moore founded Intel. Innovation in the communication sector remained the proprietary right of AT&T for most the 20th century, but events in 1968 breached the barriers that kept the telecom and information technology industries apart. For the first two-thirds of the 20th century, AT&T had manned Berlin Wall separating telecommunications and computing, but eventually, these two enormous technology tracks would be unified.
Two entrepreneurs barely out of their teens, Lior Haramaty and Alon Cohen, founded VocalTec Communications in 1993 based on the promise of packet voice technology they observed as members of the Israel Defense Force. Most military command and control used the highly survivable TCP/IP distributed data networks since the 1980's. The challenge of transporting voice over the networks arose as an imperative to support certain very sensitive voice commands like "drop the bomb", but the idea of commercializing packet voice did not occur to anyone until the arrival of Lior and Alon. How could slicing voice into 50 millisecond packets improve the telephone business? The tradition bound telephone industry types or "bellheads" spent their time before 1995 improving the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) not replacing it.
Advances in communication from writing and paper to the printing press, telegraph, and telephone shape human progress. Some might have viewed VoIP as an interesting toy in 1995, but no one presently doubts it will dominate the communication future. The economies of scale assoc
Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court The two-year-old dispute playing out in Federal Court revs up as milestones, court date approach.
Last week, news of Valve finally shipping the Half-Life 2 release candidate to publisher Vivendi Universal Games (VUG) grabbed headlines. However, behind the scenes, the two companies have been involved in a much less upbeat kind of transaction--an ongoing legal battle that has garnered little attention from gamers.
On August 14, 2002, Valve served its then-publisher Sierra On-Line (now Sierra Entertainment, a Vivendi Universal Games brand) with a lawsuit in US District Court of Washington, Western Division, alleging copyright infringement--the result of Sierra placing Valve games in Internet cafes in the US and abroad. "Sierra has in the past and continues to reproduce, use, distribute, and/or license one or more of the Valve Games with regard to 'cyber cafes,'" the complaint read. "Sierra's activities are outside the scope of Sierra's limited license...and therefore constitute copyright infringement in violation of the Copyright Act of 1976."
And so it began.
Since that filing, more than a dozen lawyers have left their stamp on the over 200 documents and exhibits (the most recent filed just last week) that have crossed the desk of the honorable Thomas S. Zilly, the judge mediating the dispute.
Presiding over the claims, counterclaims, motions, answers, declarations, applications, amended complaints, and other minutia of the case, Zilly is in the middle of the legal equivalent of a barroom brawl. In court filings, attorneys for Sierra/VUG allege that Gabe Newell, founder and managing director of Valve, conveyed "misleading half-truth[s]" to them, and that various ensuing conversations between Newell and Sierra/VUG executives were colored with "misrepresentations and concealment." Valve's marketing director Doug Lombardi is also described as having made "false representations" to Sierra/VUG execs.
"Valve sued Vivendi for copyright infringement back in 2002 over their unauthorized distribution of our products to cyber cafes," Lombardi told GameSpot last Friday. "We later had to add breach of contract claims for, among other things, refusing to pay us royalties owed and delaying Condition Zero out of the holiday season."
That lawsuit became more complex when Sierra fought back with a counterclaim. "Almost a year and a half into the lawsuit," Lombardi continued, "Vivendi responded by making a number of claims in an attempt to invalidate our agreement and be awarded the ownership of the Half-Life intellectual property. We expect to prevail in this lawsuit."
Though the density of the legal documents makes for arduous reading, they yield many fascinating nuggets of information. For example, the first Half-Life, which went on to win numerous awards and reap huge profits for both developer and publisher, was delivered to Sierra after an almost laughably meager $800,000 advance--the initial payment was a mere $30,000 when Newell and Sierra On-line reps signed their first software publishing agreement on April 27, 1997.
Currently, the case stands here: After Valve's initial lawsuit alleging that Sierra illegally distributed Half-Life to game cafes, and Sierra/VUG's counterclaim that accuses Valve of circumventing Sierra's retail plans by distributing Valve games via Steam, the two sides have both submitted motions for summary judgment on lesser points.
"Our court date [a jury trial to address the complaint and counterclaim] isn't until March 2005," Lombardi said. "The October 8 motions relate to two legal issues. We expect those issues to be decided in our favor."
For readers not familiar with the case (that is, just about everyone), the overall timeline is referenced in documents filed by VUG attorneys on Wednesday, September 15, 2004. In those documents--a second motion "to compel production of [Half-Life 2] source code"--Sierra/VUG attorneys stated their case in filings as fol
well if i had realized that when i copy/pasted the carrage returns wernt included, i would have manualy added them, but yes they are, i say we all return our carrage returns!
The First Magazine for Technology Projects
Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will. Cover of the first issue of Make.
Coming early in 2005, Make is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). Make comes from O'Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere. It follows in line with the Hacks books and Hardware Hacking Projects, but it takes a highly visual and personal approach.
Our premier issue will show you how to get involved in Kite Aerial Photography -- taking pictures with a camera suspended from a kite. We'll show you how to build an inexpensive rig to hold your camera.
We'll also show you how to make a video camera stabilizer, a do-it-yourself alternative to an expensive Steadicam. And we'll show you how to create a five-in-one cable adapter for connecting to networks. Some projects are strictly for fun, others are very practical, and still others are absolutely astounding.
Make's promise is: If it can be done, we will help you do it. We'll help you make sense of all the technology that's in your life. Make will have a Mobile section providing tips and advice on cell phones, PDAs, and GPS technology; a Home Entertainment section, including managing your digital music and installing home theater equipment; a Cars section looking at the intersection of computers and automobiles; an Online section looking at how power users are using Amazon, eBay, and Google, plus other services; an Imaging section, featuring digital cameras, Photoshop, and managing your photo; and a Computers section that looks at custom hardware as well as wireless and home networking.
Make vs. Buy
Get inside your iPaq.
Make is not another one of those "gadget" magazines that feature products on every page. While we like gadgets as much as the next person, we chose to focus on cool things you can do with technology, not just what to buy. Each of us has plenty of new technology at home and in our briefcase, and we'll write about our experience using this technology. What we are most interested in is the knack for making that technology work the way we want it.
Become a Maker
There are all kinds of Makers, making all kinds of things. Through Make, you will meet extraordinary makers who create one-of-a-kind things for all kinds of reasons. A maker can serve as an intelligent coach, a dependable (and approachable) alpha geek who knows what to do and wants to help you learn how.
Our goal is that all of us can learn to become makers, just as we might learn to cook or use woodworking tools. There are makers at all levels of experience and we can learn from each other. Make will provide a web site for a community of makers who are willing to connect with others to share their experiences and collaborate on new projects.
Learn soldering techniques.
Join Make
If you'd like to learn more about Make, then join the Make mailing list. We'll send you information about subscribing to Make and the announcement of our premier issue.
Slashdot Mirror
is it just me pr did slashdot add a "daypass" if you watch a commercial to see unreleased stories yet instead of subscribing?
is it just me or is the headline to this story simmilar to saying "bill gates lovers open source, because he worked with steve jobs, who loves company x, who donated to company y, who pressed a law suite aganst sco, for alleged copyright infringment, because sco is suing linux users, who it claims stole their code."?
where is more's law when ya need it!
i did not RTFA but my understanding says its a sun problem with java (if a problem at all!) it is just a case of a user ignoring a security dialog box, and letting java modify their hard drive....
i did not RTFA but my understanding says its a sun problem with java (if a problem at all!) it is just a case of a user ignoring a security dialog box, and letting java modify their hard drive...
not arrogant, ment more as a joke seeing as how the article is about massive bandwidth networks... some people have no sence of humor, not to mention now noone has an excuse not to have RTFA
with 170Mb internet connection, i dunno....
i think your refering to the speed of the connection to the net, where as the article is (i think) refering to home networks, the slashdot post makes it look like it applies to total net connection though, i doube this works past the transformer comming into your home at that speed, if at all!
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - Three Japanese consumer electronics giants have created a new technology to transport Internet and media signals around the home via the electricity network, Panasonic said on Thursday. Sony (6758.T), Mitsubishi (6503.T) and Matsushita-owned (6752.T) Panasonic have set up the SECA powerline alliance.
Desktop Duel
Preview the major OS updates from Apple and Microsoft. Is OS X reason to switch? Plus, the latest Linux goods.
They have developed a system to transfer 170 Megabits per second of data through the power lines of a home, Panasonic researcher Ingo Chmielewski told journalists at the electronics trade fair CeBIT.
He said the technology is already available and introduction depended on government authorization.
The speed is three times faster than wireless technology Wi-Fi and is fast enough for high definition television signals. Unlike wireless alternatives, the powerline technology performance is stable throughout the home. SECA will compete with existing technology from the HomePlug alliance of 50 companies, including Japanese group Sharp (6753.T). The two systems are not compatible.
HomePlug's current standard is only 14 Mbps but it is thought to be working on a faster version.
Sony is also a member of HomePlug, according to the consortium's Web Site and it was unclear if it would be part of both. Sony was not available to comment.
Asked why the three companies came up with their own technology and risked yet another format war in the consumer electronics world, Chmielewski said: "We think our technology is better."
i got a decent size list if you got a place to post it. sofar i have had no false positives, i still get a few ads though, not mand, a handfull a day
yes, but you try telling big buisness that. all phb's think change = bad! and if they can get sompthing free that doesnt change a whole lot thats what they want. because it wasnt broken before, so why fix it. (i know it was / is broken but it worked so they done see it as broken)
i was just about to say the same thing when i read the parents post, openoffices target audiance are ms office users who when migrating to linux dont want to have to relearn the whole UI, rather just pick up where they left off. Big buisness support this modle so they dont have to retrain alot of their employee's when migrating they simply pick openoffice which is so simmilar to MS office it requires almost no retraning!
my backup browsers are: lynx and links under linux (usualy when i need to use them is when my gui died) and for windows... well my backup... wait ive never had a problem with firefox or windows gui so ive never needed a backup!
would you like a gmail invite? i have plenty? just email me at emberingdead@ no space here gmail.com
it still went POP! thats why i never got to see it.
yeah but dog part value really depreciates once it has met its Dog Equivelant At The House. The market for those parts usualy only resides in 3rd world countries not willing to pay high American Expenceses
In Soviet Russia, your dog OWNS YOU!
well over here kwiki is responding quite fast, however chanel 9 isnt responding at all, wonder on what wiki server there using?
oops *blushes* didnt mean to, i even used the preview button. my mistake, sorry.
why is this post classified flaimbait when all it is is the article, and obvisouly it has brought the text of the article to people who may not otherwise have read it (as shown by the replies)
September 19, 2004 -- Google, $1.67 billion richer from its August initial public offering, is spending its money poaching the brightest minds from arch-rival Microsoft and other tech giants.
Based on the half-dozen hires in recent weeks, Google appears to be planning to launch its own Web browser and other software products to challenge Microsoft.
Google has wooed Joshua Bloch, one of the main developers of the Internet programming language Java, from Sun Microsystems.
The company also hired four people who worked on Microsoft's Web browser, Internet Explorer, and later founded their own company. One of them, Adam Bosworth, is credited with being a driving force not only behind IE, but Microsoft's database-management program, Access.
Most recently, Google grabbed Joe Beda, the lead developer on Avalon, Microsoft's code name for the user interface that will part of the next version of Windows, called Longhorn.
Beda even keeps an online diary of what it's like to be a "Noogler," as new Google employees are called. He won't reveal what he's working on but mentions that each Noogler is given a hat with a propeller on the top.
"Google is a magnetic pull for smart technology people," said Gary Stein, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "They're really trying to broaden their tech base. This is all about putting smart kids in a Google sandbox."
Neither Google nor the employees will comment on the hiring spree, but analysts note that the talent allows the company to challenge Microsoft on its own turf.
Stein said Google could -- and probably is -- working on almost everything. He believes the company will launch a product that searches for online music, because it already has a program that trolls the Web for images.
Other blogs and analysts believe Google is working on an instant-messaging program and a Web browser to challenge Internet Explorer.
The browser strategy is supported by other clues as well. Last month, Google hosted Mozilla Developer Day on its campus, a gathering of programmers that work together to build sequels to the re-named Netscape browser. Mozilla, which is "open source" and available to anyone, could be shaped to Google's specifications and be embedded with Google search, Gmail free e-mail and other Google applications.
"I'm willing to bet that somewhere in the Google computer system are the seeds of a browser," Stein said.
The broader concept Google is pursuing is similar to the "network computer" envisioned by Oracle chief Larry Ellison during a speech in 1995.
The idea is that companies or consumers could buy a machine that costs only about $200, or less, but that has very little hard drive space and almost no software. Instead, users would access a network through a browser and access all their programs and data there.
The concept floundered, but programmers note that Google could easily pick up the ball. Already, its Gmail free e-mail system gives users 100 megabytes of storage space on a remote network -- providing consumers a virtual hard drive.
"I think a similar thing [to the got network computer] is developing in a more organic way now," said Jason Kottke, a New York-based Web developer who follows Google's moves. "People are ready for it. Instead of most of your interaction happening with Windows or Mac, you're spending a lot of time with Google-built interfaces."
On his blog, new Google employee Bosworth describes a "Web services" world where a project could be checked and updated from any terminal on the road -- while other employees can make changes from other places.
Bosworth wouldn't reveal exactly what he's up to at Google, except to say the software he's developing is for "mere mortals. In fact, my Mom."
For as much as outsiders are speculating about Google's next product, so employees inside the company are doing the same thing, Stein said.
"Google's strategy is to throw a handful of seeds and to see what grows," he said.
The Voice over IP Insurrection
Daniel Berninger, an old friend, a seriously smart guy and VoIP guru of sorts, and more recently senior analyst, for Tier1 Research, has been a great man to bounce ideas off. He and I have chatted about many things, and each time I come away learning something new. So last week he argued, "in the battle between Bellheads and Netheads, we're all Netheads now." Could not agree more. Here is his long missive on the VoIP insurrection, the best and most definitive essay you will ever read on this technology, where it is headed and why it is important. This is the second of my guest columns series where I bring the experts who know a thing or two about their respective areas of expertise.
What just happened?
The $3 billion dollar budget at Bell Laboratories did not include a single project addressing the use of data networks to transport voice when VocalTec Communications released InternetPhone in February 1995. As of 2004, every project at the post-divestiture AT&T Labs and Lucent Technologies Bell Labs reflects the reality of voice over Internet Protocol. Every major incumbent carrier, and the largest cable television providers, in the United States has announced a VoIP program. And even as some upstart carriers have used VoIP to lower telephony prices dramatically, even more radical innovators threaten to lower the cost of a phone call to zero--to make it free.
The VoIP insurrection over the last decade marks a milestone in communication history no less dramatic than the arrival of the telephone in 1876. We know data networks and packetized voice will displace the long standing pre-1995 world rooted in Alexander Graham Bell's invention. It remains uncertain whether telecom's incumbent carriers and equipment makers will continue to dominate or even survive as the information technology industry absorbs voice as a simple application of the Internet.
The roots of the VoIP insurrection trace back to four synchronistic events in 1968. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled MCI could compete with AT&T using microwave transport on the Chicago to St. Louis route. The same year, the FCC's Carterfone decision forced AT&T to allow customers to attach non-Western Electric equipment, such as new telephones, and modems, to the telephone network. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency issued a contract to Bolt Beranek and Newman for a precursor to the Internet. And in July 1968, Andrew Grove and Gordon Moore founded Intel. Innovation in the communication sector remained the proprietary right of AT&T for most the 20th century, but events in 1968 breached the barriers that kept the telecom and information technology industries apart. For the first two-thirds of the 20th century, AT&T had manned Berlin Wall separating telecommunications and computing, but eventually, these two enormous technology tracks would be unified.
Two entrepreneurs barely out of their teens, Lior Haramaty and Alon Cohen, founded VocalTec Communications in 1993 based on the promise of packet voice technology they observed as members of the Israel Defense Force. Most military command and control used the highly survivable TCP/IP distributed data networks since the 1980's. The challenge of transporting voice over the networks arose as an imperative to support certain very sensitive voice commands like "drop the bomb", but the idea of commercializing packet voice did not occur to anyone until the arrival of Lior and Alon. How could slicing voice into 50 millisecond packets improve the telephone business? The tradition bound telephone industry types or "bellheads" spent their time before 1995 improving the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) not replacing it.
Advances in communication from writing and paper to the printing press, telegraph, and telephone shape human progress. Some might have viewed VoIP as an interesting toy in 1995, but no one presently doubts it will dominate the communication future. The economies of scale assoc
Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court
The two-year-old dispute playing out in Federal Court revs up as milestones, court date approach.
Last week, news of Valve finally shipping the Half-Life 2 release candidate to publisher Vivendi Universal Games (VUG) grabbed headlines. However, behind the scenes, the two companies have been involved in a much less upbeat kind of transaction--an ongoing legal battle that has garnered little attention from gamers.
On August 14, 2002, Valve served its then-publisher Sierra On-Line (now Sierra Entertainment, a Vivendi Universal Games brand) with a lawsuit in US District Court of Washington, Western Division, alleging copyright infringement--the result of Sierra placing Valve games in Internet cafes in the US and abroad. "Sierra has in the past and continues to reproduce, use, distribute, and/or license one or more of the Valve Games with regard to 'cyber cafes,'" the complaint read. "Sierra's activities are outside the scope of Sierra's limited license...and therefore constitute copyright infringement in violation of the Copyright Act of 1976."
And so it began.
Since that filing, more than a dozen lawyers have left their stamp on the over 200 documents and exhibits (the most recent filed just last week) that have crossed the desk of the honorable Thomas S. Zilly, the judge mediating the dispute.
Presiding over the claims, counterclaims, motions, answers, declarations, applications, amended complaints, and other minutia of the case, Zilly is in the middle of the legal equivalent of a barroom brawl. In court filings, attorneys for Sierra/VUG allege that Gabe Newell, founder and managing director of Valve, conveyed "misleading half-truth[s]" to them, and that various ensuing conversations between Newell and Sierra/VUG executives were colored with "misrepresentations and concealment." Valve's marketing director Doug Lombardi is also described as having made "false representations" to Sierra/VUG execs.
"Valve sued Vivendi for copyright infringement back in 2002 over their unauthorized distribution of our products to cyber cafes," Lombardi told GameSpot last Friday. "We later had to add breach of contract claims for, among other things, refusing to pay us royalties owed and delaying Condition Zero out of the holiday season."
That lawsuit became more complex when Sierra fought back with a counterclaim. "Almost a year and a half into the lawsuit," Lombardi continued, "Vivendi responded by making a number of claims in an attempt to invalidate our agreement and be awarded the ownership of the Half-Life intellectual property. We expect to prevail in this lawsuit."
Though the density of the legal documents makes for arduous reading, they yield many fascinating nuggets of information. For example, the first Half-Life, which went on to win numerous awards and reap huge profits for both developer and publisher, was delivered to Sierra after an almost laughably meager $800,000 advance--the initial payment was a mere $30,000 when Newell and Sierra On-line reps signed their first software publishing agreement on April 27, 1997.
Currently, the case stands here: After Valve's initial lawsuit alleging that Sierra illegally distributed Half-Life to game cafes, and Sierra/VUG's counterclaim that accuses Valve of circumventing Sierra's retail plans by distributing Valve games via Steam, the two sides have both submitted motions for summary judgment on lesser points.
"Our court date [a jury trial to address the complaint and counterclaim] isn't until March 2005," Lombardi said. "The October 8 motions relate to two legal issues. We expect those issues to be decided in our favor."
For readers not familiar with the case (that is, just about everyone), the overall timeline is referenced in documents filed by VUG attorneys on Wednesday, September 15, 2004. In those documents--a second motion "to compel production of [Half-Life 2] source code"--Sierra/VUG attorneys stated their case in filings as fol
well if i had realized that when i copy/pasted the carrage returns wernt included, i would have manualy added them, but yes they are, i say we all return our carrage returns!
no problem, it was easier for me to reply to that one than to metamod you as redundent ;)
The First Magazine for Technology Projects Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will. Cover of the first issue of Make. Coming early in 2005, Make is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). Make comes from O'Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere. It follows in line with the Hacks books and Hardware Hacking Projects, but it takes a highly visual and personal approach. Our premier issue will show you how to get involved in Kite Aerial Photography -- taking pictures with a camera suspended from a kite. We'll show you how to build an inexpensive rig to hold your camera. We'll also show you how to make a video camera stabilizer, a do-it-yourself alternative to an expensive Steadicam. And we'll show you how to create a five-in-one cable adapter for connecting to networks. Some projects are strictly for fun, others are very practical, and still others are absolutely astounding. Make's promise is: If it can be done, we will help you do it. We'll help you make sense of all the technology that's in your life. Make will have a Mobile section providing tips and advice on cell phones, PDAs, and GPS technology; a Home Entertainment section, including managing your digital music and installing home theater equipment; a Cars section looking at the intersection of computers and automobiles; an Online section looking at how power users are using Amazon, eBay, and Google, plus other services; an Imaging section, featuring digital cameras, Photoshop, and managing your photo; and a Computers section that looks at custom hardware as well as wireless and home networking. Make vs. Buy Get inside your iPaq. Make is not another one of those "gadget" magazines that feature products on every page. While we like gadgets as much as the next person, we chose to focus on cool things you can do with technology, not just what to buy. Each of us has plenty of new technology at home and in our briefcase, and we'll write about our experience using this technology. What we are most interested in is the knack for making that technology work the way we want it. Become a Maker There are all kinds of Makers, making all kinds of things. Through Make, you will meet extraordinary makers who create one-of-a-kind things for all kinds of reasons. A maker can serve as an intelligent coach, a dependable (and approachable) alpha geek who knows what to do and wants to help you learn how. Our goal is that all of us can learn to become makers, just as we might learn to cook or use woodworking tools. There are makers at all levels of experience and we can learn from each other. Make will provide a web site for a community of makers who are willing to connect with others to share their experiences and collaborate on new projects. Learn soldering techniques. Join Make If you'd like to learn more about Make, then join the Make mailing list. We'll send you information about subscribing to Make and the announcement of our premier issue.