a system and method ... for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data stored on an electronic device.
It is not known at this time what, if anything, this means for Mojang. Of note, Markus "Notch" Persson has certainly voiced his opinion on the matter, stating that he "will throw piles of money at making sure they don't get a cent". Little else is known about the lawsuit at this time.
Notch has made the lawsuit PDF available for viewing, which you can see by clicking here. He has also posted a detailed write-up on his perspective on software patents - you can view it by clicking here.
Uniloc appears to be suing numerous other gaming producers allegedly violating this patent, including Square Enix, Electronic Arts and others.
Any further specifics of the case will be covered as they develop.
UPDATE: Ric Richardson has posted his views on the situation as well, which you can read by clicking here. It is important to note that Mr. Richardson has had no direct part in the lawsuit of Uniloc vs. Mojang.
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This week, David and Toby talk about Minecon 2012, Creeper clothes and other awesome Minecraftiness - check it out!
Seems to me like we get little gaming attention as it is, this can't be good for us
I sent this letter to the primary representative of Uniloc, Brad Davis, via their website's supplied email address:
Ric Richardson, from the information I could gather, is the inventor of the software Uniloc is suing over, and was chairman of Uniloc until 2007. He stepped down to work as an independent, full-time inventor. He still makes contributions to the company and holds shares for it, but does not take part in the company's actions.
This is a lawsuit happening in 2012, 5 years after he stepped down. In Richardson's current state, he can do little to affect the actions of the company aside of pull its shares from it. Sure, he was the one who got the patent, and the patent may be very broad and unrealistic, but with a company sufficiently large enough, the decision to take action is left to the lawyers.
And your points are...
With this I mean that you are not giving full arguments. Besides, Mojang has made many more millons from Minecraft. You're acting like a complete fanboy. I want full arguments about why Notch shouldn't pay money to Ulinoc for a legit reason. Not someone that points out to a Ulinoc supporter saying that the creator of the game that he plays has to pay millons. It's like Notch robs a bank, and he has to pay, and you say the excact thing to the person that supports those who catched notch.
Watch this(out of Notchs PDF http://notch.net/wp-...2/07/mojang.pdf ) :
Maybe Notch should write a little game called "Mindcraft" without said Server connection stuff just to bug them
Thank you. * Hugs http404error*
If you are going to contact them in any way, please do so in a similar fashion to Ben here. Hate mail and death threats will go nowhere, and may even get you a temporary posting restriction on this forum. Please be civil if you do contact anyone from Uniloc as you are not just representing yourself, you are representing the entire Minecraft forum community. I, for one, want to uphold a reputation of being classy and awesome people.
Thatd be funny. Kinda thing hed do too.
umadbro?
Can't guarantee this for sure; but a typo for 'Mindcraft' could be an angle to use. Since your game is called 'Minecraft' you aren't the accused infringer.
After reading Ric Richardson's two most recent posts on his blog, I think he inadvertently proves that patents are not a good idea.
Perhaps most notably, he says that the patent system is self-regulating because it is complicated and expensive to trek through. What this seems to mean though is that individuals and small businesses, the people who need patents the most, have almost no hope of making it through the system, while big businesses have an easy time using contacts and mountains of money to get all the patents they want. This is probably part of the reason why patent troll firms are able to exist in the first place.
I'm sure plenty of patent examiners actually are nice enough people who don't want ridiculous patents clogging the system, yet such seems to be the case anyway. This suggests that there is a general naivety about them at best, a disconnect between the noble way they want the patent system to work and the awful way it actually is working under their watch.
I guess don't see any reason to believe that Ric Richardson is not the responsible individual he says he is, but he doesn't seem to realize that responsible people are very rare on this planet. The paradigm shift that's occurring today is a backlash against abuse from big companies and patent control firms. I wonder if he could have been made to realize that if no one had sent him emails full of swear words.
Basically, they have the cards in their favor since they are based in Texas. And since Texas courts favor the plaintiffs and not the defendants, I do not know how Mojang is gonna win this one.
Their method is simple: Base your business in Texas, become patent troll. Sue anyone within your reach. Take every case to a single court that would overly favor you. Win every time.
It seems like they have almost already won. (Although I don't think we should give up, though.)
Edit: This wikipedia page is a good read though. Funny how I found it as one of the related links to the Ric Richardson page. Almost like it's trying to tell me something......
This might just be my opinion, but software patents are extremely vague. Anyone could write almost identical or similar code to do something almost exactly the same or similar as someone else already has.
They could do this without even knowing it was done before, and trying to find if you have infringed one someone's software patent is much more difficult than with inventions such as the car, or a light bulb.
Some people (Uniloc) need to get their balls off the table and get a life, stop screwing with others.
-And I agree with cyberhawk42
What?
Their patent is from 1992.
A technology patent has a 20 year lifespan. A software patent has only 5 years.
These guys have no legal grounds for a lawsuit in the first place.How did they even manage to win in any of their lawsuits?
People DDOS, Hack, Zombie (Use it to log on and destroy the server/ban everyone), Blackmail, Pretend to be someone they are not on Skype (Try to get FTP access to delete the server or give out viruses) and do some crazy **** against other servers that are just competition of theirs.. Its happened I've seen it before you would think going to jail isn't worth some server that you play on daily.
If Uniloc disrupts Minecraft's development things aren't going to be pretty. I seriously doubt that these Patent Trolls will, but if they do watch out because there is a lot of people that do stupid things in the heat of the moment. XD
*Disclaimer*
I do not support the actions of said individuals that would be doing said criminal acts
Especially since Uniloc would blame Mojang and sue them again :/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniloc
so they just applied a common procedure to the internet... um, the US government should be suing this company for using that process.
Then again, I'm quite used to deciphring weirdly phrased statements like that(for example, legalese), and I still had trouble following what was going on so maybe I misunderstood. but I'm pretty sure the only way they got that patent is by confusing an underpaid, overworked government employee...
What does the US government have to do with the Internet?