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Luxgolg
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What does this all mean?
Jan 31st, 2014 at 12:31pm
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Dullknife
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #1 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 12:55pm
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Looks like turbine settled with a patent troll. Deal involves Turbine licensing said patent troll's software. Wonder if this has anything to do with these 3rd party plugins.
Infringement seems to be the methodology of the core engine, that deals with data sent to client/player's PC, and back to turbine's servers.
« Last Edit: Jan 31st, 2014 at 12:56pm by Dullknife »  
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #2 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 12:59pm
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Did Turbine settle, or is that just the initial claim?

More on this Treehouse douches: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/196190/

Submarine patent from 2000, finalized in 2010. Kill them with fire or acid, and salt the earth where they walked.
  

Memnir wrote on Jun 14th, 2013 at 10:59am:
Note to any Turbine staffers reading this, and one I genuinely hope you share around the office: DDO has become a shit game because y'all have made it a shit game. Once it was great. Now, it's a festering puddle of monkey diarrhea. No matter how you try to justify it, or pat yourselves on the back for doing great jobs... it's a shit game now because of you. Y'all keep on giving the players the middle finger, and you keep expecting us to reward you for the abuse. I've had it with you narcissistic fuckwads and your myopic policies of ineptitude.
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #3 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 1:00pm
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #4 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 1:00pm
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Ah, found the link about settlement. Too bad Turbine is spineless. Makes it harder for everyone else.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/11/25/turbine-settles-treehouse-avatar-technol...
  

Memnir wrote on Jun 14th, 2013 at 10:59am:
Note to any Turbine staffers reading this, and one I genuinely hope you share around the office: DDO has become a shit game because y'all have made it a shit game. Once it was great. Now, it's a festering puddle of monkey diarrhea. No matter how you try to justify it, or pat yourselves on the back for doing great jobs... it's a shit game now because of you. Y'all keep on giving the players the middle finger, and you keep expecting us to reward you for the abuse. I've had it with you narcissistic fuckwads and your myopic policies of ineptitude.
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #5 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 1:03pm
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patent trolling.

Nothing to see, move along.

  

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Luxgolg
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #6 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 1:08pm
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http://nvisionapp.com/video/article/Treehouse-Suing-Turbine-for-MMO-Games

Yup...2012 was not a good year for Turbine. This explains a lot
  

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cdr
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #7 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 1:09pm
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Treehouse is a patent troll.

Since it's insanely easy to get invalid patents issued in the US, especially for software, scamsters form legal entities to buy or manufacture invalid patents and then extort money from legitimate companies. The cost of the "settlements" the trolls offer is very precisely designed to be less than the cost of fighting them in court, so most companies pay the troll off - especially since most trolls will go after smaller companies without ability to spend the vast sums required to fight the troll in court. Only recently have even the larger companies really started to fully fight trolls; Newegg has famously spent millions of dollars taking a couple of trolls all the way through the court system to the endgame of getting their bogus patents declared invalid.

Treehouse may have took a bit of a gamble with Turbine, but it successfully extorted quite a few smalltime/indie MMO makers. And apparently Turbine was indeed small enough that they didn't have the resources to fight.
« Last Edit: Jan 31st, 2014 at 1:10pm by cdr »  
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Newbin3:16
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #8 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 3:17pm
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It's not always only about resources.  More often than not (in my personal experience dealing with large corporations) it's about the economics.  Typically large companies try not to let financial decisions like whether to settle a law suit (bogus or not) get overly complicated by mixing in questions of principle.  If it makes good economic sense to settle a claim rather than fight it, then that's what they'll typically do.  Sometimes the principle at issue is just too important for a company to walk away from, but that doesn't happen very often and typically only when settling is likely to set a bad precedent and invite further claims (which is really just another factor in making a financially-based decision).
  
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #9 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 3:41pm
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You'd think a corp as large as Warner Bros would love to have some of their junior lawyers play with a patent troll.
  

            
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #10 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 3:58pm
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Unless they botched it and lost   Cry
  
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Luxgolg
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #11 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 4:01pm
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Newbin3:16 wrote on Jan 31st, 2014 at 3:58pm:
Unless they botched it and lost   Cry


Meh...so all 9000 users would have to find a new game?
  

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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #12 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 4:21pm
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Bill Z Bubb wrote on Jan 31st, 2014 at 3:41pm:
You'd think a corp as large as Warner Bros would love to have some of their junior lawyers play with a patent troll.


Really.  WB has a legal department on retainer.  Put them to work.
  
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cdr
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #13 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 4:25pm
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Newbin3:16 wrote on Jan 31st, 2014 at 3:17pm:
It's not always only about resources.  More often than not (in my personal experience dealing with large corporations) it's about the economics.  Typically large companies try not to let financial decisions like whether to settle a law suit (bogus or not) get overly complicated by mixing in questions of principle.  If it makes good economic sense to settle a claim rather than fight it, then that's what they'll typically do.  Sometimes the principle at issue is just too important for a company to walk away from, but that doesn't happen very often and typically only when settling is likely to set a bad precedent and invite further claims (which is really just another factor in making a financially-based decision).


It's more about short-term thinking versus long-term. Short term, sure, cheaper to pay the extortion money to make them go away. Long term, it encourages more vultures to come take chunks out of you since you're a soft target. Fight one or two and the rest mostly decide not to screw with you.

So basically it is about resources, because the large companies with the resources - Newegg and Google, as notable examples - are figuring out that long term they've got to fight the jackals. It's the little guys who can't put up $50,000 to fight an initial court filing - much less the millions it can take to actually shut a troll down - that're screwed.
« Last Edit: Jan 31st, 2014 at 4:26pm by cdr »  
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Luxgolg
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #14 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 4:29pm
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cdr wrote on Jan 31st, 2014 at 4:25pm:
It's more about short-term thinking versus long-term. Short term, sure, cheaper to pay the extortion money to make them go away. Long term, it encourages more vultures to come take chunks out of you since you're a soft target. Fight one or two and the rest mostly decide not to screw with you.

So basically it is about resources, because the large companies with the resources - Newegg and Google, as notable examples - are figuring out that long term they've got to fight the jackals. It's the little guys who can't put up $50,000 to fight an initial court filing - much less the millions it can take to actually shut a troll down - that're screwed.


Except Turdbine partnered with them and they share the license now. They keep getting paid.
  

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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #15 - Jan 31st, 2014 at 11:55pm
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Luxgolg wrote on Jan 31st, 2014 at 4:29pm:
Except Turdbine partnered with them and they share the license now. They keep getting paid.


Not exactly partnership, but they are paying treehouse licencing fee's. Quite strange.
  
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #16 - Feb 1st, 2014 at 12:00am
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mystafyi wrote on Jan 31st, 2014 at 11:55pm:
Not exactly partnership, but they are paying treehouse licencing fee's. Quite strange.



eever think patent trolls have forums where they all get together and talk about their next victims?
  

Revaulting wrote on Jul 7th, 2015 at 8:16pm:
Have you tried a lower difficulty, such as the official forums?
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #17 - Feb 1st, 2014 at 12:21am
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I guess patent trolls will have it harder in the future:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/05/the-house-votes-on-...
  
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #18 - Feb 1st, 2014 at 3:09am
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WB probably looked at where the wind blew and decided to pay up until the Anti-patent troll law was voted. We will see what they do for 2014...

  

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Azog
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #19 - Feb 1st, 2014 at 3:37am
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BTW, I am reading that Germany have such anti-troll laws since 1974.
`Mericans, you should learn from Hi...from Germany!!!
  
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #20 - Feb 1st, 2014 at 3:56am
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My side of the Rhine has something like that too, from about that long ago.
  

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Yobai
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #21 - Feb 1st, 2014 at 5:46pm
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Quote:
BTW, I am reading that Germany have such anti-troll laws since 1974.
`Mericans, you should learn from Hi...from Germany!!!


They also have anti-Nazi laws.  look how well that's working.
  

Revaulting wrote on Jul 7th, 2015 at 8:16pm:
Have you tried a lower difficulty, such as the official forums?
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Re: What does this all mean?
Reply #22 - Feb 1st, 2014 at 6:13pm
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Yobai wrote on Feb 1st, 2014 at 5:46pm:
They also have anti-Nazi laws.  look how well that's working.


They are not of Kraut making... They were forced down their throat by Brits, Frogs, Ruskies and Yankees at the end of WWII. The Krauts wouldn't have had any problem with them not being there.
  

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