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| [Jul 22, 2012, 2:35 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
A tweet by Minecraft creator and Mojang founder Markus "Notch" Persson reveals that Mojang is being sued for patent infringement over Minecraft, saying: "Step 1: Wake up. Step 2: Check email. Step 3: See we're being sued for patent infringement. Step 4: Smile." He's posted the complaint in Adobe Acrobat format, and Boing Boing notes the plaintiff in this case, Uniloc calls itself an intellectual property "incubation lab" specializing in computer security, but they just call them patent trolls, noting that the suit was filed in Tyler, Texas, which besides being the birthplace of NFL legend Earl Campbell, is apparently also renowned as a place where the courts are known to friendly to the plaintiffs in such cases.
Here's word from the complaint: "Mojang is directly infringing one or more claims of the ’067 patent in this judicial district ... by or through making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing Android based applications for use on cellular phones and/or tablet devices that require communication with a server to perform a license check to prevent the unauthorized use of said application, including, but not limited to, Mindcraft [sic]."
For his part, Notch tweets about his resolve to fight this out in court, just as he did when sued over the right to name his next game scrolls, saying: "Unfortunately for them, they're suing us over a software patent. If needed, I will throw piles of money at making sure they don't get a cent." He also blogs about this, giving his outlook on such litigation. Here's a portion: But there is no way in hell you can convince me that it’s beneficial for society to not share ideas. Ideas are free. They improve on old things, make them better, and this results in all of society being better. Sharing ideas is how we improve.
A common argument for patents is that inventors won’t invent unless they can protect their ideas. The problem with this argument is that patents apply even if the infringer came up with the idea independently. If the idea is that easy to think of, why do we need to reward the person who happened to be first?
I will say that there are areas which are very costly to research, but where the benefits for mankind long term are very positive. I would personally prefer it to have those be government funded (like with CERN or NASA) and patent free as opposed to what’s happening with medicine, but I do understand why some people thing patents are good in these areas.
Trivial patents, such as for software, are counterproductive (they slown down technical advancement), evil (they sacrifice baby goats to baal), and costly (companies get tied up in pointless lawsuits).
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39. |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
Jul 22, 2012, 22:42 |
WarpCrow |
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Cutter wrote on Jul 22, 2012, 18:29:
NKD wrote on Jul 22, 2012, 17:40:
Cutter wrote on Jul 22, 2012, 17:18:
Doombringer wrote on Jul 22, 2012, 16:38: Notch may be in the right, but his smug approach makes me want him to fail. The "I'll throw piles of money at them!" is little more than a boast. It isn't "cool" and it doesn't put him in a "good guy" light. Exactly. The guy just seems like an incredible dick to me. He needs to lose a pile of money and get the shit beat out of him to teach him some humility. The irony here is intentional I assume?
Besides, Notch isn't boasting. He's saying he'd rather spend all his money fighting these guys than taking the cowards path and settling out of court. If that was the attitude everyone had, patent trolls would all be out of business.
But thats okay, continue wishing violence on people. There's nothing ironic. I can be angry and hostile but I'm not a snide, condescending asshole who thinks he's smarter and cooler than everyone else. And yeah, sometimes some people really do just need a good asskicking to come down to what the rest of us call reality. What exactly has Notch done to deserve an asskicking, or when has he given the impression that he's such a dick? If it's happened I've never seen it, and I follow Minecraft pretty closely... |
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Jul 22, 14:44 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
ASeven |
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Jul 22, 14:52 |
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Wowbagger_TIP |
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Jul 22, 15:37 |
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Beamer |
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Jul 23, 10:18 |
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Burrito of Peace |
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Jul 22, 15:51 |
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Dev |
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Jul 22, 16:07 |
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Kajetan |
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Jul 23, 00:25 |
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Dev |
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Jul 23, 01:23 |
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Wowbagger_TIP |
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Jul 23, 01:31 |
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Dev |
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Jul 23, 01:57 |
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NKD |
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Jul 23, 14:20 |
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Digitalfiend |
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Jul 22, 16:11 |
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Mordecai Walfish |
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Jul 22, 16:13 |
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Prez |
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Jul 22, 16:31 |
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space captain |
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Jul 22, 16:38 |
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Doombringer |
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Jul 22, 16:54 |
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SirKnight |
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Jul 22, 17:03 |
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Wowbagger_TIP |
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Jul 22, 17:18 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
Cutter |
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Jul 22, 17:40 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
NKD |
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Jul 22, 18:29 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
Cutter |
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Jul 22, 18:42 |
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NKD |
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Jul 22, 19:11 |
removed |
Rattlehead |
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Jul 22, 19:31 |
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Grumpy Sod |
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Jul 22, 22:24 |
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Cutter |
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Jul 23, 01:13 |
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NKD |
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Jul 23, 02:15 |
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Teddy |
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Jul 23, 04:38 |
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InBlack |
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Jul 23, 04:50 |
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NKD |
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Jul 23, 08:07 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
InBlack |
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Jul 22, 20:33 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
finga |
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Jul 22, 22:42 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
WarpCrow |
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Jul 23, 00:21 |
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Nerian |
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Jul 23, 00:36 |
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Paranoid Jack |
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Jul 22, 20:19 |
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Mr. Tact |
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Jul 22, 20:59 |
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Hellbinder |
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Jul 22, 17:08 |
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TheEmissary |
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Jul 22, 18:05 |
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Jul 22, 21:01 |
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Jul 22, 18:25 |
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Sepharo |
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Jul 22, 19:11 |
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Veterator |
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Jul 22, 19:38 |
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Frags4Fun |
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Jul 22, 19:41 |
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Teddy |
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Jul 22, 19:58 |
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Axis |
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Jul 22, 20:29 |
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Prez |
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Jul 22, 21:12 |
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ASeven |
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Jul 22, 21:22 |
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Prez |
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Jul 22, 19:57 |
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Prez |
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Jul 23, 22:14 |
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Frags4Fun |
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Jul 23, 08:34 |
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Pankin |
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Jul 22, 20:49 |
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Bhruic |
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Jul 22, 21:07 |
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Mr. Tact |
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Jul 22, 21:28 |
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Ray Marden |
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Jul 22, 21:37 |
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Mr. Tact |
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Jul 23, 04:41 |
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AnointedSword |
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Jul 23, 09:07 |
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Ozmodan |
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Jul 23, 09:15 |
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Verno |
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Jul 23, 10:38 |
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netnerd85 |
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Jul 23, 10:44 |
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Beamer |
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Jul 23, 11:44 |
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Orogogus |
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Jul 23, 11:49 |
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Beamer |
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Jul 23, 11:56 |
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Orogogus |
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Jul 23, 12:25 |
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Beamer |
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Jul 23, 12:56 |
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Orogogus |
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Jul 23, 12:54 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
brmintz |
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Jul 23, 19:00 |
Re: Minecraft Patent Lawsuit |
Ray Marden |
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