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Sega Sues EA Over Patented Gameplay Idea
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By Jeff Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Tue Dec 09, 2003 at 05:43:23 PM PDT
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Patent Nonsense -- Litigation Lunacy
Sega Games , according to this Reuters story, has filed suit against Electronic Arts for infringing on a patent that Sega holds for the Crazy Taxi game. Sega claims, according to Reuters, that The Electronic Arts game Simpson's Road Rage was designed to "deliberately copy and imitate” Crazy Taxi. The Sega patent apparently applies to the basic game mechanics of Crazy Taxi which involves picking up passengers in a taxi and delivering them to their destinations as quickly as possible. Reviews which Sega cites in its lawsuit bear out that Simpson's Road Rage is a very similar game to Crazy Taxi. However, as industry observers have pointed out, game companies including Sega have always borrowed ideas from other games to put in their own.
Sources: Published Reports
(3 comments) Comments >>
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Microsoft Gets FAT Off File System Patents
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By Jeff Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Tue Dec 09, 2003 at 01:13:07 PM PDT
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Patent Nonsense--Licensing
Microsoft, according to this Press release is going to begin charging for use of the FAT file system which was developed and patented by Microsft in 1976. Any company manufacturing a device that is formatted using FAT/16 or FAT32 will have to pay Microsoft $0.25 per device up to $250,000 dollars. While FAT has been replaced on hard drives by NTFS under windows, FAT has become the standard format for portable solid state drives like usb thumb drives or the flash memory cards used in digital cameras.
Sources:Published Reports, Company Website
(16 comments) Comments >>
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RealOne Player EULA Permits Automatic Use of Personal Info
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By Ed Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Tue Dec 02, 2003 at 06:10:03 PM PDT
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With DRM, license revocation, spyware and automatic downloads lurking everywhere, it’s best to take a look at what you’re actually agreeing to before accessing any media content these days. And that’s particularly true of a company like RealNetworks, which has a checkered past when it comes to its handling of customer information.
(14 comments, 366 words in story) Full Story
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Quark Product Activation Problems Force Users to Wait
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By Ed Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Fri Nov 21, 2003 at 05:19:05 PM PDT
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DRM – Product Activation – Usage Restrictions
Problems with the product activation in QuarkXPress 6.0 for OSX have forced many customers to wait days to receive an activation code. Readers and published reports say the company refuses to give out activation codes over the phone, even when its Internet activation site is down, so customers must wait for Quark to e-mail or fax the required codes. Readers have also complained that even minor hardware changes to their Mac requires re-activation by phone, and that Quark’s DRM does not allow for both desktop and laptop use.
Sources: Reader Reports, Published Reports
(13 comments, 340 words in story) Full Story
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Roadrunner Filters Usenet Posts
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By Jeff Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Wed Nov 19, 2003 at 01:40:31 PM PDT
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Censorship -- Service Outage -- Piracy Police
According to The Register and newsgroup postings, the Roadrunner cable modem service is now filtering out all newsgroup messages that are over 10 MB in size, presumably to stop the distribution of Hollywood movies over Usenet. Roadrunner also appears to be filtering MP3 music files by some other means, as MP3's are too small to filter out by file size. This has resulted in over 90 percent of newsgroups being “incomplete” -- meaning that most newsgroups will be missing messages -- rendering them unreadable. The filtering software Roadrunner uses has no way of telling if a movie or music file is a legitimate copy or not.
Sources:Published Reports, Newsgroup Postings
(5 comments) Comments >>
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Disney's Updated Privacy Policy Intrudes on Adults and Children
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By Ed Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Mon Nov 17, 2003 at 12:11:32 AM PDT
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Privacy Peril -- Nasty EULA Terms -- Sneakwrap
A new privacy policy issued by Walt Disney Internet Group allows the company's online services considerably more leeway in the collection and use of account information of its customers, including children. The Disney websites now promulgating the updated privacy policy include Disney.com, ABC.com, ESPN.com, Go.com and paid services such as ESPN Fantasy Games and Disney's Blast.
Sources: Company Website, Reader Reports
(45 comments, 754 words in story) Full Story
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Belkin Router Redirects Browser to Advertisement
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By Ed Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Fri Nov 07, 2003 at 02:44:57 PM PDT
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Intrusive Software -- Adware -- Privacy Peril
A Belkin wireless router now redirects an HTTP request once every eight hours to an advertisement. The ad promotes a six month free trial for Belkin's parental control service.
Reader Reports, Company Website
(39 comments, 248 words in story) Full Story
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Monsanto Restricts Farmers From Re-planting Seeds
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By Ed Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Mon Nov 03, 2003 at 04:52:44 PM PDT
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Patent Nonsense -- Usage Restrictions -- Sneakwrap
As reported in a New York Times story, Monsanto is aggressively enforcing its "technology agreement" terms that say customers cannot plant seeds from soy bean crops grown with Monsanto's genetically modified and patented seeds. Monsanto generally has customers sign a standard contract when they purchase the seeds, but farmers who did not understand the agreement face lawsuits that threaten to drive them out of business. Monsanto's enforcement activities are also contributing to the sneakwrapping of American law as one of its lawsuits was cited in the Lexmark case where the judge ruled in favor of usage restictions in a shrinkwrap agreement.
Sources: Published Reports
Comments >>
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PayPal/Providian Credit Card Offer Stinks of Sneakwrap
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By Ed Foster, Section UnFairUse
Posted on Sat Nov 01, 2003 at 06:02:00 PM PDT
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Sneakwrap -- Privacy Peril -- Nasty EULA Terms
A "pre-approved" e-mail offer for a PayPal Visa card through Providian National Bank has raised the hackles one of one reader, and gotten me pretty worked up as well. Of prime concern is Providian using information from our PayPal accounts to run a credit check prior to sending us the e-mail. But the entire maze of obtuse and contradictory terms and privacy policies make for a classic case of sneakwrap-style e-finance.
Sources: Company E-mail, Reader Reports
(34 comments, 643 words in story) Full Story
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