Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 26th Aug 2011 22:06 UTC, submitted by Morgan
And we have another contender for the stupidest technology-related lawsuit of 2011. Do you remember RealNetworks? The scourge of '90s web users? Lucky for us, their horrible media player is no longer a requirement on the web. Also lucky, for those of us who occasionally run into content encoded in any of Real's codecs, there's Real Alternative (download here). Well, apparently, RealNetworks is not happy with Real Alternative (download here), as the US company has completely destroyed the life of the Dutch maintainer of a website who dared to link to Real Alternative (download here).
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RE[2]: Comment by ilovebeer
by bhtooefr on Fri 26th Aug 2011 22:57
in reply to "RE: Comment by ilovebeer"
Member since:2009-02-19
RE[3]: Comment by ilovebeer
by M.Onty on Sat 27th Aug 2011 17:27
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by ilovebeer"
Member since:2009-10-23
RE[2]: Comment by ilovebeer
by Morgan on Sat 27th Aug 2011 08:11
in reply to "RE: Comment by ilovebeer"
Member since:2005-06-29
That was my mindset when I submitted it. Why is this guy's life being destroyed over an intangible, and at this stage in RealNetworks' business plan, unprofitable product? They stopped supporting the version of the Real codec that Real Alternative uses a long time ago, and likely never really profited much on it in the past several years.
Yet they are causing an immense hardship to this young man, basically destroying his life, and even if they win they could never possibly collect damages from him as they have already bankrupted him in legal fees.
I don't care if he created Real Alternative, hosted it or just linked to it, none of those actions warrant the kind of gross financial destruction he has already suffered, before the trial is even over. I sincerely hope he wins and the judge orders RealNetworks to make him whole.
RE[2]: Comment by ilovebeer
by steogede2 on Sat 27th Aug 2011 09:04
in reply to "RE: Comment by ilovebeer"
Member since:2007-08-17
I don't believe in eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
The whole point of "an eye for an eye", was to limit retribution - to have an even, fair and balanced justice system. There's nothing even, fair or balanced about what Real Networks are doing to this guy. It is amazing that he is accused of no crime (it is a civil case), but the impact on his life is worse than it would be if he had been convicted of a serious crime.
RE[2]: Comment by ilovebeer
by No it isnt on Sat 27th Aug 2011 09:37
in reply to "RE: Comment by ilovebeer"
Member since:2005-11-14
News
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."More News »
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Member since:
2005-06-29
It's all about fitting punishment. You don't destroy a person's life for something as silly as this. This is not a fitting punishment. I don't believe in eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
I guess I'm from a different culture.