German court orders Microsoft to stop selling a 2 Microsoft products

[Nintendo]

German Court Orders Microsoft To Stop Selling Xbox 360s and Windows 7


Achtung! A Mannheim court ruled today that Microsoft can no longer sell its Xbox 360 and Windows 7 operating systems in Germany. According to the German judge, this is because Microsoft infringed upon a Motorola patent while using certain video compression software.


http://kotaku.com/5907054/german-court-orders-microsoft-to-stop-selling-xbox-360s

 

[Blue Protoman]

Hot damn! They're probably having panic attacks!

 

[fusion_power]

Keep Cool. Usualy, these stops of selling products only last some days here in germany. No clue why they fight their twisted patent an Copyright laws here but maybe they found some funny laws that make this crap more easy than in other countries.

 

[WizardStan]

I am actually grossly disappointed in this. I'm very much against many software patents, or at least the way they are enforced, and from the sounds of it this video compression algorithm they used may be one of them. While it is slightly rewarding to see Microsoft getting back some of what it dished out, if it were a small start-up company there's a chance I'd be on the other side going "this is why software patents are busted" (maybe, I've only read the summary so further investigation could make me change my mind).


The double standard is what really bugs me, the people saying "Karma, Microsoft" would be the ones saying "boo Motorola" if it were someone other than Microsoft.

 

[Prometheus]

I'm inclined to agree with what Stan says above.


I won't lie, I do find it amusing that Microsoft, who are so fond of using software patent claims to bully smaller companies into paying them their lunch money (and, when asked, usually won't point to what the alleged infringements are, so that the accused cannot fix them so as not to be infringing), has been pulled up on this.


But, much more importantly than that, I find software patents to be a stupid and broken concept, which really needs to go, so it really doesn't matter who's fallen victim to it this time, in the end. I do wish that it would make the current victim and others think twice, but I suspect that it won't.

 

[fatman514]

I am actually grossly disappointed in this. I'm very much against many software patents, or at least the way they are enforced, and from the sounds of it this video compression algorithm they used may be one of them. While it is slightly rewarding to see Microsoft getting back some of what it dished out, if it were a small start-up company there's a chance I'd be on the other side going "this is why software patents are busted" (maybe, I've only read the summary so further investigation could make me change my mind).


The double standard is what really bugs me, the people saying "Karma, Microsoft" would be the ones saying "boo Motorola" if it were someone other than Microsoft.

Personally, I would like to see software patents go away completely. The way I see it, is that all they do is stifle innovation and keep ideas and very useful algorithms under lock and key (until at least some pirate scene group cracks it and releases the source code unlawfully, which seems to be common practice at least in the console modding scene). It would also eliminate frivolous legal proceedings like the one mentioned here. Anywho, that's just my 2 cents.

 

[craigix]

I thought Europe didn't recognise these software patents? Germany does?

 

[mcobit]

They do, but not stuff like a doublecklick

 

[craigix]

I guess microsoft are wishing they supported an open video format a bit sooner