Activision getting sued for...DRM Piracy?

[greylord]

http://www.actiontrip.com/rei/comments_new...tml?id=080310_5

 

Who the heck is Unilock?

 

Activision Sued By Uniloc

[ure "Vader" Paul]

12:52 pm EDT @ August 03rd, 2010

Filed under: ACTIVISION BLIZZARD, UNILOC, DRM

Activision Blizzard (as well as Sony and a handful of other publishers) are being sued by Uniloc - a company specializing in computer security and copy protection initiatives. It appears that the abovementioned publishers, supposedly, infringed on Uniloc's patents for what's basically DRM.

 

Uiloc claims that the defendants "directly and/or indirectly infringed at least one claim of the '216 patent" by "among other things, making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing a system, device and/or method for reducing software piracy, reducing casual copying and/or reducing the unauthorized use of software, including without limitation." As a result this has "caused reparable and irreparable damage to Uniloc and Uniloc will continue to suffer damage for which remedies at law are inadequate unless each defendant is enjoined."

 

Well if they ARE using their protocols for the authentication and keeping people registered via the same system that Uniloc uses...I guess that means that maybe they better start using STEAM instead. Curious I looked it up...

 

It's MORE than simply the authentication...it's the identification protocols used to identify who is who?

 

From Uniloc's mainpage

 

Uniloc's patented technology creates a unique fingerprint based on the naturally occurring, inherent physical characteristics of any computing device so that no two digital devices are seen as identical.

 

With Uniloc, providers can leverage the power of the Platform to ensure the value of their digital offering, with proven applications for:

 

Who knows how it will turn out, it could be frivolous, or it could be a serious infringment. If it turns out that Publishers stole the tech or illegally using it aka...software piracy except they didn't just take it and use it, they actually are selling software with illegally taken stuff...I'd laugh as to the irony of it all. Think about it...pirating and selling something to prevent the piracy of something.

 

PS: And if it doesn't get thrown out of court, AND if Acti-Bliz lose along with the rest...they'll probably hit their heads and say...why or why didn't I use STEAM? Or more specifically perhaps Activision will say "why oh why didn't I listen to the Blizzard guys when they told me...we don't want to do this."

Edited August 4, 2010 by greylord

[Morgoth]

Never noticed that Acti used Uniloc. But then again the last Acti game I bought was Vampire. MW2 used Steamworks though.

[greylord]

Never noticed that Acti used Uniloc. But then again the last Acti game I bought was Vampire. MW2 used Steamworks though.

 

I think this is specifically in reference to the connecting of the game to the CD to the user OUTSIDE of STEAM...aka...their current DRM scheme with Starcraft, as well as some of the items which have been used by Sony and some others in a similar manner.

[LostStraw]

It's not piracy, it's patent infringement. There's no mention of them using of any of Uniloc's protocols or software.. only the claim that they're infringing on a Uniloc's vague and over broad software patent.

[Zoraptor]

US patent office issues vague and overly broad patent, news at Basmati Rice and Yellow Beans are unique American inventions and people in Mexico and India need to licence the crops they've been growing for centuries.

 

I'd suspect it's specifically related to the algorthym used to identify computers, a hash generated from the MAC address of the network card plus the assorted hardware- and about the only way of actually doing so. No mention of Tages so I'd suspect it's one of those patents that gets laughed at by Euros; SecuROM (SonyDADC) is named though.

 

Uniloc made the DRM on Alpha Protocol.

[LadyCrimson]

It's not piracy, it's patent infringement. There's no mention of them using of any of Uniloc's protocols or software.. only the claim that they're infringing on a Uniloc's vague and over broad software patent.

The concept of being able to patent everything under the sun in broad, over-reaching strokes is becoming a bit ludicrous, imo. Like some of the gene patent situations.