[OT] software patents law could this be the end to video gaming as we know it.

[enablerbr]

1st heres a link for some info of what i'm about to have a semi-rant about. software patent (http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html)

now from what i could understand about this. is that in terms of the computer game industry. no longer would it just be software pirates and crackers who would be classed as breaking the law but if this comes to pass. even the game developers could find themselves breaking the law.

afterall nearly all games devloped these days involves ideas from other games. same applies to the network code used in MP games. with this software patent law. if someone had a patent that was as basic as say people runing round killing each other. all FPS games made would be breaking the law.

just think even the MMORPGs could come to an end because of this non-sense.

i wonder what KKs response to this software patent law is.

[thewarrior008]

1st
: this is the wrong forum to post cuz a) not all speak german here b) if u realy would like to post translate it or makea summary .... as u did so nvm :D :rolleyes:


and no man this is just BS this is neva gona happen , but tats just me

[Nully]

if that law happens (which it wont) then ima blow some shit up ;) jokes but it better not happen mainly for this reason....well a reason....

if they think it scoppying then theyd have to stop all execpt the very first game like it :eek: now that would be a very VERY old game hell non of us could even play it cause wed beat it in like an hour or so ..

plus the gamining industrys will fight it big time :D thank god

[enablerbr]

OK i've made it an english link now. sorry about that.

to be honest i hadn't given this much thought when i 1st heard about it. till it was pointed out me by a similar example of how stupid this law is. i mean the good side to this is that maybe some software patent out there has a rough idea about an OS and there by making bill gates broke.

[Benjie]

Games will be made less often, making higher computer specs less of a demand, halting progression, fucking up our uber medical progresions.

FUCK!

[Possessed]

The horsmen of the apocalypse ride out... pack your bags my friends. The Apocalypse is nigh!!

:eek:

[Scikar]

Actually the problem wouldn't just come down to copying other games. The problem with software patents is that are many ways to achieve an objective, such that, as I understand it, you wouldn't patent a protocol for sending net traffic under the name "TCP/IP," you would patent a "Method for sending information across a network using packets with addresses in their headers." Or something similar. The end result is that a small company which makes a coding innovation could find itself running into a large company which found the code, patented it, and then hires loads of patent lawyers which the small company can't afford to fight against.

[Benjie]

Who does this benefit?
Who suffers from it?

[Ren]

you have to prove you invented it, FPS (the oringal) will likley never be found.

[Vampire222]

lol wolfenstein/doom??

[Dribble Joy]

pong!!!

but seriously, gaming/software companies will fight this to their graves if needed, and/or work around it.

[Benjie]

Originally posted by Vampire222
lol wolfenstein/doom??
lol. NO! hehe.

There are a good amount of games before wolfenstein 3D that where FPS's that didn't use textures or lighting effects. And what about things like ALCATRAZ? Okay it isn't 3D but it's still a 1st person shoot 'em up. (the bit where you go in buildings)

[enablerbr]

how could you work around some scrap of paper with a simple sentence on it that sums up the game you make. when said scrap of paper was patented way before your game. hell it doesn't even have to have any code or pseudo code in it.

[Vampire222]

its total bullshit, and i bet it wont work...

[Fordaz]

U.S. Patant Office:

"...In order for an invention to be patentable it must be new as defined in the patent law, which provides that an invention cannot be patented if: “(a) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent,” or “(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the application for patent in the United States . . .”"

This statement, in one form or another, is in (probably) every patent office throughout the world. You cannot patent something if it already exists, thusly, an FPS "genre" or an MP code cannot be patented, because it's already in use.

[enablerbr]

yes but i said if it had been done before the fps. in which case the fps could be sued.

[Lexxuk]

I posted about this before, but Nid closed it because I broke the forum rules in my post *hugz niddy* cause of tellin you to go sign the petition.

Anyhow, this is really only an EU issue at the moment, in the EU, software patents are not legal (as of yet) but under this directive, would be. That means, say you want to use The GIMP for making gif's, in the EU, you can currently download the gif plugin to save gif's, in the US, its illegal, because of the LZW Compression (or something) which is patented. When you buy your flashy image editor, you purchase part of the licence for the gif, which the company that makes the software pays for, its why freeware gif makers would be in trouble, because they are breaking patents, its also why PNG was invented, apparently, its a compression method that isnt patented.

From what I can tell, the only people who will gain from this, are in the US, they already have patents on pretty much everything, so European companies, who currently are not under any patent restrictions on software, would suddenly find themselves having to pay royalty fee's to some company that patented something 40 years ago, even if the EU company discovered it, 45 years ago.

Its a really bad idea IMO, but as usual, the "open source" community, when faced with this kind of thing, goes all defensive and insulting towards the powers that be, which was a chick, this chick then went onto be pro-patents, when we all know, that sugar is a much nicer bait than, err, jail bait O_o

[reddog]

Eventhought pattents are not possible atm they allready exist. IBM and MS both allready have patented a shitload of methods on various things the only problem till the law pass is that they can't enforce em yet. The big companies would benifit and thats the reason why the law has a chance to pass aswell