You read that right. In a staggering move, Electronic Arts (yes, that Electronic Arts) has released the full source code for C&C Tiberium Dawn, C&C Red Alert, C&C Renegate, and C&C ...
The language on their patent info page doesn’t say that:
Electronic Arts (EA) promises not to enforce against any party for infringing any of the listed EA patents. A list of patents subject to this pledge can be found below, and EA may add additional patents to this pledge at a later date.
EA makes this pledge legally binding, irrevocable (except as under “Defensive Termination”) and enforceable against EA and all subsequent patent owners of the listed patents. This pledge does not provide any warranties or assurances that the activities covered by pledged patents are free from patent or other intellectual property infringement claims by a third party.
Defensive Termination
EA reserves the right to terminate this pledge for a specific party or its affiliates going forward if that party files a patent infringement lawsuit or other patent proceeding against EA, its affiliates, or partners.
They seem to be claiming that they are legally bound to allow usage of these patents unless YOU try to patent them or sue them for infringing on your patent.
I’m not a patent lawyer, though, so if you are or I’m missing a different piece of info I’m all ears.
“You can use it as long as you don’t sue us” isn’t very open source. Although I was exaggerating when I said they can refuse access for anyone they don’t like.
The things they patented are also seriously simple. One of them is for changing UI color, they should have never been given them in the first place.
It’s better to assume the worst when dealing with EA.
No, that is “you can use it unless you specifically sue us for infringing on the patent we’re releasing”, as I read it. I don’t know how necessary it is to protect yourself from somebody taking the patent you’ve released freely, patenting them themselves and then suing you back, but that seems to be what they’re protecting against.
This entire thread is about how assuming the worst when it comes to EA is often not giving them credit for a number of actually cool stuff they do. This included, in my book. I don’t think that “oh, sure this someone is doing seems fine, but don’t trust them anyway” is a particularly good way to handle… well, pretty much anything. You don’t need to fanboy for corporations, but you also don’t need to rage against them consistently. The whole idea is to reward them for good moves and punish them for bad ones.
This seems like a good move. More of this, as far as I’m concerned.
Ok, but it’s simply not open source and patents aren’t something that should be encouraged in the videogame industry. Patents are expensive (too expensive for the indie scene) and usually used to bully smaller players.
Not to mention they patented things that were already common. If they were altruistic, they would have just actually open sourced it and called it a day. They also have other patents of common things that they didn’t add to the pledge, this “altruisme” is mostly just there to add weight to patents in the industry when it thoroughly didn’t exist before EA and Warner Bros smelled blood in the water.
The wording from what I understand also means they can hit back for any kind of patent related litigation, not just for this one specifically. It’s a threat. “Don’t fuck with us and you can keep using this thing we made”, but the thing they “made” has already existed for a decade or two and they certainly weren’t the first. It’s just bad vibes behavior imo.
That being said, they patented it and it’s not open source because they have a clause that let’s them block you from using it if they don’t like you.
Patents in videogames are overall gross imo.
From what I remember, they even patented the little ping selection wheel you find in Apex. EA is shit.
The language on their patent info page doesn’t say that:
They seem to be claiming that they are legally bound to allow usage of these patents unless YOU try to patent them or sue them for infringing on your patent.
I’m not a patent lawyer, though, so if you are or I’m missing a different piece of info I’m all ears.
“You can use it as long as you don’t sue us” isn’t very open source. Although I was exaggerating when I said they can refuse access for anyone they don’t like.
The things they patented are also seriously simple. One of them is for changing UI color, they should have never been given them in the first place.
It’s better to assume the worst when dealing with EA.
No, that is “you can use it unless you specifically sue us for infringing on the patent we’re releasing”, as I read it. I don’t know how necessary it is to protect yourself from somebody taking the patent you’ve released freely, patenting them themselves and then suing you back, but that seems to be what they’re protecting against.
This entire thread is about how assuming the worst when it comes to EA is often not giving them credit for a number of actually cool stuff they do. This included, in my book. I don’t think that “oh, sure this someone is doing seems fine, but don’t trust them anyway” is a particularly good way to handle… well, pretty much anything. You don’t need to fanboy for corporations, but you also don’t need to rage against them consistently. The whole idea is to reward them for good moves and punish them for bad ones.
This seems like a good move. More of this, as far as I’m concerned.
Ok, but it’s simply not open source and patents aren’t something that should be encouraged in the videogame industry. Patents are expensive (too expensive for the indie scene) and usually used to bully smaller players.
Not to mention they patented things that were already common. If they were altruistic, they would have just actually open sourced it and called it a day. They also have other patents of common things that they didn’t add to the pledge, this “altruisme” is mostly just there to add weight to patents in the industry when it thoroughly didn’t exist before EA and Warner Bros smelled blood in the water.
The wording from what I understand also means they can hit back for any kind of patent related litigation, not just for this one specifically. It’s a threat. “Don’t fuck with us and you can keep using this thing we made”, but the thing they “made” has already existed for a decade or two and they certainly weren’t the first. It’s just bad vibes behavior imo.