To find the answer to that question, let us look to French history during the 1800s for some inspiration =D.

 

I suppose it gives blade element theory a new meaning!

I suppose it gives blade element theory a new meaning!

 

hahaha...now that's clever!

Heard of a similar abuse with a drug company today. A life saving drug they developed is about to come out of "protection", and would be available for generics.... so they changed it a little (sometimes as simple as the color), and re-patented it. They call this "ever greening". The generic version would have been 90% cheaper... as is... the drug cost 75,000 a year for a typical prescription.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreening

 

I'm beginning to think we are thousands of years away from a "star trek" type of society.

Heard of a similar abuse with a drug company today. A life saving drug they developed is about to come out of "protection", and would be available for generics.... so they changed it a little (sometimes as simple as the color), and re-patented it. They call this "ever greening". The generic version would have been 90% cheaper... as is... the drug cost 75,000 a year for a typical prescription.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreening

 

I'm beginning to think we are thousands of years away from a "star trek" type of society.

 

We are living in the beginning of a star wars society.

 

 

"so this is how liberty dies, with thunderes applause"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmWhNaDWq6w&sns=em

I'm definitely supporting Laminar Research!

 

http://www.x-plane.c...-world/lawsuit/

 

no offense but Austin is rich, why is he asking for more money? I would rather buy more xp10 products than pay for his legal battles. Sounds Pathetic!

Another prime example of America's sick litigious society...

The whole business of intellectual property is entirely out of control. It's an 18th century solutuion to an 18th century problem, which has little relevance for the 21st century.

 

All of economic theory is based on the notion of scarcity. Remember: wants are unlimited, but resouces are limited. When it comes to software, for the first time in human history, resources are pretty much unlimited. While there is an initial cost to developing software, the marginal cost of copying that software is right around zero. It costs nothing to copy digital media.

 

The way people try to get around this reality is to create an scarcity, either through devices like copyright/patent, or by adding technological methods, like DRM, to the software. This serves to increase the cost of making copies of the software.

 

The problem is exacerbated by patent trolls who don't actually make anything. Certainly the person who wrote the program does not make the money off of it. Usually it's someone else -- someone with way too much money, who uses their position of financial power to extort money out of other people. Many of the people who are filing these lawsuits did not create anything, they did not invest money to develop something useful. They are just toll collectors on the road of commerce.

 

In the early years of the American republic, things like copyrights were for a period of ten years, and could not be renewed. They also were very limited in scope.

 

The purpose of patents and copyrights is to encourage the creation of artistic and scientific works. The law now only serves to stifle them.

but Austin is rich, why is he asking for more money

 

What in the world makes you think he is rich?

I remember about 10 years ago I received a threatening letter from a firm of lawyers in the US, demanding I stop using the name Scimitar Productions, which I had registered in the UK and had been using for two years. It just so happened that one of my mates was a hot shot lawyer in London, and I mean hot shot lawyer. I was extremely worried and gave him a call... he laughed and sent them a letter demanding that they stop harrassing his client plus a load of other stuff that I can't remember.... that was the last I heard from them... bunch of losers B)

no offense but Austin is rich, why is he asking for more money? I would rather buy more xp10 products than pay for his legal battles. Sounds Pathetic!

 

Yeah... serves him right for having more money than you, eh? Viva la revolucion....?

no offense but Austin is rich, why is he asking for more money? I would rather buy more xp10 products than pay for his legal battles. Sounds Pathetic!

 

Well I don't really think that a real lawsuit is likely. The claim is pathetic but they try to milk their patent. In europe it isn't worth anything. A pure software patent will be blocke by the judge. If they would try to attack on the iOS front, apple would take care of it and they would probably need two minutes to find a use of this idea in their own archives long before the patent was validated. IMHO they simply try to frighten some people to settle with them. After these dramatic claims between Samsung and Apple they simply hope that most people would be to afraid.

What in the world makes you think he is rich?

Austin's own statement maybe:

(Note: I have enough money to defend thus suit all the way through trial without it being a severe financial hardship, so please do not give if it is a hardship for you. But, if you would like to make a contribution to help with the cause because you want to help stop people like this, then it will surely be appreciated!)

Anyone who's owned not just one, but who until recently owned two Cessna Columbia 400s sure isn't poor by any stretch of the imagination... :lol:

Anyone who's owned not just one, but who until recently owned two Cessna Columbia 400s sure isn't poor by any stretch of the imagination... :lol:

 

Haha, I missed that. Lucky guy.

Haha, I missed that. Lucky guy.

 

His newest plane is a Lancair Evolution with a PT6! But lawsuits can cost even more money than that!

AVSIM donated to Austin's legal defense fund yesterday. Why? Because it is a show of solidarity and because it is the right thing to do. In my opinion, UNILOC is an example of the worst bottom feeders you can find. Anything we (AVSIM) can do to help convince them that their tactics are reprehensible is a donation well spent.

 

EDIT: Just to tell a story that sheds a little light on this kind of stuff. Anyone remember the EXXON VALDEZ disaster in the late 80's? I was with Sperry when the ship ran aground outside the port of Valdez, Alaska. VALDEZ, the ship, was equipped with a number of Sperry systems, including the autopilot. Exxon notified Sperry that they were instituting legal proceedings against Sperry, claiming that Sperry's autopilot caused or contributed to the ship running aground.

 

That kicked off what is called the "discovery" phase. That is, Exxon, in this case, sent an army of lawyers to Sperry in order to go through every document, email, design, production notes, QA tests, enenvironmental tests, etc. We were told to keep every bit of ccorrespondence that might remotely have anything to do with the VALDEZ grounding.

 

This process went on for months and Sperry ended up hiring an army of lawyers as well. At the end of the discovery process, Exxon notified Sperry that they were not going to pursue legal action against Sperry (they didn't have a case)...

 

Bottom line; the threat of being sued potentially for billions of dollars in liability, caused Sperry to spend over $10 million in just getting itself through the discovery phase. Imagine what a discovery phase could cost Austin, just to get to the point of being told the suit was going forward or not.