luni, 27 februarie 2017

Facebook's virtual reality ambitions could be threatened by court order | Reuters






Facebook Inc's big ambitions in the nascent virtual reality industry could be threatened by a court order that would prevent it from using critical software code another company claims to own, according to legal and industry experts.

Last Thursday, video game publisher ZeniMax Media Inc asked a Dallas federal judge to issue an order barring Facebook unit Oculus from using or distributing the disputed code, part of the software development kit that Oculus provides to outside companies creating games for its Rift VR headset.

A decision is likely a few months away, but intellectual property lawyers said ZeniMax has a decent chance of getting the order, which would mean Facebook faces a tough choice between paying a possibly hefty settlement or fighting on at risk of jeopardizing its position in the sector.

For now, Facebook is fighting on. Oculus spokeswoman Tera Randall said last Thursday the company would challenge a $500 million jury verdict on Feb. 1 against Oculus and its co-founders Palmer Luckey and Brendan Iribe for infringing ZeniMax's copyrighted code and violating a non-disclosure agreement.

Randall said Oculus would possibly file an appeal that would "allow us to put this litigation behind us."

She did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

An injunction would require Oculus, which Facebook acquired for $3 billion in 2014, to stop distributing the code to developers or selling those games that use it.

Such a court order "would put a huge stumbling block in front" of Oculus, said Stephanie Llamas, an analyst with gaming market research firm SuperData. It would offer the company's rivals in the new market, which include HTC, Sony Corp, Alphabet Inc and others an "important opportunity for them to become first movers."



Sales of the Rift itself would not be barred, but Llamas, said a lack of available titles could hinder Facebook's offering relative to HTC's Vive headset and Sony's Playstation VR.

That market is relatively small at the moment - sales of VR hardware and software totaled $2.7 billion in 2016 - and mainly limited to gaming. But Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has predicted the technology "will become a part of daily life for billions of people," revolutionizing social media, entertainment and medicine.

SuperData says the VR market will be worth $37 billion by 2020. Likewise, investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald last year issued a report predicting VR would account for 10 percent of Facebook revenue in four years' time.

ZeniMax's lawsuit arose from 2012 correspondence between Luckey and famed video game developer John Carmack, creator of the Doom and Quake series and then a ZeniMax employee. Luckey signed a non-disclosure agreement with ZeniMax covering his communications with Carmack.



Carmack joined Oculus in 2013 as chief technology officer. ZeniMax sued in 2014, claiming Carmack's work while its employee was crucial to the Rift. At trial, Facebook said ZeniMax concocted its claims because of "sour grapes" over missing the VR trend.

Zuckerberg testified that "the idea that Oculus products are based on someone else’s technology is just wrong."

The jury decided Oculus had not stolen trade secrets but had infringed ZeniMax's intellectual property. It also said Oculus breached the non-disclosure agreement.

IP lawyers said the judge would consider factors such as whether ZeniMax continues to be harmed and whether money is sufficient compensation.



Edward Naughton, a Boston-based copyright lawyer with Brown Rudnick, said ZeniMax has a strong argument because its technology continues to be used without its permission and the jury's verdict does not compensate for that.

"I think they have a pretty good shot here," Naughton said.

Mitchell Shelowitz, a copyright lawyer in New York, noted that the non-disclosure agreement explicitly stated ZeniMax would be entitled to an injunction in the event its terms were violated.

Not all lawyers agree ZeniMax has the stronger position. Chicago-based IP lawyer Joshua Rich said he thinks Facebook has a good chance to repel the injunction by arguing that ZeniMax is not being harmed by the sale of the Oculus products because it is not direct competitor.

If Facebook can get past the injunction fight, the calculus could change, said Naughton. Facebook may believe it has strong arguments on appeal or, because it has so much cash on hand, it may hope to wear ZeniMax down to the point where it settles on favorable terms.

"Facebook has deep pockets," said Naughton. "That allows them to put their opponent into litigation fatigue."

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Anthony Lin and Grant McCool)

marți, 21 februarie 2017

David Cassidy says he has dementia


The former teenage heartthrob told People magazine that dementia runs in his family, affecting both his grandfather and his mother.

"I was in denial, but a part of me always knew this was coming," he said to People, regarding the disease.

Cassidy said he would step back from touring.

"I want to focus on what I am, who I am and how I've been without any distractions. I want to love. I want to enjoy life," he told the magazine.

CNN reached out to Cassidy's representatives.

A family history

In 2012, he spoke to CNN about the effects of dementia on his mother, actress Evelyn Ward, who died that year at the age of 89.

"To watch someone who raised you, who was so vibrant, to watch them lose their mind and disappear is arguably the most painful thing I've ever experienced," he said.

Cassidy came to fame with his role as Keith Partridge in the hit 1970s TV show "The Partridge Family," playing the eldest of five children. He began touring the world singing his hit songs such as "I Think I Love You," filling concert halls with screaming teenage girls. At the time, his fan club was bigger than Elvis and The Beatles.

He continued to perform for nearly half a century.

Over the past weekend, Cassidy had been performing in Agoura Hills, California, and struggled to remember lyrics to his songs.

Cassidy revealed his dementia diagnosis in the People article published Monday.

Danny Bonaduce, who played his brother on "The Partridge Family" tweeted: "If you're a fan, now is a great time to send him your love and best wishes."

In previous years, Cassidy spoke publicly about his struggles with alcohol.

He was arrested for driving under the influence on three separate occasions during a four-year span between 2010 and 2014. Cassidy said his trouble with alcohol was "very humbling and it's also humiliating," in an interview with CNN in 2014.

Mars Science Lab launch delayed two years


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- NASA's launch of the Mars Science Laboratory -- hampered by technical difficulties and cost overruns -- has been delayed until the fall of 2011, NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday in Washington.







































































































A photo illustration of a laser-equipped vehicle that is set to be part of the Mars Science Laboratory.

A photo illustration of a laser-equipped vehicle that is set to be part of the Mars Science Laboratory.









The mission had been scheduled for launch in the fall of 2009.

The Mars Science Lab is a large, nuclear-powered rover designed to traverse long distances with a suite of onboard scientific instruments aboard.

It is, according to NASA's Web site, part of a "long-term effort of robotic exploration" established to "study the early environmental history of Mars" and assess whether Mars has ever been -- or still is -- able to sustain life.

The delay of the launch, according to NASA, is due to a number of "testing and hardware challenges that must (still) be addressed to ensure mission success."

"The progress in recent weeks has not come fast enough on solving technical challenges and pulling hardware together," said Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Changing to a 2011 launch "will allow for careful resolution of any remaining technical problems, proper and thorough testing, and avoid a mad dash to launch," argued NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler.





























































































The overall cost of the Mars Science Lab is now projected to be roughly $2.1 billion, according to NASA spokesman Dwayne Browne. The project originally carried a price tag of $1.6 billion.

NASA's entire budget for the current fiscal year, according to Browne, is approximately $15 billion.

According to NASA, the Mars rover will use new technologies and be engineered to explore greater distances over rougher terrain than previous missions to the planet. This will be done in part by employing a new surface propulsion system.

"Failure is not an option on this mission," Weiler said. "The science is too important and the investment of American taxpayer dollars compels us to be absolutely certain that we have done everything possible to ensure the success of this flagship planetary mission."

Weiler asserted that, based on the agency's preliminary evaluations, additional costs tied to the delay of the Science Lab launch would not result in the cancellation of other NASA programs over the next two years. He did, however, concede that it would result in other unspecified program delays.

Critics have charged that the delay and cost overruns associated with the Mars Science Lab are indicative of an agency that is plagued by a lack of accountability and inefficiency in terms of its management of both time and taxpayer dollars.

"The Mars Science Laboratory is only the latest symptom of a NASA culture that has lost control of spending," wrote Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator, in a November 24 op-ed in the New York Times. "A cancer is overtaking our space agency: the routine acquiescence to immense cost increases in projects."

Stern charged that the agency's cost overruns are being fueled by "managers who disguise the size of cost increases that missions incur" and "members of Congress who accept steep increases to protect local jobs."

Browne replied in a written statement saying that NASA administrators are "constantly working to improve (the agency's) cost-estimating capabilities. ... We continually review our projects to understand the true risk in terms of performance, cost and schedule."

"The fact of life at NASA, where we are charged with creating first-of-a-kind missions of scientific discovery, is that estimating the costs of ... science can be almost as difficult as actually doing the science," Browne said.

NASA's most recent Mars project -- the mission of the Phoenix Mars Lander -- came to an end last month after the solar-powered vehicle's batteries ran down as the result of a dust storm and the onset of Martian winter. It had operated two months beyond its initial three-month mission.

NASA officials had landed the vehicle on an arctic plain after satellite observations indicated there were vast quantities of frozen water in that area, most likely in the form of permafrost. They thought such a location would be a promising place to look for organic chemicals that would signal a habitable environment.

Scientists were able to verify the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface, find small concentrations of salts that could be nutrients for life, and observe snow descending from the clouds, NASA said Thursday.




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