[HN Gopher] Jury Hands Victory to Facebook and Oculus VR Founder...
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Jury Hands Victory to Facebook and Oculus VR Founder in Rift
Ownership Trial
Author : telotortium
Score : 35 points
Date : 2021-10-25 22:08 UTC (51 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (lawstreetmedia.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (lawstreetmedia.com)
| aresant wrote:
| The story of Palmer / Oculus / etc is full of massive RIFTS
| between partners and parties
|
| I hadn't even heard about the TFT chapter but the more broadly
| reported one was the saga with Carmack / Palmer / Zenimax eg ->
|
| - Zenimax bought ID software for >$100m(1) on June 24, 2009.
|
| - Carmack signed up with Zenimax for an earn-out / golden-
| handcuffs agreement that ended in June of 2013.
|
| - Carmack was enthralled with VR.
|
| - Carmack found Palmer via an internet forum, reached out to get
| a rift to try.
|
| - Carmack tinkered with the Rift, adding sensors, building
| calibration, etc. while on the clock / using hardware from
| zenimax.
|
| - Carmack brought a prototype of the Rift working on Doom 3 to E3
| with him providing Oculus with their early press.
|
| - Zenimax realized the extent to which Carmack was enabling
| Oculus and worked to negotiate equity with Brendan Iribe.
|
| - Oculus sent Zenimax a proposal to discuss a partnership Sept
| 21, 2012 but never followed up / followed through.
|
| - Carmack quit Zenimax the day his contract was up in June 2013,
| joined Oculus as CTO a few months later and took his 5 best guys
| with him.
|
| - FB bought Oculus March 2014, Zenmix got pissed and sued.
|
| From my memory of the early rift I am positive that outside of
| Palmer it was Carmack's genius that made this viable and
| Carmack's video lent credibility to the campaign.
|
| No major comment here just a wild history, not unusual for
| breakthrough & derivative technology!
|
| (1) https://www.scribd.com/document/274211118/Judge-denies-
| Faceb...
|
| (2) http://www.gamespot.com/articles/zenimax-
| raised-105-million-...
| RealityVoid wrote:
| Honestly, Zenimax sound like really unpleasant to work for
| BoysenberryPi wrote:
| Everything I know about Zenimax leads me to believe they are
| the absolute worst.
| MikusR wrote:
| Zenimax was owned and operated entirely by mice, i mean
| lawyers.
| xenihn wrote:
| Great writeup, I didn't know Carmack was involved to this
| extant.
|
| My opinion on this, completely irrespective of the actual terms
| and laws:
|
| Zenimax doesn't deserve anything.
|
| But anyone who funded the original Kickstarter does (I was not
| one of those people). Anyone who put $200+ into that
| Kickstarter deserved some sort of payout. I feel like, at the
| very least, they should get free Oculus headsets for life.
|
| It's hard to put a number on the total value created by that
| initial Kickstarter funding if it had been treated as an actual
| investment, but I'd be willing to bet that it's already in the
| billions, and will only grow.
| GauntletWizard wrote:
| I mean, I got both the Dev Kit promised to me and they sent
| me a free production Oculus Rift when it launched, so I don't
| feel too cheated - But still disappointed by the Facebook
| sellout.
| aresant wrote:
| With you on this. Someday maybe a collaborative DAO or
| similar model replaces Kickstarter if the SEC can sort their
| heads out and makes this a reality.
| kbenson wrote:
| > I feel like, at the very least, they should get free Oculus
| headsets for life.
|
| Is there something different about this kickstarter than most
| others? Did they offer ownership? Because it sounds like you
| think you bought something they don't think they sold.
|
| Just because you compliment my son on his lemonade stand and
| tell him you believe in him and buy a lemonade doesn't
| entitle you to a share of his eventual billion dollar
| lemonade empire.
| wccrawford wrote:
| I was one of those backers.
|
| We got the headset that we paid for, and we _also_ got the
| next dev headset after that for free. I definitely feel like
| I got my money 's worth from it.
|
| I then switched for a Vive for my first retail headset, but
| I've since switched to Quest 2. Even though it shouldn't be
| better, the wireless functionality and ability to play games
| without a computer make it better than the original Vive.
| I'll likely be upgrading to whatever is next in the Oculus
| lineup.
|
| I backed VR because I've always loved the idea of VR and AR,
| and desperately wanted it to take off. Palmer and Carmack did
| a great job of making that happen, and even though I don't
| like Palmer's politics, I'm very thankful that he got this
| ball rolling. If I had only gotten that first headset, I'd
| still feel like I totally got my money's worth. But the
| continued and increased presence of VR is the real payout for
| me.
|
| My wife also has a Quest 2 now and we often play multiplayer
| games together, like Walkabout Minigolf. It's just amazing.
| ericmcer wrote:
| It sucks that there are just flocks of vultures waiting to
| profit off anything that results from his work. Business!
| modeless wrote:
| If people are wondering why this dry legal summary from two weeks
| ago is on HN, it's probably because John Carmack just tweeted
| about how there's been a media blackout since their win:
| https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1452758104735723526
|
| According to Palmer Luckey there were tech reporters in the
| courtroom as the verdict was read, but they chose not to publish
| articles about it, presumably because something bad happening to
| Luckey/Oculus/Facebook would have been news, but something good
| doesn't fit the narrative.
| https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/1452753156895506433
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(page generated 2021-10-25 23:00 UTC)