All Mode
Yesterday the Lord of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg testified in a trial instigated by ZeniMax who claims that the technology for the Oculus Rift was stolen when John Carmack (the creator of Doom and Quake) took the technology with him after leaving ID Software which is owned by ZeniMax. Carmack denies any wrong doing. In the past he claimed that he left ID Software to work with Lucky Palmer on the basis that Palmer’s technology showed so much promise.
On the stand, Mark Zuckerberg denied knowing anything about the theft of intellectual property. He claimed that ZeniMax was just trying to get a piece of the Oculus Rift Pie. Zuck said that its common for companies, patent trolls, and individuals to come out after a given technology has proven to be successful.
Mark Zuckerberg | Image Credit: Facebook
He argued that such practices are common. People and companies claim ownership of key elements of the successful technologies even when they have done nothing to develop, finance, or help create innovation.
Revealing and Not So Revealing Testimony
Zuckerberg’s testimony was mostly run of the mill corporate blah blah blah. That said, a few interesting details came out during the trial. In 2014 when Facebook announced their purchase of Oculus, they said they were paying a pretty penny of 2 billion dollars. Two billion dollars is almost half the worth of Donald Trump (estimated to be a 5 Billionaire). In the trial Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook paid closer to 3 Billion dollars when accounting for bonuses. This large number reveals that Facebook wanted Oculus pretty bad. They knew how good it would be for virtual reality porn.
Bought by Facebook in a Rush to the Market
Image Credit: Oculus
Reports indicate that Facebook paid so much because they thought the Oculus Rift was so far ahead of the competition in terms of development. To me this is ironic because when it finally was released last year, it was commonly considered the 2nd best virtual reality headset (for porn and for games). The HTC VIVE which arose out of collaboration between Valve and HTC, was released almost at the same time as the Oculus. It was and still is consider more technically advanced in terms of its control mechanisms and 3d situational abilities.
With these facts in mind, it almost appears that Facebook mismanaged the Oculus Rift by releasing it late. Otherwise, they may have been too hasty in snapping up the Oculus Rift in a 2 billion dollar buyout fervor. If the latter situation is the case, perhaps Facebook did overlook some of the legalese that made the purchase of Oculus a risky legal proposition.
Similar to the Story of Jobs and Woz, Lucky Palmer claims to have developed the core components for the Oculus in his garage (why can’t people develop technology in basements or living rooms?). Some journalists are speculating that this fairy tale story of Palmer is bullshit and Carmack actually did steal the key technological components of the Oculus that were intrinsic to its continued development.
Image Credit: The Verge
What if Facebook Loses to ZeniMax?
So what does this all mean for you and your trusty Oculus Rift that has given you so many hours of filthy virtual reality porn? A worst case scenario would be that the court finds that the Oculus technology was stolen and Facebook could be forced to stop selling the Oculus Rift as it is.
This would slow down updates and software development. It probably would not affect your capacity to watch VR Porn that is out there now. Yet, newer formats that would require firmware updates will be problematic…you could be in trouble. In sum, its most likely that very little will change for you Oculus Rift Porn Heads. If ZeniMax does win, its more likely that Facebook might get a little fine and have to pay a per headset fee in the future.
Damn trolls. Carmack figured some stuff out and helped do great things for VR. Zenimax has only contributed legal bullshit and pain
You might be right about Zenimax…. But one thing is sure that these tech giants keep much of the things under wraps and Facebook is no different
facebook is trying to do what microsoft did in its early years.. but no doubt that bundle looks super cool… even the unboxing experience would be awesome! i need one.
Ahh, i am sure that Mark will find a way out of this…. However, it would be interesting to see whether the mud-slinging claims on Zenimax proves to be true…