Support us on Patreon
PayPalThe case of Valve versus Leigh Rothschild and all associated companies has come to an end, with Valve coming out the clear winner in this one.
For those unfamiliar, Rothschild has a lot of patents and has a habit of going after various companies to try and get money out of them. They even tried to sue GNOME, as just one appropriate example here.
It sure took a while for this situation to be solved, with a first case being originally filed in 2022 from Display Technologies LLC (a patent holding company from Rothschild). The patent in question, US8856221B2, covers a "System and method for storing broadcast content in a cloud-based computing environment". This caused Valve to file their own suit in 2023 which targeted Rothschild directly, various companies and even their lawyers.
For once, a patent troll got what was coming to them and the public verdict is an interesting one to read through. Not only has it been thrown out, but Valve have been awarded damages at what appears to be over $150,000. With the jury noting Rothschild violated the Washington Patent Troll Prevention and Consumer Protection Acts due to making the assertion of patent infringement in bad faith.
Pocket change when it comes to Valve, but perhaps a nice warning call to patent trolls not to mess with the likes of Valve.
The jury also awarded an "advisory verdict for Valve" according to the docs favouring the invalidity of Claim 7 of the ’221 Patent "due to obviousness". It's not entirely over just yet though as courts now need to set a date for the remaining disputes between Valve and Rothschild, on Valve's "invalidity and unenforceability claim".
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
See more from me
You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
Quoting: Purple Library GuyThere has never been capitalism that didn't involve government action to privatize profits and socialize loss, so if we're going to say that kind of thing disqualifies a system as capitalism then there has never been any such thing as capitalism and we should never bother using the word again. Capitalism involved major government intervention from its very beginnings in EnglandI think we probably agree more than disagree, but it feels like it is getting lost in translation.
I actually agree that there has never been any "pure" capitalism (or socialism) ever enacted. When you talk about Enclosure (and the other countless examples of gov intervention on behalf of the fat cats), I don't see that as an outgrowth of capitalism. I see it as corruption. Which is why I'm generally in favor of as small a government as possible. There will always be some people that want a free lunch and they will exploit whatever (economic) system they are in. I'm sure there was tons of corruption in the USSR or even a little corruption in some uncontacted tribe in the middle of nowhere.
The small tribe, given a tight "everyone knows everyone" community, would have an easier time outcasting would-be cheaters. When you get to the scale of nation states, there are simply too many people and the corrupt can hide in the crowd. And a single defector can create a cascade of spoilage. Once someone gets the free lunch, they now have more resources to snowball into more corruption and more resources. I think this is obvious when we see Robber Barons like Rhodes (dead for over 100 years) still affecting the world today. Sure, he made his fortune under the banner of capitalism, but how many times did he bribe and lie and worse to get there?
I'm willing to bet ANY economic system would work if you could eliminate/minimize corruption. While I think capitalism (unfettered by corruption) would be superior to socialism (also uncorrupted), I would be more than happy to try socialism sans corruption.
So when I hear people (not pointing at you) saying things like "tax the rich" I am sympathetic, but I'm more inclined to advocate for "hang the corrupt". It just so happens that the venn diagram of corrupt and ultra rich is actually very close to a circle.
How to setup OpenMW for modern Morrowind on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck
How to install Hollow Knight: Silksong mods on Linux, SteamOS and Steam Deck