• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

[Polygon] Oculus lawsuit ends with half billion dollar judgment awarded to ZeniMax

Matt

Member
I mean more he wasn't doing it to actively harm Zenimax, but more because he was interested in the technology. It was malicious in the sense that, in destroying evidence, he was very aware of the illegality of what he was doing
I mean, he was trying to hurt their case, which would actively harm Zenimax.

I get that he's John Carmack and of course he has done a lot for this industry, but he was in the wrong here, along with Lucky and the rest.
 

mclem

Member
So... everything I read about this was in the case of did they/didn't they steal tech... what was the context of the "Did Luckey breach an NDA" aspect of it?
 
I mean, he was trying to hurt their case, which would actively harm Zenimax.

I get that he's John Carmack and of course he has done a lot for this industry, but he was in the wrong here, along with Lucky and the rest.
Oh, yeah, he is very much in the wrong here

And you're right, if this wasn't Carmack my views would probably be more cut and dry about it
 
I don't see how Oculus weathers the storm they are going through. Between this lawsuit all the garbage with Palmer Luckey and high ranking members of their development team being arrested for Child Pornography Oculus right now is in real sad shape.

Arguably much worse than that, they were positioning what they thought was a minor for sex.
 

Tankard

Member
At this rate Palmer won't be able to afford shoes.

He is fine with it.

b5416ddf66c1ab2a499f56d73a8baa77
 
So... everything I read about this was in the case of did they/didn't they steal tech... what was the context of the "Did Luckey breach an NDA" aspect of it?
This one's a bit vague to me, I'm not sure if the contents of the NDA are public - but before Oculus was a thing, Carmack shared ZeniMax property with Palmer along with an NDA, since early Rift prototypes contained ZeniMax code. Not sure where the breach occurred since I haven't read the NDA, but jury found that Palmer, and by extension Oculus (even though Oculus was founded after the NDA) had breached it.

Would be interesting to know exactly what was in the NDA and what aspect of it was breached, especially since it cost them $200,000,000

Edit: found some info on it

The NDA was unnecessary because the VR Testbed consisted of nothing but a binary executable file from a small portion of one videogame that Carmack had adapted to test HMD [head-mounted display] devices, together with related art assets. Regardless, the parties never finalized the NDA, which omitted key terms defining what use Luckey could make of the VR Testbed he received. And, of course, Oculus did not even exist at the time Luckey signed the NDA document.

http://www.recode.net/2014/6/25/11628346/oculus-demands-jury-trial-in-dispute-with-zenimax

http://www.recode.net/2014/5/1/1162...t-oculus-allegedly-broke-according-to-zenimax
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
They found he (while he was with Zenimax, and after he left) copied code from Zenimax computers, Oculus programmers copy/paste that code into their SDKs, and Carmack tried to cover his tracks once the lawyers came-a-calling

I don't see how the injunction isn't granted, and that is when Zenimax has Oculus by the balls financially.
 
The bigger issue isn't the judgement, it's the fact that oculus is pretty much DOA thanks to controversial business tactics, crappy leadership and lie after lie to the community that put them at the top. Enjoy your fail, VR will be better off without them.
 

Whompa02

Member
Being that Palmer Luckey seems like a total scumlord, I'm not too disappointed in his company losing half a billion dollars.
 
Facebook should have sold Oculus instead of paying this out. This will not be the first time they have to cover Luckey's tracks. I really hope other companies put a headset out soon, I hate how Oculus is the only option besides the Vive. Makes VR, as a whole, look really bad.
Why give up on VR? Facebook believes in Vr
 
It's kind of hilarious that they caught Carmack because: a) he didnt know how to wipe out the stolen data from a HD and b) He didn't know how to cover his internet footprint.

:p
 

massoluk

Banned
That feel when you're more disappointed by Carmack failure to perform computer feat than the legal trouble he is in for it.
 
What's being suggested is basically akin to a Heart Surgeon Googling "Where's the Heart Located?".

TIL John Carmack is a computer forensics specialist and not a game engine programmer.

I dunno why anyone thinks this lawsuit will stop Facebook from going forward with VR. Until someone else dominates the market or the market is determined to be non existent they're going to keep trying.
 

renzolama

Member
What a colossal fuckup Palmer Luckey turned out to be. How much longer can it possibly be before Facebook takes him out behind the barn.

Edit: I'm secretly happy that I can finally self-justify hating him for being rich and famous. All that jealousy guilt was exhausting.
 
When I wished for Luckey to have to return facebook stock, I didn't expect it to happen. Holy shit. Day made.

Edit: It's almost all he made from the Oculus buyout. He is now left only with the original VC money. Holy shit!

Whoa, do you have a source for how much he personally made?

I hope he didn't buy a Ferrari or something.
 

nynt9

Member
My assumption was this evidence was found and presented by Zenimax or their payrolled experts, not an unbiased party. Thanks to the selective bolding of the poster I was quoting, I skipped over the court-appointed part. My mistake, and it still sounds preposterous and unbelievable.

How to perfectly wipe a hard drive (without the possibility of the data being recovered through forensics tools) is actually a complex and difficult process that you need specialized tools for. Also the techniques for recovering data are constantly improving, and so are the tools to counter them. Unless you work in data forensics yourself, you wouldn't know how it exactly works and what the latest tech is, and thus you would need to look it up. Carmack is a genius and very knowledgeable, but there are things that he does not know. He's human too.
 
Yes. Multiple buyouts mean depreciation of stock, VCs are ruthless. Plus a big chunk of those 3B were used for investments within the company (securing supply lines, hiring talented people like Abrash etc).

Where's the proof? Also when you agree sell a company, you get what it's sold for. You don't care what money they spend after
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Oculus still made out like bandits all things considering. That FB acquisition price is still just wtf. Hahaha
 
They didn't disclose it. However, there's no way VCs didn't screw Oculus over, at least in the early days when Oculus was desperate for money. It is very common for the owners of a company to give up most of their stock for investments within the company.

1.6% is actually huge as Luckey even before the kickstarter was not the owner of the company, Iribe was.

So no proof other than "dude there's no way"
 
Isn't that a chump change for Oculus? I mean Facebook bought them for 2 billion. Plus if Facebook is helping them footing the bill, that is barely a sign of death to Oculus.
 

Matt

Member
Isn't that a chump change for Oculus? I mean Facebook bought them for 2 billion. Plus if Facebook is helping them footing the bill, that is barely a sign of death to Oculus.
You seem a bit confused as so how corporate acquisitions work. That $2 billion+ was paid to the owners of Oculus in exchange for the company. "Oculus" is now a part of FaceBook, and all of their operation costs are now paid by FaceBook.
 

jax

Banned
Why give up on VR? Facebook believes in Vr

Because they clearly have no idea what the shit they're doing, are literally relying on $500,000,000 stolen code to get this thing working, and because they aren't, never have been, and never will be a gaming company?
 

Reallink

Member
How to perfectly wipe a hard drive (without the possibility of the data being recovered through forensics tools) is actually a complex and difficult process that you need specialized tools for. Also the techniques for recovering data are constantly improving, and so are the tools to counter them. Unless you work in data forensics yourself, you wouldn't know how it exactly works and what the latest tech is, and thus you would need to look it up. Carmack is a genius and very knowledgeable, but there are things that he does not know. He's human too.

I've never heard any credible tales of multi-pass overwrites on mechanical drives ever being recovered. SSD's are less bullet proof, but they pretty much all come with secure erase software suites, and full drive encryption is fairly common knowledge, which combined should be high 90's% confidence. Realistically if you're taking the what if's that far out, you're not searching this shit on a company computer/network through fucking Google, and you're not wiping drives, you're physically destroying them.
 
Top Bottom