Microsoft's new Kinect patent goes Big Brother.

[AnCap Dave]

Source

Microsoft has filed for a Kinect-related patent, and it's a doozy of an application. The abstract describes a camera-based system that would monitor the number of viewers in a room and check to see if the number of occupants exceeded a certain threshold set by the content provider. If there are too many warm bodies present, the device owner would be prompted to purchase a license for a greater number of viewers.

No, really. It's that blunt. From the abstract: "The users consuming the content on a display device are monitored so that if the number of user-views licensed is exceeded, remedial action may be taken."

It's refreshing to see Microsoft eschewing its play-nice-with-everyone approach to business for some old-fashioned, straight-up evil. The patent's various claims can endow a device with a limited number of performances in a given period of time, a limited number of users allowed to view such performances, and the continuous monitoring of viewers during those performances. It also covers the determination of "when performance of the content to an identified user exceeds a threshold."



The really interesting thing about this patent is that it suggests that copyright holders are allowed to govern performances in otherwise private dwellings. The application describes how the patent could be applied to head-mounted devices, large screens, gaming and media products, computers, and even mobile phones. Clearly, this isn't just a method for cracking down on illicit big-screen viewings of movies and television that might plausibly be called a public performance.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. This is the logical extension of the "you only buy a license" philosophy that rules the content provider universe. Microsoft's misstep here is in filing for a patent on devices that can only provide a personal viewing experience. Getting 50 people together to watch a movie on someone's 84-inch television may indeed count as a public performance, as far as copyright law is concerned. Two people watching a movie on a 10-inch iPad, on the other hand, isn't quite the same thing. MS's new patent covers both scenarios.

Recent developments in US copyright law could leave a patent like this without much of a bite. Last summer, Judge Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a lower court ruling that claimed embedding a video in a website qualified as copyright infringement. In the decision, Posner held that viewing an uploaded video does not infringe on copyright law's reproductive or distributive rights. The law, he wrote, is unclear on whether or not the act of viewing content infringes on a copyright holder's performance rights.

This question could have a significant impact on whether or not copyright holders spring for systems like the one Microsoft is trying to patent. If viewing a video online constitutes a performance infringement, rightsholders could mandate a user-detection scheme under the auspices of the DMCA. If it doesn't, no electronics company on Earth will want to touch the idea for fear of a consumer backlash.

Between this, charging a fee for playing used games, and lack of backwards compatibility with 360 games...Fuck the new Xbox.

[MrBogosity]

You know, I need to team up with some people who think evil and know how to patent stuff, so we can think up stuff like this and patent it to stop the corporations from doing it.

[AnCap Dave]

You know, I need to team up with some people who think evil and know how to patent stuff, so we can think up stuff like this and patent it to stop the corporations from doing it.

I have no idea how to take the legal route and do all of that...but I'm game regardless.

[Travis Retriever]

You know, I need to team up with some people who think evil and know how to patent stuff, so we can think up stuff like this and patent it to stop the corporations from doing it.

Where's Dr. Evil when you need him?

[tnu]

So what's all this about patents potecting the little guy agian?

[AnCap Dave]

Speaking of this hunk of junk abomination they're daring to call a video game system, here's what has been confirmed about the used game restrictions:
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[evensgrey]

Have they decided to make the new console with a less completely crap hardware design than the 360?  (The chronic video hardware failures could have been prevented with about $1 worth of bolts instead of spring clips, but no...)

[AnCap Dave]

OH LAWDIE

[ArtemisVale]

Im switching to PS4 :T

[R.E.H.W.R.]

Im switching to PS4 :T

Think I'm with you on that.

[Ibrahim90]

Im switching to PS4 :T

call me old fashioned, but I don't even want to have a console. they're a pain in the ass anyways--at least to me. just like that truck I got. seriously, 30 dollars and more just to keep it running smoothly, plus 3-500 dollars to pay it off? what a load.

it's a good thing I'm off to Midland on Tuesday. might have struck it lucky--for once.

[AnCap Dave]

And HERE is where Microsoft just might earn a Biggest Bogon Emitter segment or even potentially Idiot Extraordinaire:
Source

I like to point the finger at video game journalists often. They're usually a lazy, misinformed, pro-corporate bunch who don't take the actual concerns of the community to heart. I have no love for video game journalism. However, I have been nothing but floored and substantially placed in awe at how well many gaming sites out there have handled the Xbox One situation. Microsoft is a little less enthused about the results, though.

The main purpose of gaming media is to inform, educate and entertain their audience. Factual information, cited sources and policy clarification was something just about every top site out there sought once the Xbox One conference ended and they had a chance to talk directly with Microsoft's executives and public relation representatives. What came out of those talks were confirmations of fears gamers had ever since the roadmap for the next-gen Xbox presented gamers with the harsh reality of an always-on system with a potential block on the traditional method of buying, selling and trading pre-owned games.

Well, Giant Bomb managed to catch an updated media address from Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb, who has been appointed as the one and only source now for policy related information on the Xbox One. According to Hyrb...

"The ability to trade in and resell games is important to gamers and to Xbox. Xbox One is designed to support the trade in and resale of games. Reports about our policies for trade in and resale are inaccurate and incomplete. We will disclose more information in the near future."

That is all.

Despite pointing a finger at gaming media for inaccurate and incomplete information, Hyrb never bothered to provide accurate or complete information about the issues everyone keeps asking about. So how about those used game fees, Hyrb? How about that 24 hour check-in Hyrb? How about that always-listening, always-watching Kinect 2.0, Hyrb? Any complete or accurate information to share? No?

So Microsoft is saying that what was said by their own vice president of business, Phil Harrison, was inaccurate? He explicitly told Wired..

You can take your game around to your friend's house just as you would today — that's assuming you have a physical disc — and what we're doing with the new Live technology is that... with the disc, it's just a repository for "the bits". You can put that disc into his drive, you can play the game while you're there, and then you go home and take that disc with you. But actually, "the bits" are still on his drive. If your friend decides that he really likes to play that game, then he can go buy it instantly, and it doesn't need to download again. It's already there. Once he's paid for it, it's immediately there."

There is nothing to misconstrue. You lend your friend a game that you play via your Live Account, you leave the disc with your friend to play but once you get home to play on your own Xbox One and the mandatory 24 hour check-in kicks into gear, your friend can no longer play the game until they either purchase the license or login with your credentials again.

Gamespot took things a step further to find out from retailers exactly how much the total license could cost, and they received figures that approximated around $52 to purchase a used game license, based on the talks retailers have had with Microsoft.

Additionally, Polygon asked Microsoft's own lead hardware program manager...yes, the actual lead hardware program manager for the Xbox One about the Kinect and it's always-listen functionality and here is what John Link had to say...

"You know, it's always available to the system, so ... you can count, as an application developer or a game developer, [that] everyone's going to have a Kinect. You always have that stream available... [Kinect will] "be just listening enough to know that, 'Hey, I heard something interesting. Somebody's probably trying to wake me up.' It sends it to the console for confirmation, and then it can really power up to that high-power state."

This isn't press misconstruing crap, this is Microsoft's own employees telling the entire gaming community about these features. Gaming media have been giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt ever since the original Edge report leaked.

The backtracking and PR-spin posts since the Xbox One reveal have become blatantly obvious now and it appears that Microsoft wasn't ready for gamers to speak up and fight back. In fact, Angry Joe and his followers have gathered quite the pitchfork and torch crew informing any and everyone about the Xbox One's policies that strip you of your rights as a consumer!

If Microsoft doesn't like the bad press, instead of blaming gaming journalists for actually doing their job for once (and they really do deserve a hand in this case) they should just be honest. If they're really planning on going through with these anti-consumer measures they should just say so. At least I'll know right off the bat which console I won't be buying.

[tnu]

Im switching to PS4 :T

I'm sticking with good old reliable PC.

[R.E.H.W.R.]

I'm sticking with good old reliable PC.

Speaking of which. I'm trying to find a good pc to play games on plus a good graphic card. Any advice?

[Skm1091]

I guess I'm lucky that im not an XBOX fan then.

I'll check out the PS4

Hopefully it'll do better than the PS3.