Microsoft Sued for Locking Out Third Party Memory Cards

[SomeUnregPunk]

so I'm guessing that all the commentors here are too young to remember when United States v. Microsoft, antitrust case [http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/ms_index.htm]

It ended with Microsoft being forced to stop making their operating systems that made it difficult for the competition to get in the market. Like making it difficult for users to use competition programs on their OS.

I'd bet Datel will win this one.

 

[Shapsters]

Man, is this Lawsuit November or something? Can't people learn to solve their differences the proper way?

Like, a street fight?

Monkeys or no deal!

I'm not one of those people who always hates on Microsoft, but come on! This is so scummy, so low down, and such a dirty move on their part. Banning third party memory cards because they are bigger and better? Beyond scummy.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

Well technically its their product they can change the console`s specifications as much as they want. . .. But yes viewing this as a ban of better product. . . and not just a lil bit but seriously over-powered card then it is a weird move :O
But honestly ppl just cant deal with their competition. Im sure the ppl who are suing McSoft now would if the oppurtunity arises do the same for some product of their own. Nobody likes competition in any sphere of bussiness. I mean i may be selling lemonade in the park and if i see another dude selling i wont be happy. And if he has better lemonade then i think we might even refer to the Street Fighting that was mentioned above

 

[darksakul]

I'll be interested to find out how this turns out. I'm not sure what copyright and IP law says, but you'd think that since its their own proprietary system that they can decide what works with it and what doesn't. Please correct me if my asumption is way off.

Nice reply. Also you provide a interesting view on this debate.

Xbox 360 (and their memory cards) are not really the open form factor everyone think it is.
Xbox 360 memory cards are not the same form factor category as SATA, USB, Firewire and other computer port technology.

 

[r_Chance]

It doesn't have anything to do with memory card competition or size imo. It has to do with piracy and Datel making it easier. And selling more memory units because of it. It doesn't take too much thought or research to find out the "why" of the MS decision. Datel memory units allow interface between PCs and 360s. Datel had to know it was coming, MS didn't just do this out of the blue, they complained to Datel first. Notice MS isn't whining about other peripherals...

http://www.ripten.com/2009/05/18/datels-xbox-360-memory-card-supports-16gb-microsdsdhc-cards/

 

[samsonguy920]

Man, is this Lawsuit November or something? Can't people learn to solve their differences the proper way?

Like, a street fight?

With knives?

Memory sticks.

This will be interesting to see how it plays out. For one, Microsoft has the argument that the Xbox is their property, therefore they can pick what gets used with it. But on the other, Microsoft does not hold the patent on flash technology, therefore they are being anticompetitive with this action. It's practically a coin toss, but it may very well affect how third party media is produced for consoles down the road on how this gets determined. (Unless Microsoft pulls a hostile takeover of Datel and therefore renders the lawsuit moot, which would be in their nature, but might not be in their budget atm.)

 

[silentsentinel]

Man, is this Lawsuit November or something? Can't people learn to solve their differences the proper way?

Like, a street fight?

I thought a gentlemanly duel would be more appropriate.

 

[samsonguy920]

so I'm guessing that all the commentors here are too young to remember when United States v. Microsoft, antitrust case [http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/ms_index.htm]

It ended with Microsoft being forced to stop making their operating systems that made it difficult for the competition to get in the market. Like making it difficult for users to use competition programs on their OS.

I'd bet Datel will win this one.

That case is a different ballgame. In this one where the 360 is concerned, Microsoft owns the OS and the console it operates on, so it has a more legit say about what gets used on it. PC's are such an open domain, not even produced by Microsoft at all, that it would be a trust issue with Microsoft playing playground bully.
For analogy:
-You want to play on a public sandlot, but some guy there wants to tell you how it wants you to play. That's the case with their infringement on PC's.
-You want to play on a private ballfield, but the owner won't let you bring your own wood bats with you, instead selling you his aluminum ones to use. That's this case with the 360.

Microsoft is still playing big bully on this one, but Datel doesn't really have much hope.

 

[Deleted]

When someone does something better than you, be a ***** about it.

 

[Knight Templar]

Okay so before I start I must explain. I personally hate this shit. I do think MS are just being assholes for locking out memory cards and 3rd party harddrives too.
However. The 360 is their property right? So if they want to lock out shit that others are making for their product should they not legally be able to?
Is Datel paying them a percentage for sales of their items which is clearly designed for MS's product?
Basically what I am saying is that datel is making money only because of the 360. Why should they be able to get away with that without at least having to pay something to MS?

I'm fairly sure that monopolies are a bad thing, what with the whole Sherman Antitrust Act [sup] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act[/sup].
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't see how Microsoft will get around the whole "monopolies are illegal" part, which is what MS has here.

If I build a house and sell it to you, do I have the right to decide over every item you put in that house?

 

[JWAN]

Man, is this Lawsuit November or something? Can't people learn to solve their differences the proper way?

Like, a street fight?

Or...


THUNDERDOME

TWO MEN ENTER ONE MAN LEAVES

 

[Tron-tonian]

*Should* MS allow third party hardware?
Yes.

Do they *have* to?
No, likely not. They don't have a monopoly as they do with Windows, and it is their closed platform.

That being said, the money in consoles is in the accessories. Anytime another company gets a sale, that's cash out of MS' pocket *unless* they've paid a licensing fee to MS. I'd be willing to be that they come to some sort of licensing agreement with Datel in the near future - old cards will still be locked out, but new ones will be introduced - for just a bit more then they were before.

 

[Treblaine]

A San Fransico court?

Microsoft might as well settle right now, they don't stand a chance in hippie-ville who just love to fuck over big corporations.

I hope this has global effects as if memory cards open up, how long till I can buy an Xbox 360 hard drive for competitive prices like I can for my PS3?

Then again, I'm a long way from filling my 360's HDD and the only console HDD I see filling up quickly is my PS3 due to my soon to arrive PlayTV adaptor which turns my PS3 into a rather effective PVR, to record hours and hours of broadcast TV now that would need a 500GB HDD.

But there are very few movies worth downloading to keep on 360, 60GB is about good enough for me right now.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

this hardly suprises me. microsoft has been convicted of being a monopoly before.

there i fixed that for you, they've already been convicted of it, they were almost carved up into 3 different companies but then Bush Jr got into power and he stopped everything good that could have come from that decision

I din't even know about these memery cards till just now well done microsoft your blocking has lead its way to informing me of a possablely better product and i hate you for blocking it.

While theres FAR to much sueing going on atm i can back this one since microsoft are to lazy to fight them so they just remove them.

I feel the same, I had no idea third-party 360 memory cards existed, and I can't believe they can hold so much space. Wow shame on you Microsoft, this is a product that I might have been interested in buying and now you're denying me the right to use it? For shame you tyrannical fucks.

they did say they were going to do this several months ago. it's rather stupid that they did it and i hope they lose badly in court

the funny thing is after them behaving like this time and time again people still go out and buy their consoles. if you want them to NOT do this DON'T BUY THEIR CONSOLES and if you do have a 360, go sell it and get something else. it's as simple as that.

 

[Nova5]

Look, I get the whole anti-piracy thing is a big deal for companies and all that, but let's face it: Microsoft has been going after a fly with a rocket launcher.

This is hardly a targeted approach. With all the collateral damage that their update has been causing, it's not excusable. After all, you can't argue that you're "just defending your company" if you end up hurting/putting out of business other firms altogether.

 

[Treblaine]

Okay so before I start I must explain. I personally hate this shit. I do think MS are just being assholes for locking out memory cards and 3rd party harddrives too.
However. The 360 is their property right? So if they want to lock out shit that others are making for their product should they not legally be able to?
Is Datel paying them a percentage for sales of their items which is clearly designed for MS's product?
Basically what I am saying is that datel is making money only because of the 360. Why should they be able to get away with that without at least having to pay something to MS?

It was THEIR product until they sold it to me. I didn't rent it, I don't have to return it after a certain period, it is MINE. Copyright and patent laws stop me duplicating it but shouldn't stop me doing anything to it.

Now a service like XBL does have reasonable and legal terms of service, but something like memory capacity has nothing directly to do with the proper running of XBL so they have no justification to ban them for using Datel memory cards or anything else.

 

[SantoUno]

I din't even know about these memery cards till just now well done microsoft your blocking has lead its way to informing me of a possablely better product and i hate you for blocking it.

While theres FAR to much sueing going on atm i can back this one since microsoft are to lazy to fight them so they just remove them.

I feel the same, I had no idea third-party 360 memory cards existed, and I can't believe they can hold so much space. Wow shame on you Microsoft, this is a product that I might have been interested in buying and now you're denying me the right to use it? For shame you tyrannical fucks.

they did say they were going to do this several months ago. it's rather stupid that they did it and i hope they lose badly in court

the funny thing is after them behaving like this time and time again people still go out and buy their consoles. if you want them to NOT do this DON'T BUY THEIR CONSOLES and if you do have a 360, go sell it and get something else. it's as simple as that.

Well that's a bit uncalled for because many people like me still enjoy the 360, something like this shouldn't make us toss is out, their customers just need to demand fair treatment, which may sound impossible but even if we have a choice to not own theiur product their customers still have rights because they are loyal customers and bought the 360.

 

[Wofiel]

It was THEIR product until they sold it to me. I didn't rent it, I don't have to return it after a certain period, it is MINE. Copyright and patent laws stop me duplicating it but shouldn't stop me doing anything to it.

Now a service like XBL does have reasonable and legal terms of service, but something like memory capacity has nothing directly to do with the proper running of XBL so they have no justification to ban them for using Datel memory cards or anything else.

The main reason Microsoft didn't like it was because it made it incredibly easy to edit game saves, ie. cheating which is a part of XBL's ToS. If Datel made large memory cards without the removable disk, I don't think there would've been an issue.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Man, is this Lawsuit November or something? Can't people learn to solve their differences the proper way?

Like, a street fight?

prison fight with a shank made from your toothbrush.