Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick




Judge Lets Google Earth Fly On

from the fly-away dept

While Google is getting some attention today for releasing the latest version of Google Earth to coincide with the "Where 2.0" conference, it also may have waited to find out whether a court was going to shut the software down. On Friday, though, a judge denied a preliminary injunction that would have stopped Google from offering the software, due to a company that claims to own the patent on displaying real photographic content within a flight simulator environment. This follows the recent Supreme Court ruling that hopefully should make such patent injunctions less common. It's good to see judges not automatically jumping forward with injunctions in patent disputes, and at least allowing the rest of the case to play out.

13 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Jun 12th, 2006 @ 8:35pm
  • by insydedan

    google earth is a flight sim emviorment?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 12th, 2006 @ 8:39pm
  • Google Earth Flight Simulator...

    Well, kind of. You can program a tour, kinda like a slide show and it will fly you from one destination to the next. Thought there is no controls to work while it is during the flight and you never enter an airplane...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 12th, 2006 @ 9:10pm
  • What about MS Simulator

    by Rodney

    Why Google? Why not Microsoft Flight Simulator, isn't that a little bit closer to what they are claiming they own? Sounds nutz to me!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 12th, 2006 @ 9:28pm
  • Prior Art

    by Cary

    There is so much prior art to the patent claim by Skyline Software Systems that it should have been thrown out on a bad patent claim. How long must we endure these GAWD AWFUL patents that have abso-fricking-lutely no merit whatsoever?

    Someone needs to go postal down at the Patent Office and clear out all the brain dead employees!!!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 12th, 2006 @ 9:33pm
  • Jun 12th, 2006 @ 11:36pm
  • flight what???

    by Java Jones

    I agree. Google earth isn't a flight simulator... unless you intend on pointing the plane down all the time... in which case you'd be a terrorist, but I do not believe the intent of Google earth is target practice... this is just stupid.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 13th, 2006 @ 4:57am
  • How to Fly

    by KayakDog

    Um, actually, you can fly in Google Earth. Normally you are in Trackball mode. Once you have zoomed in on a location hit Ctrl+g to enter G-Force mode. (Ctrl+t gets you back to trackball mode). The cursor will become an airplane. Dragging up/down = pitch up/down. Dragging left/right = bank left/right. Right drag up/down = change forward speed.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 13th, 2006 @ 4:58am
  • flight sim yes stupid case yes

    by meOIP

    Gearth is a flight sim of sorts. You don't walk on the ground ala an FPS you hover above it more like a helicopter than a airplane but you do 'fly,' maybe like superman. I would assume (as in i have not read nor care to) the idea is more based on the rendering of images at a distance based on direction velocity and speed. Speeking of speed this should have been thrown out with speed.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jun 13th, 2006 @ 5:47am
  • google earth

    by onlyonejeep

    i was impressed with the software when it was "keyhole earthviewer" but didnt want the 700 price tag. now google again makes stuff free for the masses. go google. to be able to zoom in at street level in real time with a piece of military grade software is amazing..forget the patent crap and enjoy technology people! the software kinda works like google maps ajax style nice and smooth no screen refreshing wait time..go google

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jun 13th, 2006 @ 8:13am
    • Re: google earth

      by Znikotine

      uhh yeah no shit lol its definately not real time i love the prog, never knew about this stupid stupid case. but my house is brand new januaryish of 05 its a vacant lot on gearth still bad ass program. someone suggested going postal at the patent office. i most definately agree

      demonoid.com

      information is free

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Jun 13th, 2006 @ 6:57am
  • by Anonymous Coward

    It's not real time.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now.
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML
Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now.
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie

Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..



Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It