The threat suggests that Threads is the most serious rival yet to Elon Musk’s chaotic social platform.

  • wagesj45@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I can’t believe that “240 character social media post” is somehow a trade secret. What are they expecting to tell the judge and not be laughed out of court?

    • moon_matter@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It might be possible to patent it. Look at Wizards of the Coast and all their crazy card game patents. But the only reason they were able to do that is because their patents are incredibly detailed and specific. So they could change it to 256 characters or something and be fine.

      • Madison_rogue@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        IIRC Threads is 500 characters, not 240, so that wouldn’t be a something they could sue over.

        However, Twitter has over 2000 patents filed, over 1400 of which are registered in the United States. They deal with malicious advertisement detection & remediation, malware, automatic management of data processing, mobile app management, interactive advertising, and electric publishing to name a few.

        I can see where Musk may have found similarities between the software somewhere in the mess of their patents.

        • bedrooms@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          But just how would they know the internals of Threads? According to Meta, even Twitter’s claim that Threads devs include ex-Twitter employees is wrong.

          To me it sounds like Twitter’s legal action is just an obstruction tactic.

      • bedrooms@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Oof, imagine Twitter lawyers bringing in screen shots of their most salient code and SCOTUS TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY. Meta argues it’s silly and yet those judges establish that screenshots are the way to discuss software IP.

  • TipRing@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This seems like a pretty heavy lift for Twitter and while I hardly support Meta, if Twitter somehow manages to win sole ownership of the concept of microblogs it would be bad for everyone.

    • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      So long, Mastodon. (On the plus side, so long Frank Speech, Truth Social, Gab, etc. etc. etc.)

      • blivet@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, my first reaction to this story was, why didn’t they sue any of the other Twitter clones before this?

        • MoogleMaestro@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Because it’s a big waste of time and won’t get anywhere. The fact that mastodon has been a thing since 2018 (or earlier) unopposed means that they will have a really hard time proving that they ever had any trade ownership over the concept of microblogging.

          • Ragnell@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Given how fast this thing was put together, it’s very likely Meta actually DID use stuff from Twitter that was patented. Mastodon less likely, because it was built completely separate over a few years

            • Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Writing a Twitter clone isn’t exactly hard, especially for a company that practically o center social media and already runs Instagram and Facebook.

            • ripcord@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Considering how fast this was put together sounds like all the other shit Musk has done with Twitter. Fast and half thought through. So far this seems meaningless.

          • Ragnell@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            I think it’s also pretty likely Meta is using actual code from Twitter, though. It’s not an upstanding company and it put Threads together as fast as possible.

            Mastodon was put together over several years using open-source software and keeping open-source, so it probably genuinely doesn’t infringe on those patents.

            • Bobert@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              I highly doubt that a company with the monetary force behind it that Meta has needs to steal code from Twitter. Besides, it’s made evident more every day that Twitter is the code equivalent of spaghetti and duct tape after Musk had his way with it.

              And what makes X upstanding in comparison to Meta? I mean I’m honestly not arguing in favor of Meta and Threads as much as I’m trying to paint the picture that this is Elon “I’ll sign an agreement buying Twitter for $44 Billion and attempt to fight my way out of it before the ink dries” Musk that is on the other side of this.

              • Ragnell@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                Oh Elon’s a piece of shit. It’s just I am confident that in investigating either of them they are going to find any manner of bad behavior, but that if an open-source alternative had even a whiff of plagiarism it’d have been hit with takedown notices long ago.

            • Zeppo@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Why would they need to use code from Twitter or even want to? They have hundreds or thousands of engineers to write their own, don’t necessarily use the same languages or tooling, and already have had IG, which works on the exact same model as Twitter, for a decade.

            • ripcord@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              You seem to be equating source code use with patent infringement. They’re not really related.

  • Rabbithole@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Sorry Elon, but…

    I’m fairly sure you don’t get to axe most of your staff, refuse (illegally) to pay their severance packages and then sue another company because they hired your now, ex-employees, on the grounds that it’s stealing from your company…

    • pancakes@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I hope he does go through with the lawsuit, it would be hilarious. I’m hoping for a ship of theseus argument.

      • mPony@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I’m hoping for a mask-off “I paid them once so I own them forever” argument.

    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      Twitter is apparently also struggling to pay for all the individual arbitration claims they forced their ex-employees to engage in rather than a class action, yet now they want to take on a lawsuit against Facebook? Do they honestly think they can come out ahead here?

  • ArugulaZ@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Yaccarino’s post makes me want to retch. What a load of quasi-inspirational, self-aggrandizing, suffocatingly corporate trash.

    • sab@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Figured I’d read it to see what you’re talking about.

      1. watch the tweet load, while it reads “view on Twitter”
      2. “[…] And that’s irreplaceable. This… Show more
      3. watch bird for three seconds
      4. watch balls spinning for seven seconds
      5. No, I do not want to accept your cookies.
      6. No, I do not want to sign in with Google.
      7. “…is your public square. We’re often imitated – but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”

      The effort and wait was worth every single one of the 15 words. Truly an irreplaceable platform.

  • macniel@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Anyone else thinks it’s funny that journalist always have to explain/describe what Meta is? Be it the parent company of Facebook, Whatsapp or Instagram.

    • GizmoLion@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I’m glad they do. Meta’s name change shouldn’t free them from the reputation they earned with facebook. Pin the old name to them whenever possible.

      • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I just call them Facebook, like everyone and their mother still calls Google Google. Fuck them thinking they can steal other people’s name and sue them for it.

        • asteroidrainfall@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          What if Zuck comes out of his lizard hole and utters the word:

          FEDIVERSE.

          to proclaim that Meta, formally known as Facebook, is now changing their name to Fedi.

        • NotTheOnlyGamer@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Funny, I make an effort to call them DoubleClick. We should remember the name of the malicious ad agency, not the indexed search engine.

  • VulcanSphere@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Arguing a general concept such as certain limit of microblog copyrightable or trade secret is silly enough, hopefully court will throw out the lawsuit if Musky insisted to fill it.

    Unless Meta really copied codes from Twitter.