
ZeniMax vs. Oculus verdict excerpts, link to full 90-page ruling - gregw2
http://www.roadtovr.com/zenimax-v-oculus-facebook-vr-lawsuit-jury-verdict-ruling/
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gregw2
For direct copyright infringement, only Oculus was found guilty (ZeniMax
claims post-trial at [http://uploadvr.com/zenimax-responds-john-carmacks-
facebook-...](http://uploadvr.com/zenimax-responds-john-carmacks-facebook-..).
some employee admitted he copy-pasted some code to an Oculus SDK.) Carmack was
innocent.

For vicarious copyright infringement (ie management should have
known/prevented it,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicarious_liability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicarious_liability)),
Oculus/Facebook/Carmack were innocent but Palmer Lucky and Brenden Iribe
(before they founded Oculus?) were guilty.

For contributory copyright infringement
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributory_liability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributory_liability),
a "party materially contributes to, facilitates, induces, or is otherwise
responsible for directly infringing acts carried out by another party." ),
Oculus/Facebook were innocent but Iribe, Palmer, and this time Carmack were
guilty.

BUT, the ruling then goes on to say that "the defenses of license or de
minimis use bars Zenimax's claim for copyright infringement" for Palmer, Iribe
and Carmack (but not for Oculus). So whatever Palmer/Iribe/Carmack did wasn't
that bad, but the actual copying of code to the SDK by Oculus somehow merited
$50m damages (I can't see why that won't get reduced substantially on appeal,
no copy-pasted-code-to-an-SDK really caused Zenimax $50m damages.)

For violating the NDA Palmer Lucky signed before Oculus was even formed (but
which was ruled to still be in effect after Oculus), Zenimax gets $200
million.

And for "false designation of origin",
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_designation_of_origin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_designation_of_origin)),
where the manufacturer/seller lies about the origin of their products, Oculus
was guilty for $50m, Palmer Lucky (the visionary founder) for $50m and Brendan
Iribe (the CEO) for $150m. I'm not sure I understand the factual basis of what
happened here, but having been in startups that deliberately obscured the
origins/key parts of underlying technologies to angel investors, I can see the
origins of product misrepresentations as being worthy of substantial damages
as it really does affect Oculus's value and Zenimax's ability to be
compensated for "their part". Probably will get knocked down too, but this is
the most defensible part of the $ amount.

