Despite the escalation, Lothian says that he remains open to discussing a sensible resolution. But unless the two parties come to an agreement, it looks like they’re getting ready for a legal face-off. You can see the complete email thread between Lothian and Synaptics in this Linux Kernel Mailing List page and the attached email thread ( PDF ).
Lothian said that he used a Claude subscription to help out with his cleanroom reverse-engineering efforts, revealing the headache that advanced AI tools pose for tech giants. A user has created a free Adobe Creative Suite clone in Rust using Claude, and was also reportedly working on an open-source office suite and Autodesk tools . Aside from that, we’ve also seen a lot of reverse-engineered games running on platforms they’re not designed for, forcing Anthropic to enforce some limitations on Opus 5.5. There was also concern that the widespread use of AI in chipmaking could result in the inadvertent spread of a copied design or an infringed patent across thousands of chips before anyone catches it.
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Jowi Morales Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
bill001g These large companies have to be very careful. A bunch of states now have anti-slapp laws. A lot of these laws came about because of companies trying to enforce patents or copyright that were not actually valid but the responding person could not afford to prove the claim was invalid. Reply
GrapTops With how much the HDMI forum is a pain to deal with, break DP open and let them suffer Reply
Reechard Hot take: It should not be legal for a company to own and license for base level computer protocol functionality. Imagine if Intel didn't release the instruction set for their CPU. What good is it at that point? Reply
King_V Lothian responded, asking for complete details as to how his work infringes on its patents, but received no response, prompting him to follow up three weeks later. This was when Synaptics decided to escalate, telling him that it would be billing Lothian “to recoup the cost and effort required to create such documentation of your infringing acts.” Ok, I am not a lawyer, but how in the hell is "Well, if you want us to prove how our claim against you, you have to pay us to do it" a thing that makes any sense whatsoever? Any legal experts here who can shed light on this? Reply
me-three Welcome to the real world, where you don't have to be right, you just have to have more money than the other guy to hire lawyers. Patent fights cost serious money, even if frivolous. The guy's recourse is to take matters to the court of public opinion (which is free), and hope that it gets enough public backlash for the company to back off. Sounds like what he's doing. Another option is to seek pro bono help from a free speech org like ACLU. That, and take the stuff offline for now. Also sounds like what he's doing. Reechard said: Hot take: It should not be legal for a company Whenever you see yourself using the words "a company should," slap yourself a few times to wake up, then go do ten Hail Marys. Reply
wirefire26 ironic that a massive amount of copyrighted material was used to train AI. Then people turn around and use it to democratize copyrighted materials and it is met with legal challenges. This problem is significant and here to stay, AI is the death of intellectual property because AI can reproduce the "intellectual" in that phrase. all art, music, anything digital or can be represented by data is all going to be free. one day you can just tell AI, I want a 200 episode TV series about a team of military soldiers that use an ancient alien device as a portal to connect to other planets. ……. and so on. and the AI will produce something similar to Stargate SG-1. it isn't there yet, but you can see the beginnings of it, and as a race humans never learn when to start asking questions until it is too late, everyone wants to be the first to invent the next lightbulb or smart phone that changes the world. AI will change it… fusion energy will change it. and when all the pieces come together the planet will be a much different place than it is today, economically, society, religion, will all suffer a massive upheaval as the world restructures itself into a new age with AI as a core component of everyday life.. it isnt a good thing or a bad thing… it is just another thing in the evolution of the human race. it may be the thing that ends us or it may be the thing that allows us to prosper in untold ways. Only time can make that judgement. As for this case… This is just one of many where law and business and consumers will need to take a long look at AI. its capabilities far outpace law and common sense so there will be adverse consequences. and a lot of economic casualties on the way. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/docking-stations-hubs/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/docking-stations-hubs/synaptics-sends-cease-and-desist-order-to-creator-of-open-source-displaylink-driver-dares-him-to-publicize-its-threats-dev-reverse-engineers-displaylink-using-claude-ai-and-rust-synaptics-threatens-to-bill-creator-for-legal-documentation#main
- https://futureplc.com/privacy-policy/
- How NVIDIA Open Source Tools Are Helping Researchers Build Next-Generation 6G Networks
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang summoned to Congress over affair with alleged Chinese spy
- Practice Makes Precise: At CoRL, NVIDIA and Partners Reveal How Robots Rehearse Delicate Work in Simulation
- Grab 32 GB of RAM for just $209.99 thanks to the G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-3200 kit
- AMD admits GPU driver bug is writing data continuously, wearing out SSDs
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.