Digital Dream Labs Loona Statement: Dissected

Today Digital Dream Labs posted a statement on their Facebook page about the situation regarding their copyright trolling towards KEYi Tech and Loona the petbot. Below you can see a screenshot taken off facebook and below I quoted that text:

Text version:

It is the mission of Digital Dream Labs to drive innovation and advancement within the AI and robotics communities. Our first action is never a legal route but one of collaboration. We had reached out to the Keyitech team in late September and early October but did not receive a reply.
As all responsible companies do, we work to protect our patents and trademarks awarded through extensive investment of not only our and Anki’s internal teams but those of the hundreds of thousands of customers that invest in that dream still. We would like to make it clear that we attempt to contact and work with parties whom we believe are infringing on previous development work before any further action is taken. Our goal has remained unchanged: Identify a solution that is agreeable to all parties that respects the work previously developed.
We are actively moving forward with the Keyitech team to address all issues with a positive resolution that will benefit all for the advancement of AI robotics. Negotiations have taken place and we are awaiting word from Keyitech regarding an agreement that would allow Keyitech to move forward and bring their projects to market.
Please note that during negotiation proceedings, our team will be unable to speak further on this issue or offer any additional statements. Thank you for your understanding.

Before I dissect this statement, I first want to mention that DDL got so many negative comments on that, they choose to close comments. Another clear sign they are not able to take criticism and they fear open, transparent reviews of their actions (because at some time in the future word will reach their investors how they act). We already know they are not able to take criticism from their Facebook group, where they do not approve posts containing constructive criticism and countless people were booted from that group for just voicing factual opinions or even just for reporting bugs. In addition the reactions to the above statement are also not favorable of DDL:

The majority of reactions are angry, some laugh and there are only a few reactions approving. This may in no way be representative, but it is a good indicator how much they alienated the robot community. If DDL actually were the company so liked as they always claim, shouldn’t there be more positive reactions?

Now let’s get to the statement:

It is the mission of Digital Dream Labs to drive innovation and advancement within the AI and robotics communities.

No. As we learned from the past two years, DDL’s mission is to rake in money. They were not able to advance anything, there are only minor updates to Vector (so minor actually, they are laughable) and none to Cozmo. Aside from that they alienated the robotics community multiple times by sueing competitors with projects and robots the community liked, or by again and again lying about the state of Vector 2.0. The more they do such things, the more the community hates them. And one thing is crystal clear: If you are in those robot communities you find the same names everywhere. We know each other and we talk to each other. We are able to communicate about DDL, their actions, lies and shenanigans, even in closed user groups not accessible by DDLs cronies. So DDL was not able to provide any advancement or innovation to the robotic communities. On the contrary they prevent innovation and advancement with their continuous copyright trolling.

Our first action is never a legal route but one of collaboration. We had reached out to the Keyitech team in late September and early October but did not receive a reply.

The first sentence I simply do not believe. They are known to sue and fast. There is no reason to believe they tried to negotiate. And if they try: If I were a company with a new product that has no code and no animations taken from DDL’s robot at all: Why should I response to a company that is obviously trying to extort money from me by falsely claiming I am damaging their copyrights? And I cannot prove it, but I am quite sure: If there actually was such reaching out by DDL to KEYi, the content most probably was “pay us money or we sue you”. No sane person in charge of a company would respond to such mafia methods.

As all responsible companies do, we work to protect our patents and trademarks awarded through extensive investment of not only our and Anki’s internal teams but those of the hundreds of thousands of customers that invest in that dream still.

Now they are trying to dwell on the sympathy Anki still has in the communities because of the ingenious robots they created. But DDL has NOTHING to do with Anki or the Anki team, they just bought their assets after the bancruptcy. It is a clear try to get sympathies from the name “Anki” they do not deserve at all. The wording “responsive companies” alone is a good example of the pr bullshit that oozes of every pore of this statement. And hundreds of thousands of customers? I do not believe a single word of that. Do they again count all the people they took ransom by taking over their Vectors as their customers? That is another dimension of deception.

We would like to make it clear that we attempt to contact and work with parties whom we believe are infringing on previous development work before any further action is taken.

See above. I either do not believe they actually did that, or I think they “offered” unacceptable terms, you can see that from the claim that other parties are infringing on their copyrights. There is no proof for that, only their claims. So: No.

Our goal has remained unchanged: Identify a solution that is agreeable to all parties that respects the work previously developed.

And that solution most probably is that other companies have to pay them big bucks to be able to create any pet robot at all, because DDL falsely claims they have the rights to square, rounded eyes, animations or “go to sleep” commands, which of course is ridiculous. They have rights on the sounds and animations and on the body of Cozmo and Vector (This is what they mean by “previously developed work” – and it is not even their work, but the work of Anki’s engineers they just bought), but not over every animation or sounds that only resemble their robots to a minimal account or not at all. The options you have when creating robot pets and desktop toys are obviously limited, especially when it comes to displaying emotions derived from humans or pets so their users can relate, and DDL is trying to get domination over all companies doing something like that. It is of utmost importance they do not succeed with this copyright trolling. That is the exact opposite of advancing and innovating robots. It is trying to dominate the sector and it is trying to kill all competition. Because they know they have nothing to show of their own, they need to cling to other companies like a parasite. And they are trying to imply they are the good guys by claiming their goal is to find a solution. Do not believe that one second. Their goal is to suck as much money out of this as possible. Once you pay them danegeld, it will never stop and they will most probably come again and again to extort  more money from you. Do not give in to this methods.

We are actively moving forward with the Keyitech team to address all issues with a positive resolution that will benefit all for the advancement of AI robotics.

And again they try to imply they are the good guys here and implying that KEYi Tech is the one that prevents a “positive resolution”. Again they try to paint themselves as the white knigh of robotics when the opposite is the case. It was Digital Dream Labs that started the copyright trolling and tries to prevent that christmas gifts arrive in time, not KEYi Tech. The term “actively moving forward” alone shows the bullshittery of this whole statement: You cannot inactively move forward. Have you already checked all of your bullshit bingo boxes?

Negotiations have taken place and we are awaiting word from Keyitech regarding an agreement that would allow Keyitech to move forward and bring their projects to market.

Again they are trying to frame KEYi Tech as the one responsible. Do not believe a word. There is absolutely no reason for KEYi Tech to cave in to DDL’s ridiculous demands. You can see how unethical DDL acts from the wording in the whole statement, trying to paint themselves as the heroes and blaming KEYi. Do not fall for such cheap tricks. And did you notice that they are not even able to write the company name KEYi Tech correctly? How pathetic ist that?

Please note that during negotiation proceedings, our team will be unable to speak further on this issue or offer any additional statements. Thank you for your understanding.

Yeah, of course they can and will not say anything more about this. Most probably because there is nothing more to say. And they probably fear we will again catch their lies as we did so often in the past.

If I were KEYi Tech I also would not put out a statement on this but simply continue to build and then ship Loona. KEYi Tech has a history of successful projects and is not the small startup other companies in this market are. So I really hope they have good lawyers that are able to stad up to DDL’s copyright trolling.

As I said before: This is the kind of typical Digital Dream Labs PR statement we know for years now, oozing bullshit from every pore. It is unbelievable how they think they can get away with alienating large portions of the robot enthusiast community – their theoretical customers and their multipliers – and then try to sooth us with this kind of text after they found out they generated a lot of anger towards them.

All the luck and strength to KEYI Tech. Don’t let those bullies tear you down!