They didn''t abuse the law they made sure the intellectual rights to games they purchased were protected, albeit they went too far with how much they can ''protect'' however.

Mindgamez Entertainment

So on the one hand you say they didn''t abuse the law and on the other you say they went too far? Don''t you notice the contradiction between these two statements?

Hasbro has time and time again tried to assert a degree of rights they simply shouldn''t have. Think about it. If Moustrap were remade today would Hasbro sue the company for violating their "intellectual rights"? (For those who don''t know Mousetrap was a game by Coleco that was very similar to Pac-Man, with a mouse instead of Pac-Man and cats instead of ghosts).

Hasbro is an awful company, they're go in the same category as Microsoft and Hitler. Hasbro sued a small company called Clue Computing, which owned (and still owns, they won the lawsuit, info on their site) www.clue.com because they wanted the site for their game Clue. The only basis for suing the company was that they own the word "clue."

quote:
Hasbro is arguing that only they have a right to use the word "clue" in any manner, any where. This completely ignores trademark law, and the seven other companies who hold trademarks on the word "clue", as well as numerous people and businesses named "clue". Hasbro admitted to us early on that there really wasn't any infringement, that they just want clue.com to use for a web site about their game.

So YES our legal system IS f*cked up, there's no question about that.


[edited by - FenixDown on August 27, 2002 11:35:42 PM]

MS? I don''t see them doing this... care to share some examples?

Mindgamez Entertainment

I''m sorry but you just can''t group Microsoft, Hasbro, and Hitler. For that matter you can''t even group Hasbro and Hitler. Sure Hasbro is a predatory litigious company that is sure to destroy itself from the inside out.

I worked for Microsoft for 2 years but now am employed elsewhere. Microsoft is a great company to work for. Not only that their products are great as well. In my new job I program in java and use oracle as a back end. I like java, it''s an nice language, but Oracle has horrid usability, they don’t even have a decent query analyzer.

I believe in using the right tool for the right job. Sometimes you use java some times you use VB, sometimes C++. Just depends on what your doing. The people who don''t use Microsoft products just because of some sort of anti Microsoft bigotry are really narrow minded. Seriously though Sun has just as much stupid stuff going on as Microsoft.

e.g. Sun sued Microsoft saying that they couldn''t include the Microsoft version of the java VM in the operating system. The ruling stated that Microsoft could only ship version 3.0 of it''s Java VM in the O.S. Instead of including a broken Java VM in XP, Microsoft just dropped support for java. Wouldn''t ya know it, sun sued Microsoft for anticompetitive practices for not supporting java. Un-friggen-believeable. That''s a textbook example of competition through litigation as opposed to innovation. If they spent half as much on R&D as they do on sueing they might actually be competetive

I can understand was Hasbro did that to a degree as far as the pacman clone you mentioned, thats blatent passing off, its like making a product that tastes like Coke, and calling it Moke but making the can blue. I guess there are degrees to which this can be enforced.

But trademarking ideas etc...
This type of competative technology copyrighting is just wrong, anybody remember the adobe/macromedia case, they claimed the right to menu-tabs, it's a defective statement and hurts the industry because it stiffles development. But let's not forget this has been going on since the mid 80's between Apple and Microsoft and their GUI's.

I also think to blame the US is a bit harsh, I don't live there but I have and I think they have a better justice system (granted, very capitalistic) than 99% of countries. People have a right to sue, and they will exercise that right, and as long as they do that smaller companies will do anything in their power to avoid litegation, thats all there is to it.



[edited by - Nicolas Bischoff on August 28, 2002 2:59:22 AM]

What about selling a game as a shareware in the intenrnet from a country outside america?
Would american cooperations have the strength to destroy this "threat"?

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
What about selling a game as a shareware in the intenrnet from a country outside america?
Would american cooperations have the strength to destroy this "threat"?

They would.

"People have a right to sue, and they will exercise that right, and as long as they do that smaller companies will do anything in their power to avoid litegation, thats all there is to it."
Very few people have the resources and time to spend to sue, while big companies have. Big companies take advantage of both these facts.
America''s democracy is just a lie, it''s like "the matrix".
It is a new way for the elite to control and exploit the average people, Just like the aristocrats exploited the farmers 200 years ago. The main difference is that in democracy the common people are not aware they are exploited and they believe the lie that they are free.
The reward for hardwork is extremly unproportional between the common and the rich people.
The more money you have, the less you have to work and the more money you will make from you work.
It is a country like USA that makes me start believing that maybe communision is a better to the common people.

Just to clear a few things up...

1) If someone clones pacman and releases it as macman, then Hasbro have a case, I wouldnt complain about that. Check out my game screenshots and you will see that this is not what I have done


2)I Love America, hell I even got married in Vegas, I''m not saying all Americans are evil, just that your legal system sucks. Here in the UK, our class system sucks, which is something you have sorted out much better in the US, difference is, we KNOW our class system sucks, and arent defensive about it, try to accept a lil criticism guys!

3)I''ve got another publisher interested in the game who are bigger than the old one anyway, so my efforts wont be entirely wasted!

4)Please dont tell me that dropping Napalm on Vietnam was good for the vietnamese. Just for the record, if my country ever becomes ''threatened'' by communism, dont come and help me out ok?

I guess its fun to have these huge arguments now and then, but lets get back to making games shall we, I''d hate to be someone who helped bring this board down to the level of the lounge....

http://www.positech.co.uk