Re: Fwd: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately
On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 01:21:27 +0200, Dominik Riebeling [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I just received the following mail today -- I guess because I recently edited the wiki page (at least it shows me as the last editor of the page up to now) and my mail address can be found on the wiki. I'm somewhat unsure how to react to this -- at least the mail doesn't seem to be forged. Should I direct him to rockbox-dev? Or is there any other official representative for stuff like this? I hope we can solve this issue pretty quickly. This guy doesn't get to copyright the design of a game. he can go for a design or utility patent if he likes but the only thing his copyright protects is the code (Rockbox certainly doesn't execute Windows code) and the screens. To the latter issue, I've spent some time comparing the screen of the rock with the screen shot on popcap.com. The jewel designs aren't even close. Neither is the layout. This guy has no exclusive rights to the laying out of jewels on a screen. There is no copyright infringement here. This looks like a fine opportunity to stop the reflexive caving-in to every Tom, Dick and Harry that screams infringement and send this guy packing. John --- John De Armond See my website for my current email address http://www.johngsbbq.com Cleveland, Occupied TN A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Re: Fwd: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately
Hi Dominik, Can you get us the full mail headers? Just to make sure the message is real? In some way this doesn't feel genuine to me... Tomas Dominik Riebeling wrote: Hi all, I just received the following mail today -- I guess because I recently edited the wiki page (at least it shows me as the last editor of the page up to now) and my mail address can be found on the wiki. I'm somewhat unsure how to react to this -- at least the mail doesn't seem to be forged. Should I direct him to rockbox-dev? Or is there any other official representative for stuff like this? I hope we can solve this issue pretty quickly. - Dominik
Re: Fwd: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately
Hi Tomas, On 4/15/06, Tomas Salfischberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Can you get us the full mail headers? Just to make sure the message is real? In some way this doesn't feel genuine to me... sure, I'm appending the complete CnP'ed mail text (don't know how to forward this message including headers as attachment with gmail). - Dominik X-Gmail-Received: 48d22c4d467da20a50fee8f5ee189b3e066dda1b Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received: by 10.70.53.4 with SMTP id b4cs107437wxa; Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:18:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.35.98.6 with SMTP id a6mr415807pym; Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:18:24 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received: from gigan.internal.popcap.com ([69.25.140.19]) by mx.gmail.com with ESMTP id m68si256438pye.2006.04.14.14.18.24; Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:18:24 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: neutral (gmail.com: 69.25.140.19 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [EMAIL PROTECTED]) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:18:20 -0700 Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately Thread-Index: AcZgCPRtLjK0WfkFS4O/9j1GQa9Rgg== From: Dave Haas [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Dave Haas [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mr. Riebeling: The game PluginJewels, for use on RockBox and available at http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PluginJewels, is a blatant copyright violation of Bejeweled, the popular match-three game owned by my company, PopCap Games, Inc., of Seattle, Washington, USA. I am writing to you to demand that you remove PluginJewels from www.rockbox.org and all other sites where users may download this game for the Rockbox, no later than April 30, 2006. PopCap Games takes seriously all copyright and trademark violations of our games and, if necessary, we will enforce our rights to the fullest extent of the law. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. I await your response. David K. Haas Chief Operating Officer PopCap Games, Inc.
Re: Fwd: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately
Hi, Dominik Riebeling wrote: sure, I'm appending the complete CnP'ed mail text (don't know how to forward this message including headers as attachment with gmail). Ok, looks good to me. You can ask him to contact someone by phone, and explain his problem, just to make sure he understands what we do etc. I think Daniel or Linus would be a good choise for that phonecall, or some native English speaker with legal knowledge. (Do we have a lawyer in the house? :-)) Tomas
Re: Fwd: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately
On Sat, 15 Apr 2006, Tomas Salfischberger wrote: You can ask him to contact someone by phone, and explain his problem, just to make sure he understands what we do etc. I think Daniel or Linus would be a good choise for that phonecall, or some native English speaker with legal knowledge. (Do we have a lawyer in the house? :-)) I would say that a fair and just response would be to kindly ask the person/company in what way we could possibly violate their copyright. We use no fragments of their product, and me knowingly they have no patent on the ideas (for those areas of the world where software patents would be valid). I think this is just an attempt to make us stop shipping Jewels, but without much legal backup. -- Daniel Stenberg -- http://www.rockbox.org/ -- http://daniel.haxx.se/
RE: Fwd: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately
I would agree also. I quote the US Copyright office (http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html), - The idea for a game is not protected by copyright. The same is true of the name or title given to the game and of the method or methods for playing it. Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author's expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, system, method, device, or trademark material involved in the development, merchandising, or playing of a game. Once a game has been made public, nothing in the copyright law prevents others from developing another game based on similar principles. Some material prepared in connection with a game may be subject to copyright if it contains a sufficient amount of literary or pictorial expression. For example, the text matter describing the rules of the game, or the pictorial matter appearing on the gameboard or container, may be registrable. - Imho, PopCap Games are once again trying to push their luck. They don't pester any of the other sites on the web that have Bejeweled clones (and sometimes, make a fair bit of money out of it, if it's an online gambling or 'skills-based' gameplay site). -Original Message- From: Daniel Stenberg [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 15 April 2006 16:36 To: Rockbox development Subject: Re: Fwd: Remove PluginJewels from RockBox downloads immediately On Sat, 15 Apr 2006, Tomas Salfischberger wrote: You can ask him to contact someone by phone, and explain his problem, just to make sure he understands what we do etc. I think Daniel or Linus would be a good choise for that phonecall, or some native English speaker with legal knowledge. (Do we have a lawyer in the house? :-)) I would say that a fair and just response would be to kindly ask the person/company in what way we could possibly violate their copyright. We use no fragments of their product, and me knowingly they have no patent on the ideas (for those areas of the world where software patents would be valid). I think this is just an attempt to make us stop shipping Jewels, but without much legal backup. -- Daniel Stenberg -- http://www.rockbox.org/ -- http://daniel.haxx.se/
