Some hubris from Elite Systems?

[PeteProdge]

Something kicked off on Twitter last night. A legal threat from Elite Systems was questioned. And by the looks of things, it may heavily backfire on them.

Things get VERY interesting when Larry Bundy Jr joins the thread. If what he is saying is true, Elite Systems have metaphorically shot themselves in the foot.

This whole thing gets very opinionated and legal assertions are made. Obviously, these will be the responsibility of the individual author. I am simply quoting some tweets and depicting events pretty much chronologically. Be careful when discussing this.

https://twitter.com/Horsenburger/status ... 4586490880

https://twitter.com/Horsenburger/status ... 8963661825

https://twitter.com/GigerPunk/status/11 ... 8056443905

https://twitter.com/chinnyhill10/status ... 4318514178

https://twitter.com/danofthewibble/stat ... 5276130310

https://twitter.com/chinnyhill10/status ... 3837908998

https://twitter.com/LarryBundyJr/status ... 1754708993

https://twitter.com/mrakuss/status/1129868204375982081

https://twitter.com/mrakuss/status/1129871735661240321

https://twitter.com/Horsenburger/status ... 2565386240

https://twitter.com/Horsenburger/status ... 5119774721

[ZxSpence]

If only they had thought to register a bunch of old trademarks that had lapsed, they'd have a watertight case right.... right?!?

[Einar Saukas]

My previous post about this subject:

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1191&p=17123#p17123

[ZxSpence]

Sure, but what matters is the provenance of the rights applied by Elite and how far they extend. There's copyright, there's intellectual property rights and there's more nebulous stuff like registered trademarks.

Commentators tend to mix and match these things up. For example having been a developer of a software title does not necessarily trump a contract with an employer, even if you are a director or a shareholder.

Rights and transferred and passed on via contract and whilst it devolves to common law in the absence of a contract the contractual terms do tend to state what occurs when the issuer goes defunct.

Unless anyone has access to the legal documents involved and are able to follow the paper trail it's not worth making claims about who is right and wrong. It's not worth mixing an emotional and moral case with a legal case. Claims are easy, the true test is in court.

I find a lot of the conduct of a few self declared big-shots morally repugnant in the scene. Precious few genuine heros around and can be contrasted with the significant volume of peacocks.

[PeterJ]

I did ask Elite Systems for permission to host their old titles here. We offered custom messages on the download pages to fit their requirements or restrictions. I will leave you to guess the response.

[PeteProdge]

Unless anyone has access to the legal documents involved and are able to follow the paper trail it's not worth making claims about who is right and wrong. It's not worth mixing an emotional and moral case with a legal case. Claims are easy, the true test is in court.

The legal threats sent by Elite Systems to Horsenburger have been published by him on Twitter today, with personal details redacted.
It's here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D67p0FWXsAIVLjP.jpg:large

Now, here's where it gets really interesting...

https://twitter.com/wils_2k/status/1130076192902721537

https://twitter.com/danofthewibble/stat ... 2718822400

https://twitter.com/Horsenburger/status ... 6009019393

https://twitter.com/SimonPlumbe/status/ ... 2279933954

[ZxSpence]

I'd like to see the contract he has as licensee.

Such as "us". Dreadful English in that letter.

[AndyC]

The trademark, aside from only covering the use of the words Manic Miner, doesn't even appear to be for the correct class of products. Video games are Class 9, whereas the trademark only covers class 42, which is IT Services. IANAL though.

[Sokurah]

I'd like to see the contract he has as licensee.

Such as "us". Dreadful English in that letter.

Steve Wilcox has never been very good at communicating in english. His use of the language has always been terrible.

[R-Tape]

This is disgusting, even worse than the crap we once saw from the guy that owned Odin and Thor. This kind of behaviour has no place in our scene.

Elite—it's simple, you will do much better if you work with the small & niche market you hope to milk! Bellends.