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Postal Wins Court Case Brought by USPS
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out a press release announcing Postal developer Running With Scissors has been ruled victorious in a court case brought by the United States Postal Service. This seems to be the culmination of a trademark suit which began in 1997 after the release of the original Postal, as the USPS commented "All of us at the Postal Service have a sense of humor, but there is nothing funny about your game 'Postal'", and then tried to prove the Postal Service has a proprietary use of the word 'Postal'. Running With Scissors have fun with this legal resolution: "With unlimited financial resources comes unlimited ego. POSTAL and POSTAL 2 represent everything the USPS isn't: a successful private enterprise that will never have to rely on an irrevocable government contract to keep its pockets perpetually lined with cash."
Is it really a sprinkle of magic? Or is is a RAIN OF TERROR?
You play it safe with your true-blue boxes, but let me tell you. Inside the post office is a whole other world. Nobody is safe. Tell me you feel comfortable when the clerk stares you down coldly while throwing your expensive laserdisc player on the ground and motioning for his cohort to park a forklift on it, and I'll tell you that you're as evil as they are. Their eyes don't move while they print our your postage stickers. Their face is frozen in gray, pasty lack of emotion while they tell you "This isn't the form you fill out to get insurance. Get the right one and get back in line. Next." Their souls are icy and unmoving.
In the back, the part you DON'T see, the weapons are not of mass destruction, but the carcasses of once-healthy shipments are testament to the damage that is as well-hidden from the rest of the world as any Iraqi WMD. Ripped boxes, shattered electronics, trampled gifts from Grandma in Florida, mutilated rare finds on eBay. It's a death bed back there. Why do you think there's no way to get from the front of the building to the back? Why do you think they put all the barriers up between you and your mail? For efficiency and automation? Hardly. You're waiting in line for death. And you don't even have to take a number.
The USPS filed suit because they know that each and every post office is a steaming, frothy cauldron of bitterness and contempt. Games like Postal make it seem like a joke, but to them it's serious... DEADLY serious. This ruling is only bad news for postal customers worldwide... don't think they aren't paying *close* attention. This is not the end of the battle. It's the start of a war.
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With unlimited financial resources comes unlimited ego. POSTAL and POSTAL 2 represent everything the USPS isn't: a successful private enterprise that will never have to rely on an irrevocable government contract to keep its pockets perpetually lined with cash.
christ, this is a little over-the-top isn't it? For one thing, I have no idea what this piss-ant company is or what Postal is.. apparently it's a game? I do know what the US postal service is. Mailboxes on every corner, daily mail delivery, decent prices, and decent service (in my experience anyway).
The USPS' pockets are not "perpetually lined with cash". The USPS is having problems with cash in fact. Congress has been very unwilling to do anything to help them because of the current "private enterprise trumps all" mentality.
Oh well, gotta do something to draw attention to yourself I guess. PS: be sure to thank the government for the government-enforced copyright monopoly that let's you have that successful private enterprise in the first place.
as anybody who works for the post office can tell you there's not a lot of arrogant pride around there. Our current president wantts to take the USPS and turrn it into a private business, effectively killing the perpetuation of consistent and federally mandated service at regulated prices.
As for a shitty company that makes even shittier games....well......