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Atari Targets Retro Community With Cease & Desist
svenski writes "Atari User reports that Atari Inc. have begun to target the retro community and have now turned their attentions to atari2600.org, a website first registered in 2000, demanding the domain name be handed over."
Eleven years of no enforcement means they effectively gave up all rights to the name. See you in court, Atari.
There seems to be news like this in abundance. When corporate profits start to sag, or don't skyrocket the legal teams start looking for people to mess with to rack up billable hours. It's disgusting to say the least how willing these companies are to alienate fans in pursuit of profits.
I got here through a series of tubes
Because they couldn't find a better way to look like assholes.
Because some quasi-develepor exec probably sold them on the idea that their decades-old intellectual property could become sellable again on the mobile/embedded platform market but first they need to kill off the community that formed around these games?
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
Remove of the toe?
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
They exist only as a software company now, producing games for other companies like Sega now does.
i've just written this to the blog-writer: Please use the "Estoppel" Legal Defense. There's no way that Atari have not known of the existence for 12 years of the atari2600.org domain name.
The "Estoppel" defense states that if you ignore something, it is tantamount to "acquiescence" - i.e. "silent consent".
thus it can be claimed that Atari has "Silently Consented" to the use of this domain name, by virtue of them not having done anything for well over a decade.
Why bother?
Looks like they are trying to resurrect the brand using flash and possibly other distribution channels.. See HERE for an example. When I tried to play Asteroids, it took me to my facebook page and asked for permission... I said no.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Sure... some MBA lawyer douchebag ressurects the name Atari to make money off the Atari fanboys, and then proceeds to shit all over the exact fanbase he hopes to profit from. I assume this guy used to work at Sony?
I say we go out and register ATARI*****.com (replace asteriks with whatever suits your fancy), and under contact info assign all rights to Nolan Bushnell.
Let's see how smart these douches are.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
There's no way i'm buying the nextgen Atari console now!
citation needed. I bought both witcher and witcher 2 off GoG with no DRM of any kind.
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I don't believe so, no. I'm pretty sure it's an AT&T deal. the original company fell on hard times, but still had a valuable name. they were bought out by another company that was doing well (in AT&T's case, it was ironically bought out by a baby bell that had been shed off of itself 15 or 20 years prior), and the purchasing company says "your name is more famous than ours. we're you now."
It's essentially killing the celebrity and wearing his skin as a coat, buffalo bill style.
Because some quasi-develepor exec probably sold them on the idea that their decades-old intellectual property could become sellable again on the mobile/embedded platform market but first they need to kill off the community that formed around these games?
The chance that they could monetize this stuff is pretty much zero. Most 2600 games were bloody awful and people who have the need to play them for nostalgia can easily obtain roms and perfect emulators from numerous places already.
It's a french company formerly known as Infogrames. They purchased Atari, sat on it for a while, realized "Nobody's ever heard of Infogrames," and changed their name.
That was, I believe, in the early 2000's. I worked for Atari briefly in 2003 and got the impression that the name change was fairly recent.
I navigated to atari2600.org It doesn't look like the author is really using the domain. It is nothing but a title and a few links to another domain www.taswegian.com No blog, no community, no content. Just let them have it.
Trademarks are special in that you lose them if you don't enforce them. That's not the case with copyrights, patents or trade secrets. If you don't defend your trademark, then the law holds that your mark becomes part of the language, so that you don't own it anymore.
I learned of this when Saks 41st Avenue sent a C&D letter to a small clothing store called Sacks 41st Avenue in Capitola, California. It made the front page of the local paper. Saks' attorney told the reporter who asked about it that they had to defend their trademark or they would lose it.
The problem though is that whoever administers the domain name dispute resolution policy may not apply the trademark law. It is possible that Atari could take the domain because they registered their trademark before the website registered their domain. Because their trademark is no longer enforceable, they have no rights to the domain, but ICANN may not heed that fact and so force the register to hand the domain over to Atari.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
They're also sending letters to any hobbyist showing an Atari logo... even in a demo scene production.
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/186151-ive-got-email-from-atari-today/
Someone already beat you to it. www.www.com
Sue them twice
It is not a real website. I looked at it. It looks like something a domain name squatter would make. It is a 1 paragraph description followed by about 8 links to another domain. Nothing of value would be lost if this site goes away. No links would be broken. No content lost. This guy is just hoping for a buy out.
Nintendo, Sony, MS--they've all had their heydeys. But the next generation will be ruled by the Atari Jaguar Series 2. They're going to launch with new versions of "Adventure" and "Combat" that will make everyone who even sees the trailers orgasm uncontrollably. You heard it here first.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
You know what's even better? Playing Pong with then fucking that chick I pulled at the bar.
Then, if she likes zombie movies, some co-op L4D2.
You got limited vision, my man.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
That's the crazy thing. Infogrames took the Atari name, presumably to capitalize on people's good memories. Now they are attacking the very people trying the hardest to keep those memories alive. This makes no business sense whatsoever.
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Palmela Handerson is her name.
Whole lotta content there....
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
You're missing the point -- Apple wants to sell the thing that always works. Keeping things pinned down minimises crashes. Minimising crashes means higher user satisfaction, which builds the brand.
User freedom is also known as "enough rope to hang yourself".
Apple have been very clever and relied on the "appstore goldrush" to ensure that millions of different app developers can produce enough to satisfy the hundreds of significant use-cases of the phone. The ecosystem is saturated, so the loss of a few is no problem at all.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Back when atari2600.org was registered, was the .org TLD only available to non-commercial entities? That would have precluded any action from Atari to take the domain then.
Fighting Atari would require the hobbiest
Fortunately you don't have to be the hobbiest, just hobbier than the next hobbyist.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
Yes, good idea, now if only I could think of an Atari product that I can boycott...Nope, no ideas.
Boycotts work in this day and age? That's news to me. Sony took little to no damage from boycotts over their sneaky DRM inserted into music CDs. They did take a lot of damage when people were unable to use their PS3 due to hacking. The general result is left as an exercise to the reader.
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Her stage name is Madame Palm and her Five Lovely Daughters.
But you also have to do that fat, stubby, short one on the end as well...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
That's the crazy thing. Infogrames took the Atari name, presumably to capitalize on people's good memories.
According to what I heard when I worked there, they originally bought the Atari name as something of a job lot of IP, they didn't really want it. Then, they went on a 12 month marketing blitz in the US, to push the Infogrames name into more than just the hard-core gamer niche. After that, they did some surveys, and found that more people knew of a 10 year dead company than one that was trying to shove their name right in front of them at the time. So they said, "Fuck it", and started using the Atari name. At the time, someone told me, "Americans are too stupid to reailse that Atari closed down years ago."
Now they are attacking the very people trying the hardest to keep those memories alive. This makes no business sense whatsoever.
There's some very good reasons I no longer work there. Given some of the short-sighted and stupid decisions that happened when I worked there, I have no idea why they haven't gone bankrupt yet.
If you play Pong first the chances of fucking her drop considerably.
Fuck first, then Pong. If she calls you the next day start looking for a chapel.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone