Slashdot Mirror
Atari C&Ds Emulators, Site About Asteroids
An anonymous reader writes "Atari Inc. has launched another round of cease-and-desist letters targeted at what remains of its fan community. Having threatened homebrewers for the Atari 2600 and 8-bit systems, as well as emulator authors for mobile platforms like Android, they're now upping the ante by menacing Atari emulator authors on the Dreamcast and sites with Asteroids in the name (though in fairness, that site apparently once hosted a version of the Asteroids game). The working theory is that the company is planning a big push into the mobile market, and is trying to eliminate everything it believes could threaten its latest attempts at reviving the brand name. However, the emulators in question appear to have no copyrighted content from Atari, so it's unclear what exactly Atari believes the infringing material to be."
Except they are spamming DMCA notices -- the C standing for Copyright -- and all of the claims made in the notices are about copyright infringement. I hope someone nails Atari to the wall for this bullshit.
+0 Meh
8-bit Atari is to Atari is like Duke Nukem is to Duke Nukem Forever.
Personally I think emulators should be legal, but I have no idea how a lawyer would argue this in court
The same way the after-market industry argued for car parts. Saying the oil filter is for a Ford V8 is descriptive, not infringement.
Their trademark
Exactly. If they don't protect the name "Atari" from being used by these sites, there's a chance that someone under the age of 30 might actually learn what "Atari" is.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.