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From: warwick@cs.uq.oz.au (Warwick Allison)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Legal action against STrabble game.
Keywords: Scrabble, STrabble
Message-ID: <1586@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au>
Date: 24 May 91 01:43:09 GMT
References: <1991May22.100201.1231@lut.ac.uk> <3058@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Sender: news@cs.uq.oz.au
Reply-To: warwick@cs.uq.oz.au
Lines: 37

>Spears are quite right to pursue this. I believe there is already a licensed
>version of Scrabble from a company called Leisure Genius. PD versions would
>be direct competition.

Can't have competition can we!

>I did not like the way the ST User article started
>with biased comments like how big Spears are and how they make lots of money
>and the PD library was a non-profit pauper of an organisation.

Why not?

>Bottom line. Spears have the copyright and if there is a demand for Scrabble
>in any shape or form then they have the last word on its distribution.

So if all they want to produce is a wimpy piece of junk version, then that's
all anyone can have?  If that's right, then I feel strangled.

>For games that are not identical to the original, I suppose the 'look and feel'
>laws must creep onto the scene.

As I posted, STrabble is very different from Scrabble the board game.  If it
is copying the Scrabble programs (eg. Leisure Genius') that is the problem,
then every PD author is in trouble (esp. Shareware):

	* Hackman is better than any Pacman I've seen.
	* Cooltetris is better than any Tetris I've seen.

I think PD authors (and Shareware authors - it's almost the same thing - but
don't argue it) should be free to write whatever programs they want.

Warwick.
--
  _-_|\       warwick@cs.uq.oz.au
 /     *  <-- Computer Science Department,
 \_.-._/      University of Queensland,
      v       Brisbane, AUSTRALIA.