Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!neil
From: neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Legal action against STrabble game.
Keywords: Scrabble, STrabble
Message-ID: <3080@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Date: 24 May 91 08:23:08 GMT
References: <1991May22.100201.1231@lut.ac.uk> <3058@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> <1586@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au>
Sender: news@cs.hw.ac.uk
Reply-To: neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth)
Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland
Lines: 60

In article <1586@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au> warwick@cs.uq.oz.au writes:
>>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!

Competition. Of course! But think up your own idea. There are plenty of word
games that are not like Scrabble. Parker Bros. Probe comes to mind.

>>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?

Because the biased reporting quite clearly showed where ST Abusers sympathy
was and wanted you, the gentle reader, to feel the same.

>>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.

Have you seen the Leisure Genius version? Is it wimpy?
I'm sorry if you feel strangled but the law is the law. If you invented the
original game I suppose you'd be encouraging everyone to clone it.

>>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.

Way back in the old days, Atari used to shoot the head of anyone who produced
a Pacman lookalike. They did this mainly to non-Atari software houses. Since
the split of Atari Games and Computer companies they have been less forceful.
I'm surprised Dave gets off with Hacman 2.

>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.

It would be nice but as stated earlier, by others, if PD stuff competed really
strongly with commercial products then companies would go out of business.

>Warwick.

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! Neil Forsyth                      JANET:  neil@uk.ac.hw.cs                 !
! Dept. of Computer Science         ARPA:   neil@cs.hw.ac.uk                 !
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! Edinburgh, Scotland, UK           "That was never 5 minutes!"              !
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