Specialist Arms Forum
Specialist Games General Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Darkson on November 04, 2009, 01:16:47 AM
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TBB is closing down (possibly - work is in th epipeline to try to save it).
http://www.talkbloodbowl.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=29098
(For those that don't even want to check the free-to-read section:)
Good evening everybody,
Today I received a letter from the Games Workshop Group PLC stating that if I didn't compy with 4 directives within 14 days they would take formal proceedings against me. It saddens me to see GW take such action against a perfectly legitamate fan site that has provided a global communications portal for BB fans, with no intention of conning them out of the millions they make in sales. I feel that I have been stereotypically branded as an Internet con-man. I have been a GW fan for 20+ years and this site has been active for almost 9 of that 20. This site has also had GW staff registered and actively contribute to its content (it may still have).
The assumptions from GWG PLC are that I am making a profit from the donations received by this site. They also point out that consumers may believe TalkBB is connected with GW and the fact the domain name includes Bloodbowl which is an infringement of GW's registered trademark. Now, I am not against their need to ensure their trademarks are not used inappropriately, I feel they could have approached me in a more friendly manner to investigte the purpose of the site and discover that I only wanted to provide a hub for dicussing Blood Bowl globally. instead, they immediately enter heavy handed.
If they truely believe the donations have contributed to me becoming a wealthy person or that I have made enough money to give up a proper job they are sadly mistaken. The small amount of money donated has gone to pay for the upkeep of the server (when I used my own hardware and hosted it at home) or towards the costs for hosting with an ISP. In short I have been vastly out of pocket to provide TalkBB rather than the other way around. I thank all those that have contributed as it has helped TalkBB survive.
I have been asked to:
Immediately cease and desist from any activity which infringes GW's intellectual property.
either remove remove your website or the reference to 'Blood Bowl' in your website name.
Remove the donations button from the page.
Confirm by return that you will not infringe GW's intellectual properly rights at any time in the future.
Now, I could simply remove Bloodbowl from the domain by renaming it to TalkBB.com, but that means buying a new domain and time spent sorting everything out. Bearing in mind I hardly visit TalkBloodBowl.com anyway, I can't really be bothered with all that so have decided to let it die. Therefore from Sunday 8 November 2009 www.talkbloodbowl.com will cease to exist.
Should anybody wish to take ownership of the source and contents I will be more than happy to prepare it for transfer, although this will not include the domain name. I will also have to ensure the recipient will not use DB content for anything other than to maintain the forum as part of an existing Blood Bowl site. This is to ensure passwords and emails do not fall into the wrong hands.
Thank you for your support over the years and for making TalkBloodBowl.com what it is today. Without you all it would have died all by itself many years ago, regardless of donations.
Regards,
JohnnyP :cry:
I've also been informed that other forums, for other games have also received the same nice letters from GW's legal dept.
Now, I've no idea what, if anything, this means for this site, but I just thought it polite to pass on the heads-up.
And tbh, this might just be the last straw for me.
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I think www.portmaw.com may be one of those site. Heard that not directly.
I think this is GW signing their own dimise in two fold...
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well, nothing ever shocks me anymore when it comes to GW- they behave like typical corporate scum and are killing the hobby really. I think we should really start thinking about how to challenge them in future.
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well, nothing ever shocks me anymore when it comes to GW- they behave like typical corporate scum and are killing the hobby really. I think we should really start thinking about how to challenge them in future.
GW's Legal clearly fears staff cuts. Needed something to do to justify their existence.
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Claim the site and all content on it is meant as satire? Isn't that protected from copyright infringement?
Oh and if anyone from GW legal reads this or is responsible for TBB closing?
<CS: Lets not get personal about this>
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of course we get personal, this people are destroying our hobby!
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TBB will live on - JohnnyP is in talks with the relevent people about migrating the site (though of course, this happens the same weekend as half those that need to be "in the loop" are in italy for the BB Eurobowl! ::) ).
Site will probably go down for a time, but (assuming no hitches), I'll post the new location.
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excellent news..
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Good news.
But still does not forgive the actions of GW. It's like they want to kill whatever interest remains for these old games.
And I don't think a situation about somone's hypothetical offspring's hypothetical pet and the health condition thereof needed to be censored.
Thanks
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And I don't think a situation about somone's hypothetical offspring's hypothetical pet and the health condition thereof needed to be censored.
You don't, Cybershadow did - his board, his rules.
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^Truth.
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TalkBloodBowl is now down for the move to www.talkfantasyfootball.org
All being well, move will be complted by or on Friday 13th (yikes!).
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And I don't think a situation about somone's hypothetical offspring's hypothetical pet and the health condition thereof needed to be censored.
You don't, Cybershadow did - his board, his rules.
Active moderation = a good thing.
OTOH, sometimes 'courting moderation' is a community service pour encourager les autres. We behave better when we know there is a higher authority.
;-)
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Heck, the only thing which keeps this board from becoming active is disabled post counters and medals and awards.
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TalkFantasyFootball is up and living.
http://www.talkfantasyfootball.org/index.php
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And now FUMBBL's got a letter: http://fumbbl.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1574
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As someone pointed out in the reactions in that thread, the entire issue has to do with copyright renewal and the deal with Cyanide..
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Basic 101 in how to make friends and influence people :'(
I have used fumbbl for years.
It got me back into BB so I am sad to see it go.
But with the cyanide 'release' or should I say pay for the privelege beta-testing, and the Copyright renewal this sort of thing will be common place for the next few months in regards BB.
These are of course my own opinions, but since I bought the Cyanide version on the day of release I am allowed to air them.
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I do not play Blood Bowl, so I do not know exactly what is the relation of cyanide (poison compose) and BB.... But the question that came to my mind is: Is there possibilities that happens something similar of warmaster pages/forums in the future?
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GW had the development company Cyanide create an online version of BB. The game has seen release, but most people still consider the release they paid for a Beta-version of the program, because the amount of problems it still sports.... (which, looking back at other GW-related computer games, is more of a standard then and exception.......)
Inrelation with the licensing there was an issue with extending the copyright on the original game, which seems to have triggered the recent spree of C&D's ........
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Thanks for the explanation tweety
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GW had the development company Cyanide create an online version of BB.
After they settled out of court over an IP/Copyright issue on an earlier title ::)