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Re: Re: Game Gone


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Posted by Kathryn on August 24, 2001 at 09:21:09:

In Reply to: Re: Game Gone posted by M. Arthur Auslander on August 23, 2001 at 23:36:43:

: : We used to play an online free form, play-by-post game that shut down its boards. We are interested in continuing playing this game in a free forum as a fan site. We do not want to commercialize the game in any way, just play it on Ezboards. The owner wrote a comprehensive Terms of Use to keep all the rights tied to his company. He made a lot of promises to players who actually contributed their intellectual property to him that they were "partners" with him. Will this be copyright infringement? He says his trademark is this game's name, but it is actually a trademark of another company according to the search engine.

: Dear Kathryn,

: There is reality and there is law, sometimes they don't meet. An unregistered copyright cannot be enforced until it is registered. Is the copyright registered.

: Trademarks can be the same as other marks as long as the is no liklihood of confusion between the same marks as to the differents uses.

: Trademarks are not easy to enforce unless they are registered. ® associated with a trademark is public notice to all of registration. If the ® is properly used the infringers a liable without notice.

: M. Arthur Auslander

: Auslander & Thomas-Intellectual Property Law Since 1909
: 505 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
: 212-594-6900, fax 212-244-0028, aus@auslander.com
: ELAINE's Workshop™
: E arly L egal A dvice I s N ot E xpensive™


Dear Mr. Auslander,

I do not know if the copyright for this game is registered. How can I find out since I don't have the funds to hire a lawyer right now. He has threatened lawsuits to other people who have tried to set up boards to play the game before. My question is: if we play the game on Ezboards and just call it a fan site, with no commercial revenue derived from playing it; and state that this company has the copyrights and link back to their website; how much trouble could we get into. We are not trying to steal his game, he has shut it down because he can't afford to keep it up and has no intention of reopening it. Since we are the ones who develop the game through our posts and all are original, can we be sued for copyright infringement.

The last time he brought the game up he begged us to come back and play and that we were his "partners" and together we would build a new and wonderful world" and hundreds of us came back and contributed our creative talents and time and energy to rebuild and then he just shut the boards down again without telling us, nor giving us any indication of what was going on for over a month. Now he says he wants to sell it to a game developer and won't let us play it. I realize we may be on shakey legal ground here but we have been royally messed with by this man for years and now we just want to play the game without the hassle since we are the ones who built it to what it is today.





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