Has TribesNext been sent a C&D order yet? The future of TN = ?
This is also very sad because people are predicting that Instant action is going to shut down tribesnext. I would like to know what is going on. Can anybody fill me in? This does suck because I just put a lot of time and effort into upgrading and installing addons to play t2 then I hear this news about instant action.....
edit: Not to mention the time and effort put in by everyone else.
edit: Not to mention the time and effort put in by everyone else.
Comments
if instant action owns the intellectual property rights I believe they can shut down Tribesnext but I may be mistaken.
We're not breaking the law bro, chillax
"It doesn't matter what type of people they are. It's fairly cut and dry -
IA wants to make profit from people playing Tribes online.
Another entity (TribesNext) is providing an avenue for people to play Tribes online despite not having the IP.
The next logical step is for IA to shutdown its Tribes related competition using powers it legally has (control of the tribes IP), in an effort to direct all potential growth to the IA.com website.
It's not even a question of "if" they'll do it, it's a question of when. Now that they've released the news of them acquiring the rights in a public forum, I wouldn't be surprised if the TribesNext people got their C&D order by the end of the month. "
IMO, the best GG could do would be to toss over a C&D pertaining to us calling it "Tribes"Next, because aside from that, we're using the freeware installer that Sierra released, still aren't using any of their source code, and are making no profit off it.
As far as I know, we're still in the legal white no matter how many red flags appear to exist.
ask me, they just see dollar signs from the huge influx of new players. after all, they (GG) were the only thing holding T2 back. without them, we can blossom. and there aint shit they can do about it.
and if they DID bring it back, who the hell wants to play t2 in a browser? thats an oxymoron if i ever heard of one. can you imagine how much memory firefox would be hoggin tryin to run t2? that shit aint gonna work! i personally hope they DON'T bring the masters back up. screw em, they cut our legs off and left us for dead. if the DID bring em back id STIL play on TN and EWO and any where i could.
First, on trademarks: you can't enforce a trademark on a common noun. "Tribes" is a plural common noun, and Sierra never trademarked it, since they knew it would be unenforceable. The name is not an issue.
Second, on copyright: Tribes 2 was released as freeware in 2004. Distribution of the freeware installer is not illegal, and cannot be made illegal retroactively, no matter who owns the rights, short of signing a no-distribute contract (i.e. CDA/NDA) with everyone who has a right to distribute it (which would be everyone who has downloaded it so far, optional to sign, and they would all need to agree to the limitations imposed).
Third, on EULA: I've cited this before, and I'll cite it until people understand it: projects for interoperability are explicitly protected rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Title 17 United States Code, Section 1201. An EULA (emphasis on AGREEMENT, not CONTRACT) can only give you rights not granted already by copyright law. Only a contract can restrict your rights beyond common law, and an EULA does not meet the legal requirements to constitute a binding contract.
Fourthly, lets look at the technical countermeasures to an effective C&D built into the design of TribesNext: you do not need to communicate with the account server (either as a client, or a game server) in order to perform authentication. Even if (and I stress the if) we comply with an invalid C&D, none of you with existing accounts will be affected as far as authentication. There are about half a dozen different alternative listing systems for servers on Tribes 2 that players could migrate to outside of TN control. You wouldn't get the (forthcoming) advantages of centralized clan/mail management if we folded, but you certainly wouldn't have many problems getting into the game if you still wanted to play.
Finally: If the people at IA have any brains at all, they would chose to collaborate with us. As part of this project, I've demonstrated that I can build a fully functional secure authentication system without source code to the game. Imagine what I could do for this game with full source. Even if things do not proceed favorably, don't discount TribesNext. I have a few game changing moves yet to be played on reserve in the event an official system returns (which is why all of your GUIDs start with two million, instead of zero).
Plus 500+MB is a bit big for a webgame, legions is 74.3 MB.
ZProtoss is not a lawyer, he's speculating. For those that don't know, this was cut and paste from here: http://www.tribalwar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14376385#post14376385
yeah thats why i put it in quotes that was not from me
That scares me... the advertising part..
I had a visual of when the round ends it says "THIS MISSION OF RAINDANCE BROUGHT TO YOU BY BAWLS", but then I realized what a wonderful scripting community we have, and even if there was ads like that, someone would script em out
Thyth thanks once again, for making my life complete. I hope IA will put you on payroll, as they should. That is if you are willing to work on T2 for more than fun
But something tells me that they wouldn't pay that well.
When the masters went down, GG apparently already had control of the Starsiege: Tribes IP & source code (if I understand everything correctly).
So they could have just fixed it for us. In fact, if I remember correctly, they told us they tried and failed to obtain the IP & source (probably need to search TW for this info).