Simonhaertal.da halts Quinn distribution
updated 10:50 am EDT, Fri July 14, 2006
Quinn distribution halted
After receiving what it describes as a "legal threat" (Page 1,Page 2) from Norris McLaughlin & Marcus representing The Tetris Company, simonhaertel.de has ceased distributing Quinn, its networked Tetris clone. The Tetris Company, however, feels that simonhaertel.de's use of the name 'Tetris' to promote Quinn is against the law. "This is not the first time The Tetris Company has attacked the little guy and it probably won't be the last," writes the author of Quinn. "The Tetris Company knows when they send these letters out that the people they are attacking probably cannot afford these expenses." The developer is asking for the community to protest the actions of The Tetris Company, and is seeking help in determining the legalities of the issue.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2002
Woe be the little guy...
Unbelievable. Maybe they want some of the obscene profits Simon has made off of his amazing implementation of the game... oh wait. THAT'S $0! As far as I'm concerned Tetris is almost like chess or checkers... who really owns it? I know that legally this sentence, and sentiment hold little water, but there's also the expression "use it or lose it" and the company holding the rights to Tetris hasn't exactly gone out of its way to produce an OS X version, nor have they shown much activity on their official web site which has been little more than a placeholder page exclaiming "coming soon" for over a year.
Leave Simon Haertel alone, he's created a fabulous little piece of freeware that I've enjoyed since version 1.3, seeing as the owners of Tetris haven't bothered to create one for we Mac users yet. I own legally purchased copies of Tetris and Tetris II for the Gameboy so I've anted up already. I suggest that the over-paid, over-zealous lawyers buzz off (you can replace that word with a more colourful expletive when you read this sentence) and get a real job, perhaps working pro-bono to ensure, at long last that Dmitry Pavlovsky is paid some of the millions he was robbed out of, mainly by companies like the one suing Simon Haertel.
Jacques