Fandal is back!

[José Pereira]

I was right now thinking it may be online and what a great and good surprise when I went to AOnline.

The history and the link to his new site here:

http://atarionline.pl/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=2593&page=1#Item_1

[OBO]

Nice !

[Fletch]

And there was much rejoicing.

 

However, it appears that Atari was bullying over Fandal hosting 8-bit versions of their IP. Sad that they are concerned about software for a platform that has been dead for 20 years.

 

Also, what are the deeper ramifications for AtariAge, Atarimania, and others?

Edited August 20, 2013 by Fletch

[charliecron]

Is there an Atari anymore? I heard about an auction recently. Maybe it's the new owners doing this stuff.

[+Philsan]

Very good news.

 

Fandal's website not only has software but authors names too, especially demos.

 

Atari is dead in 1996, current Atari has nothing to do with the past and does nothing to preserve history (for example, financing a museum or a book).

[toad]

I think the former Infogrames - now copyright troll "Atari" recognizes some value in the Atari brand that they purchased from Hasbro Interactive.

 

After all they get something like 17% of their revenue just from merchandising the Atari logo. But - they don't seem to know how to protect that brand name.

 

Sites like these help - not harm, the Atari legend. And they are harming - not helping, themselves by spreading ill will. And they probably have convinced themselves they have a valid business need to protect their IP - and that is true - but you can protect your IP by granting a license. It's just not the case that the only way to protect IP is to send shut down notices.

 

I really dislike this company that owns the Atari brand....boo! From what I understand they did file for bankruptcy re-organization, but they will continue - and continue trolling.

[+Roydea6]

http://a8.fandal.cz/

 

Glad to see you back with.. Sorry to hear about the problems..

[Mathy]

Hello Fletch

 

... about software for a platform that has been dead for 20 years.

 

You obviously haven't been to an Atari 8 bit meeting (in a long time). We had the Fujiama 2013 last weekend in Lengenfeld, Germany, and I can tell you the Atari platform is not dead.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

PS Fandal was there too, as was Bernd (the 4MB flash cartridge guy). Plus about 40 other people.

[+therealbountybob]

Fandal :thumbsup:

[Fletch]

Mathy,

 

I was referring to it being dead to Atari themselves. I wouldn't be hanging around here if I thought things in general were dead. Sorry I was vague.

 

 

Hello Fletch

 

 

 

You obviously haven't been to an Atari 8 bit meeting (in a long time). We had the Fujiama 2013 last weekend in Lengenfeld, Germany, and I can tell you the Atari platform is not dead.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

PS Fandal was there too, as was Bernd (the 4MB flash cartridge guy). Plus about 40 other people.

[WizWor]

We had the Fujiama 2013 last weekend in Lengenfeld, Germany, and I can tell you the Atari platform is not dead.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

PS Fandal was there too, as was Bernd (the 4MB flash cartridge guy). Plus about 40 other people.

I wish you guys would set up a couple video cameras or capture some (a lot) or the event for the rest of us and posterity. I can't translate, but I can put captions on the video.

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

@Fletch: We all suffer from "vagueness" from time to time.

 

@WizWor: Skriegel did so last year. You can find his time laps movie and more pictures for the Fujiama on my meetings page.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[atx4us]

This is great news! It would indeed have been a great loss to the Atari community if Fandal's site was lost forever.

 

For our better understanding, what all really happened to this whole situation?

 

I didn't think about this before and intend no malice with this question - Should someone keep a back up of Fandal's site if somehow we lose it again?

Edited August 21, 2013 by atx4us

[+wood_jl]

Glad Fandal's excellent site is back!!!!!

 

Further NEVER planning on purchasing anything from "The New Atari" (whatever the hell they are) because of this desperate, crap-on-our-fanbase behavior. Boycott now!!!

[pps]

Makes me happy that fandal's site is back again.

 

Makes me very sad, that the french company is dizzing our community again This is so :thumbsdown: that they harm about our vintage machines

[NIKON]

This is great news! It would indeed have been a great loss to the Atari community if Fandal's site was lost forever.

 

For our better understanding, what all really happened to this whole situation?

 

I didn't think about this before and intend no malice with this question - Should someone keep a back up of Fandal's site if somehow we lose it again?

 

I am sure Fandal has back ups of his site....it is not the site that was lost.. but the host of the site that disconnected it...whoever owns the Atari name now probably wrote a cease and desist letter to the host of the site threatening legal action and fines if they did not stop.

And by law the host must comply or risk being brought down themselves.

Rather extreme I know but it is easy to find out who is hosting a site and who owns the site...and so when contacting the owner of the site and domain name does not produce results...companies go after the host of the site. Sad but true that this sort of thing happens everyday.

 

However I find it juvenile that a company would go to such lengths when they themselves have done nothing with the business as long as they have owned it other than to harass anyone promoting the software without giving them their cut...BUT!!!...when the community is the only ones holding up the Atari banner how much do they expect to profit on software that has only a select few who demand such software and probably already has paid for the original copy when Atari owned the rites to the software....copyright laws specifically state that when an individual owns a copy of software... he is entitled to make a copy of said software for personal use only.

Furthermore copyrites do not last forever...70 years unless the copyright is renewed by the original owner. Once the rites to a piece of software have been sold to another party... it is then that parties job to renew the copyright to that piece of software.

Obtaining software through the means of websites and peer to peer networks has been going on since the beginning of software time..but if the original owner does not do anything about it.. no one can say or do anything about it.

What happened to Fandal was out and out unnecessary...and I for one am saddened by this company that would do such a thing.

 

I am glad that Fandal is back up and running but as it was stated in an earlier post...what is the fate of the rest of the sites that freely give software to enthusiast?

[kenjennings]

It may look stupid, but a trademark holder is obligate to enforce their trademark. If they ignore everyone using the name Atari, then they are allowing a situation where the trademark slowly means nothing over time. If they allow that to happen, then it becomes much harder for them to assert the trademark in court when it really is important.

 

Still, going after 8-bit historical sites is pretty stupid.

[Shawn Jefferson]

Yes, Atari has to defend it's trademark(s), but they tend to go overboard and attack fan sites that are not using the trademarks in bad faith. I believe a fan site has a pretty good standing in court (IANAL though!):

 

http://www.lawnet.lk/docs/articles/international/HTML/BA107.html

 

They also have the right to go after copyrights they own, but software is NOT like other copyrighted works (like books, movies or songs), in my opinion. They have zero value after the system they run on is dead, and the software is no longer being produced and sold by the company (ie. they've already made all the money they can on those particular 1s and 0s.) They should make new games or port to newer systems using the same trademarks, they own them, and they can (and probably should) go after others using those trademarks to make money.

 

I think (again IANAL) that ideas (ie. game-play... like eat the dots, shoot aliens, etc...) cannot be copyrighted, only their expression.

 

http://lawofthegame.blogspot.ca/2007/06/copyright-what-every-gamer-developer.html

 

So basically, I think that Atari is making a dick move telling people to take down copies of 30-40 year old software they own the copyright to, as these have no value to Atari. If you don't like their stance on this, boycott them, don't buy their products and eventually the company will either wake up or go bankrupt (again).

 

It would nice if someone stands up to Atari. I would donate to a defense fund if a case were brought, and I think many other Atari fans would too.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Shawn Jefferson

[walter_J64bit]

It good to see fandal's site is back again!