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Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites


TPR

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Good morning ColecoVision community!

I suggest we start a new campaign, Make ColecoVision great again!*

Let's get back to our Colecovisions and back to our projects. Let's get more new games out. Let's have fun and enjoy the hobby.

Please do not feed the troll, do no negotiate with them, do not accept their absurd terms, don't make deals with them, do not agree to help them or work for free. Do not support their products. They have no resources. Once they have no one to help them with new products and can't make significant money from the use of the name, they will go away.

 

Let's enjoy Sunday with family, friends and games.

 

*Does not reflect my political views in any way, just a nice slogan.

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Personally, I think it's important for him to have a "voice" as it's the only real direct communication Coleco has with the community. How he chooses to use that voice and how his words impact the community is up to him. If nothing else, this entire thread has certainly given us all a pretty good "idea" of what Coleco is like.

The only way to communicate with Coleco is with a Ouija board.

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I'm assuming that with all this, and us retracting the complaints, this involves you removing all of the associated threads on Atari age as well as your fan page, and us also removing our statement on our page? And any other associated post that either of us have control over? Is that your understanding?

 

Our most sacred point is your first point concerning the questionable material. Your stance is that you have no investment in these games and "as a journalist" you should enjoy freedom of press. In the sprit of compromise if we concede that point then you agree that should you become involved in any business relationship with a developer then u may not promote THAT developers games unless of course they are licensed. As you stated you are not involved with these developers so this should really not be much concern. Does this seem logical?

 

2-4 and even 5 I agree with. So those are not an issue.

 

You agree to cause (ikranaka ) to restore our wiki to its former state and then don't mess with it.

 

You agree that the legal description I have provide regarding action figures is sufficient to show that no "black major or red laser figures " to your knowledge are "bootlegs" or "illicit."

 

We invite you, but not obligate you to assist in a style guide.

Wow
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cardo1,

It is logically impossible to resolve this by coming to an agreement because this strong-arming fansites thing started from you trying to force them to come to an agreement. Therefore, trying to come to an agreement before retracting your false copyright claim against the fansite is still strong-arming. The only solutions is to stop strong-arming and remove the false claim. No negotiating is needed for that. To do otherwise is like if someone was robbing someone at gunpoint and then said,"Okay, I can see how you are frustrated with me robbing you at gunpoint. I wish to end this too. So, how about we negotiate? Here are my terms: If you agree to give me your money then I'll agree to stop robbing you at gunpoint. Once I have the money then I'll remove the gun from your head. See? We both win. You don't get robbed at gunpoint and I get your money. Fair?"

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Could always do a Google Hangout or a Skype video call that can be recorded to work this out instead of a physical face to face. The business I am in we do this quite often to have "virtual" meetings to work out problems or talk with vendors.

 

Its such a shame all this is occurring. I have been a avid ColecoNut since back in the early 80's when I got my Tabletop Galaxian game for Christmas (still have it :)).

 

I fully understand about the "adult" games and such, but that should be taken up with the publisher of the game to not have the Coleco logo on the product. Several other vintage consoles have "adult" themed games as well but I have not seen the level of escalation seen here. Eventually the podcast will get to these games as well since they are out there and even though they are "adult" themed. Being an amateur journalist, all aspects of a subject needs to covered and not pick and choose. Others have approached the "adult" games on their systems podcast with no problems. If done in a tasteful way with proper warnings at the beginning of the discussion, it should not be a problem.

 

If a fan site shares a picture of something that is not agreed upon, just put a post on the entry stating "this game is not endorsed by the brand" and not throw a trademark strike against the fan page. Rather go to the publisher of that particular item and ask them to remove the logos and such. If I posted something on the podcast page that was not agreeable and saw a "not endorsed" post, I would edit the photo to remove the brand off of it. Then respond to the post asking the publisher be contacted with the concern on the trademark (or I would contact them myself)

 

I have been getting emails from all sorts of parties on this and wanted to at least say something. I already have gone through alot with the Chameleon fiasco being a former friend of MK, so have been hesitant to say anything. It seems the Coleco brand continues to have controversy associated with it which is disheartening.

 

Take all the noise of criminal records, bootleg figures, etc.. out of the issue and just focus on the main topics.

 

1. Strikes against a Fan Page

2. Establishing a set of guidelines for use of the Coleco brand.

 

I already have changed the logo of the podcast to remove the original red box coleco logo to try and be compliant. I also changed the advertisement for the ColecoVisions podcast logo on my Arcade USA youtube show.

 

Homebrew publishers are free to do whatever they want and hold the responsibilty for the content they produce. As long as they do not use the Coleco logo, it should not be a problem as the brand is not connected to those publishers. You can also issue a statement that the brand has no affiliation or endorsement of a particular product that is being published as well.

 

This controversy is doing more to damage the brand than those few "adult" games ever could.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There has been yet ANOTHER interesting development in this whole insane scenario. It has come to my attention this morning that there is a new ColecoVision "fan" Facebook page that has been created very recently. I do not want to post the link to it here because I don't want to draw attention to it (and we ask that no one else posts the link to it either), but it would appear that it is being supported, and possibly even created by the person that Coleco Toys has been referring to as their "representative" in many of the emails that have been going around.


Hmm… interesting.


Perhaps this person is just an super ColecoVision who has come totally out of the blue and it’s great they’ve set up a new page! Or… Perhaps it’s a shell page being set up because someone doesn’t like the fact that my CV Fan page has nearly 30,000 members and they can’t control what I post. Hmm…


While I am not going to dictate to people which pages or groups they choose to like or not like on Facebook, I will simply say that this new page most certainly seems to have some interesting people following it, and many of them do not appear to be retrogaming fans as they don't have any other posts about retrogaming or the ColecoVision, and quite a few people who have shared and liked that page also link back to this "representative" associated with Coleco Toys. On top of that, based on what I know about social media (which is quite a bit, I'll be honest), it would also appear that this page may have also "purchased" followers as it’s painfully clear to see that the number of “likes” the page has does not fall in line with the amount of engagement the page is getting per post.


So if you happen to run across a new ColecoVision fan page on Facebook that didn’t exist a week or two ago that suddenly has nearly 1,000 likes, do your own due diligence on it, you may come up with some interesting results. ;)

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Two cents from someone else who runs a Facebook fan page, for what it's worth...

 

First, I don't know what all this discussion about "coming to an agreement" is all about, there only needs to be one course of action, by Chris, to retract the Facebook complaints against the ColecoVision Fan Facebook page, and that should be the end of that. In my opinion, Facebook fan pages such as Robb's and mine and others that do not benefit financially or in any other way by using the ColecoVision name or logo fall under Fair Use guidelines. However, a few years back, when I set up my FB page and web site, I asked permission from RWB to use the logo, as I was unsure if I needed permission and decided to both err on the side of caution and be courteous to the brand owners. They responded in kind. Simple.

 

Any disputes over manufactured goods bearing the ColecoVision logo needs to be taken up between the parties directly involved, which in this case would be the Homebrewers and RWB. Whatever the parties decide should be between them and only them - fan pages left out of the equation.

 

This is all about the continued enjoyment of a console that to most of us carries an important childhood association with it. But most of us are not kids anymore and we should not be handling disputes like children. Most of us in this forum, I would wager, are just wanting to enjoy a hobby, enjoy our games, and avoid drama while doing so. We also don't want the good Coleco name to become besmirched among the gaming communities. Please let's resolve in a mature, respectful way.

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Golly, with posts like these, they're sure to bring lots of social engagement from a community ready to spend lots of money!

 

post-2410-0-98574500-1496588451.png

 

I sure hope their extensive use of the ColecoVision ® © logo is well within the guidelines of the official style guide! Anyone have a link to that? Anyone?

 

I mean, not just anyone can print an on-demand t-shirt with a picture from the internet, after all.

 

Free advice to "brand holders" everywhere: do something cool, or give it to someone else who will!

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Golly, with posts like these, they're sure to bring lots of social engagement from a community ready to spend lots of money!

attachicon.gifIMG_8057.PNG

I sure hope their extensive use of the ColecoVision ® © logo is well within the guidelines of the official style guide! Anyone have a link to that? Anyone?

I mean, not just anyone can print an on-demand t-shirt with a picture from the internet, after all.

Free advice to "brand holders" everywhere: do something cool, or give it to someone else who will!

The Homebrews section of that Wikipedia page is incomplete.

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The time for retracting, apologizing and talk is over. I've been in construction for over 30 years now. For the past 15 years or so I have been in charge of running jobs. Not little remodels, I'm talking big commercial jobs 100k and up. Many times we run into various snags, blueprint changes and differences of opinions with the people we are doing the work for. When this occurs, the FIRST thing we do is talk and work out a compromise that will be in the best interest of everyone. Not let it reach a boiling point where we could be thrown off jobs, taken to court and not get anymore jobs from perspective clients. There have been numerous times where I didn't agree with or like certain changes or other factors that occur on jobs, but as a representative of my company it is my job to keep my mouth shut and do my job to the best of my ability in order to make each client/customer happy so that that might possibly lead to more work with these same folks. I've had BIG slices of humble pie to eat over the years. Yet, here's an individual running a $75 million dollar a year window business, a catering business as well and can't come down from his Mount Olympus and admit he went about it all the wrong way. My friends, I implore you to keep spreading the word through social media and whatever else it takes to keep exposing the Darkside for who they truly are. I agree with Opcode, just ignore him. I won't buy their coffee mugs, T-shirts or anything else that has the modern day C_ _ _ _ O trademark. Now he wants to be our palsy, our comrade, our long lost buddy, sickening. He opened this can of worms and as I've previously stated, he should be ashamed.

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Saw a quote today that perfectly characterizes this:

 

I THINK THE SADDEST PART OF THE STORY IS WHERE THE VICTIM BECOMES THE VILLAIN.

 

You have been at me for three - four weeks. Having your posse contact my friends, acquaintances, accuse my company of illicit activities, you have continually posted on your own page, made your page an 'i hate Coleco' page. Promoted people to contact us as well. All this time, all we have done was publicly defend ourselves and stand up to you. Hey, your good at what you do. IF your so tired of the game, stop posting online. Stop provoking people, Stop prodding people. Stop posting things, Stop making accusations. Stop promoting miss-truths. Tell your friends to stop bullying little girls on my page. Stop making posts that people share about Coleco. ALL THIS IS IN YOUR POWER to stop. But you and your team keep going and going. At what point, other than making a statement did we provoke the issue further. We didn't push you, expect to repeal your attack.

And that goes for some of you as well, STOP posting derogatory inaccurate articles. STOP making false claims on public pages.

IF YOU WISH FOR THIS TO STOP, then you need to put the keyboard down brother.

 

I jumped on here one more time to resolve this. It failed yet again.

 

ALL WE HAVE DONE WAS DEFEND OURSELVES

 

STOP BULLYING PEOPLE. You want it to STOP? Then it starts with YOU.

 

The irony is so thick, you could cut it with a knife. NO, THAT'S NOT A THREAT OF PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

 

Chris Cardillo, I don't think I've ever seen anyone with a public face quite as tone-deaf as this.

 

You know what you need to do. Reminder: retract the copyright strike against CV Fan.

 

You're not a victim here.

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Just an amazing example of someone doubling and tripling (and etc.) down when they are completely in the wrong and haven't a leg to stand on. It's tempting to say SAD! but that joke's already kind of overdone. It is sad, really. On the other hand, it is yet another good example of what happens when you try to profit off of the community in a predatory way. "Over one hundred homebrew games? There must be profits we can sink our claws into!"

 

Those hundred-plus games have probably sold a few thousand units, in total, if that. There are probably some exceptions, sure, but for the most part, people making those games aren't doing for profit or even trying to make a living... they are doing it because they love games, and in this case, they specifically love the ColecoVision. There's probably precious little in the ways of profits to dip into.

 

Do you (apparently) have the right to defend your trademark? Let's be generous and say, sure. That doesn't mean that you can stop anyone from producing games or talking about them or sharing them. All that means is people, in theory, can't use that multicolored logo. Is that logo worth burning bridges with people you want to sell things to?

 

There's nothing wrong with trying to market to jaded old people (let's be honest) like us; if you make products we want, we'll be there, cash in hand. What is wrong is hoping to have us assist in the creation (apparently, from soup to nuts) of those products without recompense. What is wrong is trying to present yourself as something you're not. What is wrong is to try to control the narrative of events when things don't go your way. Chris, this "slander" you speak of (please don't toss that term around; you clearly don't understand what it is or what it means... any more than you do "bullying") all came up because of your aggressive, misguided actions. There wouldn't be this thread, or Pat's video or anything else if you and acted responsibly and honorably. Three weeks ago, no one was mad at the current copyright holders of COLECO... and now...?

 

It's your bed; you made it and have to lie in it.

 

I'll tell you the same thing that triggered Kennedy so bad; quit pretending that you're COLECO. You may own the name... you do not own the lineage, the patents to the ColecoVision, the hard work of countless engineers or programmers, or the passion of the fans. Quit representing yourself like you're the continuation of a company that died nearly 30 years ago... you represent a shell of a shell. You control a name and a logo. That's it.

 

Maybe your company's next investment, instead of yet another dead brand, would be in a lawyer who can really sit you down and explain about IP and fair use in simple, no nonsense terms.

 

For my part, I'm going to go enjoy some Tony Randall Eagle commercials on YouTube before you come after those, as well... after all, that makes about as much sense as your actions in this mess.

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... quit pretending that you're COLECO. You may own the name... you do not own the lineage, the patents to the ColecoVision, the hard work of countless engineers or programmers, or the passion of the fans. Quit representing yourself like you're the continuation of a company that died nearly 30 years ago... you represent a shell of a shell. You control a name and a logo. That's it.

 

Incredibly well said - I salute you.

Edited by Ikrananka
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I have been a long time member of these forums, but don't think I have ever made my voice heard.

 

I would just like to reaffirm Opcode's post regarding moving forward with enjoying the hobby. I am more of a gamer than a collector, but I admire and respect the work that Opcode, Collectorvision, Team Pixelboy and the rest do in regards to keeping the ColecoVision legacy alive and burning for the community. It is my hope to support these homebrew artisans as best as I can and look forward to the fruits of their labor and continued success.

 

I love the Colecovision Fan Page as well as others like it as it provides the GREATEST means for everyone to voice their love and appreciation for the ColecoVision legacy.

 

Keep up the great work guys, you deserve every ounce of credit for all of us that still play!

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There has been yet ANOTHER interesting development in this whole insane scenario. It has come to my attention this morning that there is a new ColecoVision "fan" Facebook page that has been created very recently. I do not want to post the link to it here because I don't want to draw attention to it (and we ask that no one else posts the link to it either), but it would appear that it is being supported, and possibly even created by the person that Coleco Toys has been referring to as their "representative" in many of the emails that have been going around.
Hmm… interesting.
Perhaps this person is just an super ColecoVision who has come totally out of the blue and it’s great they’ve set up a new page! Or… Perhaps it’s a shell page being set up because someone doesn’t like the fact that my CV Fan page has nearly 30,000 members and they can’t control what I post. Hmm…
While I am not going to dictate to people which pages or groups they choose to like or not like on Facebook, I will simply say that this new page most certainly seems to have some interesting people following it, and many of them do not appear to be retrogaming fans as they don't have any other posts about retrogaming or the ColecoVision, and quite a few people who have shared and liked that page also link back to this "representative" associated with Coleco Toys. On top of that, based on what I know about social media (which is quite a bit, I'll be honest), it would also appear that this page may have also "purchased" followers as it’s painfully clear to see that the number of “likes” the page has does not fall in line with the amount of engagement the page is getting per post.
So if you happen to run across a new ColecoVision fan page on Facebook that didn’t exist a week or two ago that suddenly has nearly 1,000 likes, do your own due diligence on it, you may come up with some interesting results. ;)

 

Must be why Chris is grumpy as he had to spend two weeks creating accounts on Facebook to like himself

 

Almost forgot -- ColecoTM, if you want a "style guide," you'll have to write it yourself.

Should be very fun especially since he still going on about

 

 

 

You agree that the legal description I have provide regarding action figures is sufficient to show that no "black major or red laser figures " to your knowledge are "bootlegs" or "illicit."

Which are one of the cheapest bootlegs out there

 

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Especially since I have shown you that the information presented was incorrect and slanderous.

You have SAID a bunch of stuff, but you have SHOWN nothing. Proof is always welcome.

 

The people on this board are reasonable and can be persuaded with facts.

 

The people on this board are NOT stupid, and will not be fooled by lies.

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Do you even know what slander is? Slander is someone saying something untrue about someone which damages their reputation. No one is saying anything on this forum. Libel is the written word. Everything on this forum is written.

 

We learned all about that in journalism classes.

 

Especially since I have shown you that the information presented was incorrect and slanderous.

.

Edited by jblenkle
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