Atari emulators removed

[GHDpro]

The Emulator Zone has received a cease & desist letter from Atari. In response we have removed all mention of the Atari trademark from the site (can't avoid mentioning it here, but I suppose mentioning it in a news post is covered by fair use). This has lead us to remove some emulators from the site as well, as it would be tricky to tell what these emulators can do without mentioning the company name. Our apologies to anyone inconvenienced by this.

[GHDpro]

To elaborate: I do not think any emulator on the site is illegal, even if Atari might think so. However just to be on the safe side I did remove most Atari emulators as 1) I do not obviously want any legal trouble and 2) I don't think many of you will be severely impacted if we removed all Atari emulators.

Plus as I mentioned, I think Atari can enforce trademark use and referring to emulators made specifically for Atari devices gets quite difficult if you can't mention the name.

[ulaoulao]

I think they are trying to protect the use of the name.
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/36744...mpany_Name.php
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic...se-and-desist/
http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/0...h-cease-desist

Something big is going on with them atm. I hate to think what the author of stella is going through.

from DCEmulation.org -- http://www.dcemulation.org/phpBB/vie....php?p=1028275

Someone at Atari simply doesn't know what the hell they are talking about.

I would reply that none of the archives being hosted contain any copyrighted code and ask her to clarify.


the the reply


They're not protecting the copyrighted code/bios/games. What they're going after now is the use of the name atari. 'Atari 7800' for example is a copyrighted name. By using it as the title of a webpage you may be in violation of their copyright.

It would never hold up to any scrutiny, but it makes for good scare.

Can't you just append the copy write symbol and link to their web site? I mean if they are going to attack every site that used the at@ri name without showing the copywrite, they are madd! Oh btw, that means ever time you type the word, your in violation. Hope you have a find and replace on this forum LOL.


NOTE to the Admin: I would not worry much about this. Looks like they sent over hundreds of emails about this. I dont see them attacking us all. Not to mention you can't take down a site because they use your name. Really...

[Mupen64 Man]

Im just dissapointed that we got to get rid of some of the emulators in our arsenal, I always thought of The Emulator Zone as a stronghold of the best emulators.

[GHDpro]

Im just dissapointed that we got to get rid of some of the emulators in our arsenal, I always thought of The Emulator Zone as a stronghold of the best emulators.

Well while I would like a bit of a time-out period before we do this, we could re-add most of the emulators as long as they do not infringe on the "Atari" trademark.

We could for example call them "A2600" (and "A7800" etc). Even the use of "Jaguar" seems okay, as long as "Atari" isn't mentioned anywhere.

The trademark issue would of course still be a bit of a problem for emulators like "Atari++" though...

[ulaoulao]

Is Atari@ or Atari tm not acceptable? I know you topically have to add a disclaimer as well. Make just make the damn thing a link to a disclaimer LOL.

[Lefteris_D]

The only thing Atari can claim a take down request for is their trademark and they have the right to do so.

My thought is that something else may be in the works, especially considering the links posted above and the fact that it happens after all this time.

[GHDpro]

Is Atari@ or Atari tm not acceptable? I know you topically have to add a disclaimer as well. Make just make the damn thing a link to a disclaimer LOL.

I think they might still object to their trademark being used on a site they do not approve of.

[Jale]

That's BS. Some kind of censorship is going at hand. Is this the taste of SOPA?

[Lefteris_D]

That's BS. Some kind of censorship is going at hand. Is this the taste of SOPA?

Not really, it's within their right to do what they did.


SOPA is far more outrageous though, check the video bellow. And YES, it affects more than just US citizens.