|
Bill Would Be Proud (8/30/99)
|
 
|
| | |
Switching gears entirely, have you heard about this new lawsuit between StarPlay and GT Interactive? StarPlay is a company that makes games for Macs and PCs; we know about them because their '50s bowling simulation, Alley 19, is a real hoot-- it's one of the few games we keep installed on our main boot disk, and we've given away a few copies that were rattling around in our Baffling Vault of Antiquity™ Of course, StarPlay is relatively obscure when compared to entertainment giants GT Interactive, who put out a ton of "A-list" games on the PC side and incorporate MacSoft for Macintosh games that everyone's heard of. (At least, if you haven't heard of Unreal, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D, then you're probably about as far removed from computer games as is humanly possible. Remember, all work and no play makes Jack type the same phrase over and over again.)
So here's the deal: according to a Business Wire release, StarPlay claims that GT actually pirated Alley 19. GT Value, the German branch, allegedly "knowingly and fraudulently obtained an unauthorized copy" of Alley 19, renamed the product, put together a "bogus agreement" to cover up the fact that they were not licensed to distribute the product, and then sold the repackaged game in Europe. Apparently StarPlay has plenty of hard evidence to support their claims, which prompted GT Value to agree not to sell the game any more. But that's not stopping StarPlay from seeking $5 million in punitive damages for what amounts to "blatant commercial software piracy"-- and by a software company, yet. Unbelievable.
If the allegations are true, it's pretty scummy behavior on GT's part. Our only plausible explanation is that they wanted to be more like Microsoft by selling other companies' products-- but no one told them Microsoft generally buys the companies first. Perhaps they just forgot. Details, Schmetails...
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (1751)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 8/30/99 episode: August 30, 1999: Seybold is upon us, and soon all the guesswork will dissipate in the light of Big Steve's Awesome Truth™. Meanwhile, the next big Apple event appears to be a star-studded extravaganza on September 25th-- new iMac? Shipping party for the iBook? And game giant GT Interactive allegedly pirates a funky little game by a small software developer...
Other scenes from that episode: 1749: Browsers At The Ready (8/30/99) So the day is finally upon us-- Big Steve's Seybold keynote address. And while the topic of what will be unveiled has generated more speculation than tulip bulbs in seventeenth century Holland, probably no one other than Steve really knows exactly what's in store... 1750: Waiting For What's Next (8/30/99) But for those of you tuning in just after the big keynote, you're probably asking yourselves, "What now?" Sure, you're excited about how Steve surprised us all by skipping the G4 hype entirely and pre-announcing the Power Mac G5 available in 2002 and slated to ship in Herringbone and Tweed, but there's always that post-keynote depression that sets in once all the surprises have been revealed...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
