Stargate mod, important!

[mr burns 132]

To all admins of OFP websites that hosted/linked/mentioned Stargate Worlds and related addons at any time in the past

OFPC.de has been admonished by MGM's lawyers. MGM is owner of the trademark "Stargate" and its many applications.

In the letter from their lawyers we were asked to give a list of all websites that linked to Stargate Worlds mod.

The consequences of not adhering to their request would be a court trial, which is not an option for us. The consequences would financially ruin every single one of us involved in OFPC.de. No insurance will cover it, either.

Our only choice is to create this list of websites, so I ask you this and I beg you to read carefully and consider the consequences, should you choose to ignore this topic:

The best way for everyone involved (that is, for everyone who ever mentioned this Stargate mod on his/her website) is to delete all entrys related to stargate and notify us, including your domain name under which the content was deleted. You can keep the files, just delete all references to them and make sure nobody can access them.

Now this may seem drastic to many of you, but before you tell us about freedom of press or the questionable legal grounds of this request, please read on:

The current state of legislation has it, that the link to such fan-created material will be considered profit-oriented if there is any kind of advertisement on the same page as the link. The owner of the domain or however hosts/maintains the website is therefore guilty of making profits with copyrighted material. This is a legal fact. Freedom of press will not cover this. So unless you are perfectly sure that your website has no ads and no outbound links that could be considered ads you should do this. We didn't come up with this, our lawyer did.

We already paid more than 2000€ on this lawyer and every admin who ever published content about Stargate Worlds is facing similar if not higher costs.

Again, we have to mention every website in this list and MGM's lawyers will most likely search each site. If you delete all the debatable Stargate content, you will be fine. Otherwise you might receive a letter very soon.

On the 31. of this month we will send a list of all website that published Stargate content. Please, delete all references to Stargate Worlds until then.

Do not ask us about the content of the letters we received from MGM, we will not be able to answer your questions since it is condifential and will get us into even more trouble.

!!! Do not debate the legal grounds either, we are no lawyers and we will not be able to anwser any questions. However a lawyer came up with this solution and if there were any other ways out of this we would know and tell you !!!

We hope you understand why we have to tell them about all the websites. If we could buy ourselves out of this we'd much rather do that, but we do not have such a choice.

Also we're sorry that the creations of several very talented community members are discredited in such a way. Again, it's not our intention, we simply do not have another option.

[lukemax 0]

I didnt know that a MOD for OFP involved a certain wormhole idea was around

Of course i never helped that idea in any way!

I do hope Tristar a sub-company of disney i belive btw, isnt going to get the SST MOD then i will scream a Wilhelm scream

[CRIONYK 0]

so to be right with MGM, i have to :

add

Quote[/b] ]© Copyrighted 2006. Stargate, Stargate SG-1, and other related names are Copyright Showtime Inc., SCI FI Channel and MGM/UA.

All material on this website is not for profit use.

or to delete all stargate words in my website ?

or to stop my work on stargate mod ? it makes me sad...

i've already deleted my website, but is it enough ?

[mp_phonix 0]

I'm angry ! It's like Microsoft did it to the Genreals HALO WARS mod i think . basterds ! it's not like your selling it to people

[dmarkwick 261]

So what is the beef? They don't like us seeing the adverts that we carefully ignore on our search for mods?

I don't understand what monetary gain they get from pursuing this. By monetary gain I mean money that they are otherwise losing out on in allowing this activity to happen. Looks like free advertising to me, ah well there goes my interest in SG whatever the format.

[mattxr 9]

well i better get downloading the current stargate mod before i never see it again

and 2000€ jeesh thats a lot for something tht was free.. and your just a news site

if it was me id proberly go to jail thts just me tho i dont have tht sorta money. but i havnt host stargate so im alright..

[Blackbuck 9]

That is harsh, but then again look at the <s>lego</s> lega wars mod they had to change the name for that sort of issue, i can get why people have to act like such assholes at the use of a word or name

[johnwilso007 0]

so if a site has no money making advertisements on it its safe?

funny why they targeted you and not ofp-sgc site isnt it?

this could be a mass discredition project ocorstrated by a select few people, but i doubt it.

maybe a rename Wormhole extream.

dnt worry lukemax i think Starship troopers mod is safe as long as no more starship troopers games come out.

I would like to know it its the STARGATE name itself or weather its the title of the island Stargate worlds that has them pissed.

MGM are putting 50million into developing theire MMOFG (what ever the characters are) game, stargate worlds, is that what they are targeting mr burns?

[Blackbuck 9]

the word stargate "belongs" to them and is a registerd  ®  trademark thereof i think

and no just because a site has no money doesnt mean they are "safe"

[oneoff 0]

stargate can mean a number of things look here for examples

sorry to hear about this mr. burns hope it goes ok for all concerned. i guess this is a backlash from those who dont like ofp being such an open source game. somebody must be passing this stuff on ,cause lately theres been i few i believe. i guess its time someone made a stick about the naming of mods and how it can affect there future ?

[Blackbuck 9]

yes but in the context the mod is concerned with there is no loophole

[mr burns 132]

is that what they are targeting mr burns?

Dunno, only posted this on behalf of one of our admins, anders^on.

Also as stated before:

Quote[/b] ]!!! Do not debate the legal grounds either, we are no lawyers and we will not be able to anwser any questions. However a lawyer came up with this solution and if there were any other ways out of this we would know and tell you !!!

[Blackbuck 9]

Mr burns out of intrest does ofpc.de make more than 2000€ per anum?

[mr burns 132]

Mr burns out of intrest does ofpc.de make more than 2000€ per anum?

Don´t know either, but i don´t think so.

If there´s any mentionable income it´s surely spend on bills for the server which can´t be cheap either since i always get full speed downloads/uploads, and that´s alot.

[Blackbuck 9]

ouch that just put it into a better perspective. i'm truly sorry for whats happened  

[mattxr 9]

ouch that just put it into a better perspective. i'm truly sorry for whats happened

totaly agreed... i think theres a mole in this community who looks for © material.. lets kill him

[mr burns 132]

ouch that just put it into a better perspective. i'm truly sorry for whats happened

totaly agreed... i think theres a mole in this community who looks for © material.. lets kill him

I suspect Pingu!

Talkin about gallows humor

[MontyVCB 0]

move servers to uk :P cant touch ya then :P

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Nothing like a C+D order to spoil the party, eh. Feel for you, lads.

[RockIslandMarine 0]

Why cant we all be friends

We can always ask them if the mod can still be made with there name. Free Advertising. if they are aloud to put-in there input, my be even an ad for there new game.

What is the worst they can say (no). and if they say no say OK and change names and keep it going at all cost

[william1 0]

hey , can't we make some lawyers addons for OFP ? they would be great for practicing...

[dmarkwick 261]

Quote[/b] ]We can always ask them if the mod can still be made with there name. Free Advertising. if they are aloud to put-in there input, my be even an ad for there new game.

What is the worst they can say (no).

You're assuming you're dealing with people who in any way give a shit they don't, if they did this wouldn't happen.

Boot stamping on a human face my friend, boot stamping on a human face. (Orwell reference)

[crashdome 3]

I always hate to hear this, as it is usually created by the fan-base of the original theme anyways... It's like they are unwilling to look into the whole picture and simply focus on the bare-bones legal issue and end up burning their fans.

Sorry guys...

In a different perspective, I really hope this instills alot of you former addon makers to do something perhaps more original. Seriously, the world is missing out on some original ideas as it seems everyone and their grandmother is doing Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Halo, etc.. mods. We need the creative people such as yourselves and I really think alot of people sell themselves short by working on pre-conceived ideas.

[Wittmann 0]

If all content site wise was removed however links and screens were put up in say, forums such as this or ofp.infos, would that be legal I wonder, as the forums have no advertising present in them...

[JK-47 0]

i think that only stargate worlds is being prosecuted because there comming out with a game soon i think that stargate is still okay