I'm just naturally patronizing... ask around. Keep in mind that using the courts to bludgeon people financially with no expectation of winning the actual case, is pure bullying. It's the big boys version of beating someone up because they looked at your girlfriend in a way you didn't like. It's also a deliberate (but common) misuse of the system. If you believe it should be about right and wrong then you shouldn't support people's "right" to do it.Deus Magi wrote:VoodooMike. "Adorable?" A little patronising, something said to a small child, but I take no issue with it. Thank you for a full well put response. You have a better understanding of law than I, and sorry for your "experience." Clearly not pleasant. I do feel that GW have the right to go after people if they feel affronted, if the courts allow the way they play, then so be it. If someone trod on what I felt were my toes, I'd say, "excuse me." If they continued, then if they fell foul in court, so be it.
When laws are created, they are created with the idea of creating equality across society... if a law gives one man a right, it gives all men that right, and so on. In practice, they are quickly subverted to do the opposite of that - they end up favouring some people over others, especially people with money. IP rights are the same... the idea of patents was to ensure that inventors would have inalienable rights to their ideas such that large corporations and wealthy individuals couldn't just steal those ideas and screw inventors out of the proceeds because it was felt that would stifle innovation. Good theory! In practice, getting a patent is very expensive, and you lose your rights if you don't vigorously defend them in court... so in reality patent law simply prevents anyone BUT coroporations and wealthy individuals from affording themselves those protections. herp derp!
GW has successfully defended their relevant IP rights in the past - they kicked Cyanide's ass for violating their image copyrights, for example. GW is also a feckless thug that uses threats of lawsuits and occasionally actual lawsuits to invent their own IP rights where none actually exist. Nobody blames them for protecting their real rights, but when they abuse the system to push people around it is understandable that many people think much, much less of them.
PS: don't worry about my personal experiences... I've never been sued (thus far) I've sued other people.. I'm just saying that its a dirty, messy process that's much more about cost/benefit analysis than it is about right and wrong.