ZX Spectrum devs claim missing royalties from Elite Systems | Hacker News Reader

ZX Spectrum devs claim missing royalties from Elite Systems

kickstarter.com

116 pointswozname27 comments

Here I think is the specific comment hilighting the issue:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/952953995/bluetooth-zx-...

Apparently, they vandalized wikipedia to put an ad for their app. Unbelievable.

edit: This is the first comment talking about the issue apparently: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1066578103

Another post from a dev who got scammed by this company: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/952953995/bluetooth-zx-...

This came about because of this thread: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46365

Seems to be down at the moment, does anyone know of a cached version? Haven't managed to find one myself.

Still up, just slow.

It's been stuck 'Connecting...' for quite a while. I suppose I should've expected such a response from a community used to 16 minute loading times (my first computer was a ZX Spectrum). ;-)

Does your browser have a flashing border at the moment? :)

Here's the whole thread (it's paginated differently than the original link):

Page 1: https://archive.is/b0H9K

Page 2: https://archive.is/Np2K5

Page 3: https://archive.is/oPnmq

This link is particularly humorous: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ZX_Spectrum&oldid=...

The comically large banner ad at the top is certainly a nice touch. Not at all out of place on wikipedia.

No-one seems to have pointed out that this is likely to be a trademark violation:

"All rights reserved. 'Elite', the Elite logo, the Elite: Dangerous logo, 'Frontier' and the Frontier logo are registered trademarks of Frontier Developments plc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and copyright are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners."

In this case, unauthorised use of their trademark in the same trademark category (computer games), is going to damage Frontier's reputation.

Could someone get David Braben to contact Kickstarter UK?

Elite Systems have been around a long time too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_Systems

Yes, Elite was a triple-A player and a very well respected UK games publisher back in the 80s.

Oh, them!

Strange, there seem to be relatively few studios like that which didn't either get merged into something larger or fade away completely.

Superior Software is another example.

Mind you, if what these developers is saying is true, then they would do with improving one or two things.

Now they got backed, I don't see the reason why would they not make the keyboard. But if their business partners are getting paid is another story.

The fundraising period hasn't ended yet, at the time of writing this there's 12 hours to go, and judging by the Kickstarter comments people who have already backed the project are starting to reduce/remove their backing. I wonder if this is the first time there's a chance a project that reaches its target on Kickstarter ends up under the target by the end?

A kickstarter project cannot go under funding goal in the last 24 hours if it has already reached its goal. You can back out if you contribution doesn't bring the project below goal. Part of the anti-trolling rules.

That's interesting, did not know that. However, from what I've read it seems you are entitled to a refund on your backing at any time, so even if technically the funding goal is reached the real funds may be a different amount.

People aren't backing out, they are reducing their pledge. Do same anti-trolling measures deal with that?

Also not allowed. From the ToS (https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use):

Backers may increase, decrease, or cancel their pledge at any time during the fundraising campaign, except that they may not cancel or reduce their pledge if the campaign is in its final 24 hours and the cancellation or reduction would drop the campaign below its goal.

> You can back out if you contribution doesn't bring the project below goal. Part of the anti-trolling rules.

What about reducing the contribution?

Why don't they simply sue him?

Agreed. This is one for small claims court. Although I'm not sure if small claims can make him prove how much he's sold of what, if he's already stopped sending statements of royalties to the developers.

According to one of the forum posts linked elsewhere in this thread [1] his company's accounts are in the red, so even if someone were to sue and win, they aren't going to see any money.

[1] http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=750206&...

Maybe they show kickstart some money to send him into bankruptcy...

Sounds a bit like the mess that is the Up Front reprint:

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/160421/item/2750333#item27...

The amount pledged is indeed going down. It appears people are being true to their word.

Be interesting if it dips below the £60k required.

I believe Kickstarter actually won't let you withdraw a pledge if doing so would drop a funded project below its funding threshold.

edit: found the rule (https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use),

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