S
Seadog
Guest
All the parties involved, Stasi Poulos of Mindstar, Ron Hamilton of Eaglesoft Development Group and William Ortis of Lionheart Creations, owe us, their customers, and Father Bill Leaming, the apparently accused, an update on the vague allegations of copyright infringement made by Mindstar regarding its Garmin G1000.
Our story to date: William Ortis of Lionheart posts that he has received a written accusation from Mindstar that his Garmin infringes on Mindstar's copyright. He is dumbfounded since he has a Garmin 900 which he created from scratch and has the files to prove it, while Mindstar offers a Garmin 1000 that was released after the Lionheart one. Seems a pretty complete defense. Ron Hamilton of Eaglesoft chimes in a day later that he has received the same complaint from Mindstar, a then contract partner of Eaglesoft, and speculates what might be the cause of the complaint, but later notes that such speculation was unfounded. He also notes later, without explication, that the situation between Mindstar and Eaglesoft has been resolved, and wishes Lionheart the very best.
Meanwhile, Eaglesoft removes all references to Mindstar from its website. A warm endorsement of Mindstar's product remains on Lionheart's website, where it is recommended as a significant step up from the base product offered by Lionheart.
On behalf of Mindstar, Mr. Poulos posts that all three businesses (Mindstar, Eaglesoft and Lionheart) have been scandalously victimized by some other party, and they just want to work out the problem quietly. Whereupon, the well-known Priest, Father Bill Leaming, states that he caused the furor by inadvertently posting for a day a bitmap that included a copyrighted image from Mindstar's Garmin 1000's bezel, and then took it down. The post had nothing to do with Eaglesoft or Lionheart products, for all that is revealed.
Nothing that has been disclosed shows any possible copyright problem with Lionheart's products, yet its Kodiak and Epic aren't available, and current customers can't get updates. Likewise, nothing that has been disclosed shows any possible actionable copyright violation against Father Bill, yet he remains clearly accused, hung out to await further details.
Sim-Outhouse closed the threads earlier to give the presumably well-intentioned parties time to work this out privately and present a resolution. They haven't done so. Father Bill remains apparently accused and in limbo. Customers can't get their updates. Mindstar hasn't even come close to justifying either of these effects. Eaglesoft has left the field without comment, and shell-shocked Lionheart hasn't responded. Mr. Poulos sought secrecy to quickly work out what was turning into a public relations disaster. With the grant of that secrecy came the duty to work it out promptly and release customers from the burden of the dispute. That duty has not been fulfilled and the privilege of secrecy should be lifted.
Our story to date: William Ortis of Lionheart posts that he has received a written accusation from Mindstar that his Garmin infringes on Mindstar's copyright. He is dumbfounded since he has a Garmin 900 which he created from scratch and has the files to prove it, while Mindstar offers a Garmin 1000 that was released after the Lionheart one. Seems a pretty complete defense. Ron Hamilton of Eaglesoft chimes in a day later that he has received the same complaint from Mindstar, a then contract partner of Eaglesoft, and speculates what might be the cause of the complaint, but later notes that such speculation was unfounded. He also notes later, without explication, that the situation between Mindstar and Eaglesoft has been resolved, and wishes Lionheart the very best.
Meanwhile, Eaglesoft removes all references to Mindstar from its website. A warm endorsement of Mindstar's product remains on Lionheart's website, where it is recommended as a significant step up from the base product offered by Lionheart.
On behalf of Mindstar, Mr. Poulos posts that all three businesses (Mindstar, Eaglesoft and Lionheart) have been scandalously victimized by some other party, and they just want to work out the problem quietly. Whereupon, the well-known Priest, Father Bill Leaming, states that he caused the furor by inadvertently posting for a day a bitmap that included a copyrighted image from Mindstar's Garmin 1000's bezel, and then took it down. The post had nothing to do with Eaglesoft or Lionheart products, for all that is revealed.
Nothing that has been disclosed shows any possible copyright problem with Lionheart's products, yet its Kodiak and Epic aren't available, and current customers can't get updates. Likewise, nothing that has been disclosed shows any possible actionable copyright violation against Father Bill, yet he remains clearly accused, hung out to await further details.
Sim-Outhouse closed the threads earlier to give the presumably well-intentioned parties time to work this out privately and present a resolution. They haven't done so. Father Bill remains apparently accused and in limbo. Customers can't get their updates. Mindstar hasn't even come close to justifying either of these effects. Eaglesoft has left the field without comment, and shell-shocked Lionheart hasn't responded. Mr. Poulos sought secrecy to quickly work out what was turning into a public relations disaster. With the grant of that secrecy came the duty to work it out promptly and release customers from the burden of the dispute. That duty has not been fulfilled and the privilege of secrecy should be lifted.
