Quoted from Steph

I'm not sure that he can....

NuCore is an Operating System made to emulate the Cyrix/Linux platform
which is used by Pin 2K.

Williams never owned the rights to that, so Wayne can blow smoke all he wants,
he doesn't have a legal leg to stand on...

He "might" be able to argue that using the P2K code to develop the OS
is a violation of copyright, but even that is weak...

And if NuCore becomes a reality, any new titles produced couldn't possibly
be a copyright infringement , ...unless someone was dumb enough to re-use
the "Pinball 2000" name .

I'd like nothing more than for Wayne to challenge this
and take a beating over it...  

He's a parasite to the hobby and needs to go away...


Steph

No worries... wayne's time is up soon... he has the rights for 5 years only.

Quoted from Steph

I'd like nothing more than for Wayne to challenge this
and take a beating over it...  

He's a parasite to the hobby and needs to go away...

Agree with you 100%, but imagine you are one of the three guys that developed the system. You willing to start remortgaging your house so you can fight a law suite? Ever get involved with lawyers? It's expensive, even if you are right. You can go bankrupt fighting.

I only recall reading about Wayne threatening to go after them. I don't know the status today. If it is true, it will delay things for certain.

Like Sparky said, his rights have to run out eventually and that time must be coming soon. I have heard 5 years as well.

Time will tell.

I wish Nucore nothing but luck.

Duane

Quoted from Steph

And if NuCore becomes a reality, any new titles produced couldn't possibly
be a copyright infringement , ...unless someone was dumb enough to re-use
the "Pinball 2000" name .

Software, no.

Hardware, maybe?  

I bet if you copied the side rails and the P2k mounting hardware, or anything else specific to P2k, I'm sure you would have some licensing issues on your hands.  

Just to keep everyone in the loop...

NuCore is out being Alpha tested around the state of MI as I type this.  Chuck and Don are slated to release NuCore Q1 of 2009.  Any legal issues are being delt with already, and from last I heard from Chuck, Wanus (hope that doesn't offend anyone here...) will not be an issue in terms of licensing.  Gene also owns a number of P2K rights, of which he has the most recent P2K patent.  (Wayne has one of the preliminary P2K patents, but it looks like Gene's superceeds it?)

So the story as it unfolds will not have to worry too much (if at all) about the blunder from down under.

Now regarding new kits that could be dev'd for the game, there would have to be licensing agreements in place to have the new PF interface with the existing P2K cab, but that's about all I would think. (oh, and probably some PF mech's etc)  They would probably work with IPB and release them either through IPB or under their own design house names with IPB's approval.

The games wouldn't HAVE to run Nucore, as they would / could be sold with new ROM chips and used on the original PRISM cards.  Anyone running Nucore would also have to rip the ROM's that came with the kit into Nucore, as that is what they have to do now with RFM and SWEp1.

Exciting times to come I would imagine.   Lots of possibilities for sure.

D

Williams built the P2K OS from XINU code. They did so because they needed to modify the kernal. They elected not to go with Linux because they would have been obligated to release the changes publicly under the open source licencing agreement. With XINU they had no such obligation so they in fact do own the code or at least the changes that were made in order to run P2K.

WRT who owns what rights between Gene and Wayne, I would have to say it is dubious at best. Separating Williams from Bally in the later years seems like parting two siamese twins that share the same brain. I think the lawyers could bankrupt the both of them trying to sort that one out if they ever really went to court on it.

Exactly.  And the nice thing about NuCore is....  They don't modify the original code one bit.  All NuCore does is emulate the original hardware platform.

D

Quoted from TwilightZone

Ever get involved with lawyers? It's expensive, even if you are right. You can go bankrupt fighting.

This gets me chuckling when I think of Stern blatantly ripping off Bally.... oh wait he was a lawyer. Only a lawyer would have the nuts to do something like that.

Do we have any lawyers on here that can afford to start a pinball company?

Quoted from necro_nemesis

This gets me chuckling when I think of Stern blatantly ripping off Bally.... oh wait he was a lawyer. Only a lawyer would have the nuts to do something like that.

Sam Stern was a lawyer?

Quoted from necro_nemesis

This gets me chuckling when I think of Stern blatantly ripping off Bally.... oh wait he was a lawyer. Only a lawyer would have the nuts to do something like that.

Do we have any lawyers on here that can afford to start a pinball company?

Sam Stern and Harry Williams (the founders of Stern Electronics Inc.) were not lawyers. Gary Stern (the lawyer in the family), didn't get involved with really running the company until closer to the time of his father's death in the early 80's, to my knowledge.

Gary did, however, rip off Williams when he started Data East.

If you're going to throw stones, make sure you throw the right stones at the right people.

Quoted from Monkeybug

Sam Stern was a lawyer?

No Gary was... and now cooke is sounding like one too... i.e. trying to confuse the issue.

Guilty guilty guilty and had to pay royalties to Bally in the end. Nuff said.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

No Gary was... and now cooke is sounding like one too... i.e. trying to confuse the issue.

Guilty guilty guilty and had to pay royalties to Bally in the end. Nuff said.

Nobody was found guilty. They settled out of court.

Truth, truth, truth.

and, in the end... who's still making pinball machines?