Jpoop is a true sandwich.

Congrats on your eBay sale. After your eBay fees your around $19,500?...

Fees are flat $250...open up a monthly subscription to an eBay store and that is final value fee cap. $750 if you just straight list.

I hadn't noticed it was from so long ago, he might have still believed he was a real business himself back then.

Now that was a classy and excellent response! I agree 100%

Has anyone received any information whatsoever from Zane about the depositions (apart from the time and date his paralegal sent)? I haven't despite asking several times, so I post here. I wish our attorney was a bit more of a Keith...

I understand that Popadiuk's (apparently shit hot) attorney will be cross-examining us as part of the depositions (after he won against video depositions, so is this a compromise? I speculate as 'my attorney' (hoho) fails to respond), so that's something to look forward to without any background/preparatory information. Presumably Popadiuk will be distracting with talk of cruel Pinside comments and his victimhood, rather than the $1 million he owes.

I'll send you a private message.

I've cancelled my deposition on 17th May as Zane can't be bothered to respond or provide any information WHATSOEVER. So Jpop wins and keeps his $1 million allegedly stolen money. Hurray for the pinball collector-raping criminal!

I wish we had Keith (supremely brilliant) attorney and not Zane Smith, whom I consider... ok won't go there as I don't wish to be sued by an aggressive US lawyer. I guess it's not lucrative enough for Zane, bless. I bet he doesn't have a Lamborghini like Keith, though I wonder why? No fuck that, I know why.

Is the case over?

So you dropped out of the litigation as well? Wasn't it just a video deposition, you were never going to have to travel were you?

Has he declared bankruptcy? I dodged this bullet but have friends involved. But I do not bug them for the private details.

But to me he had taken money from people and a contract with each one. There is supposed to be the ability for a refund. He either delivers, refunds or goes under if he can't cover those two options. So it can't be over.

Proving criminality of a pyramid scheme is another question. But as long as Zidware exists it is not over.

Unfortunately, the plaintiffs have had very little legal support from Zane Smith, and e.g. no preparatory information about the forthcoming depositions. We received a weird email from Zane's paralegal (the only contact we get) saying that Jpop's attorney won in court to prevent video depositions (i.e. would have to be in person, bearing in mind I live in the UK), but in the same email asking us to confirm video deposition date, and stating that Jpop's attorney would be taking part in the questioning during the video (possibly a compromise agreed in court to allow the video depositions to go ahead?).

That last aspect concerns me. I'm happy to state the facts about the contract, payments etc, but if Jpop's attorney starts attacking about Pinside usernames, postings, and basically loads of 'Jpop is victim, you are wicked bastards' distraction nonsense, then it becomes a circus. I don't intend to take part in a reality show, trailer park trash circus. Instead of "just the facts, ma'am", this is going 'all Kulek' thanks to our apparently not so brilliant attorney. Jpop always was clever legally, what with his NDAs and contracts, and information silos, and he has struck again!

I have absolutely no idea or preparatory information about what the video deposition entails, that is taking place in 4 days. How crazy is that? (Caveat: there was a long list of questions previously, but mostly Jpop's attorney doing a pinside fishing expedition e.g. a list of every post we ever made, and I'm not happy to answer irrelevant questions. Our attorney should have struck that nonsense out, given that pinside is already public domain). As I don't wish to be a lamb to slaughter and attacked by Jpop's attorney, I'm not taking part, and I hold my attorney's unresponsiveness and lack of support responsible. Thanks for nothing Mr Smith. In the UK satirical magazine 'Viz' there is a comic strip called the 'Pathetic Sharks'. IMO Zane is the 'Pathetic Attorney'. Bloody useless.

In the US the deposition process generally allows the other side's lawyer to question the witness (sounds like in this case they would also be recording your testimony for use at trial so you wouldn't have to travel?).

Maybe it's beyond time to drop this civil case and just do what should be done - forced bankruptcy.

And get Keith to do it! One thing this case illustrates is how important it is to have a competent lawyer (or one who cares, as I appreciate there's little money in this for Zane [i.e. his 25% cut] now that the MGs are gone). By contrast, Jpop's attorney seems to be really good. Bully for Jpop.

What money is being used for legal from Zidware. I'm in on the suit and have no idea what is going on.

should have been done long ago! Likely still time if people act fast. May be able to recover some preferential disbursement of assets?

well when you keep records, follow normal practices, etc.. it's a lot harder to claw stuff back. Plus, remember... JPOP didn't actually pay anyone..

6eb25e48da1727d86c6f81bf2f5be0d5 (resized).jpg

Well, that sucks. His attorney, I'm guessing, basically said the victims had to fly in to the place where they brought the suit so JPop's lawyer could question them. The sheer inconvenience of that (and cost) will help JPop sliver out of liability as his victims won't want to incur the cost.

I had exactly the same experience. I emailed them about this over a month ago and they couldn't even be bothered to respond.

I'm done.

The reach-back period in bankruptcy for preferential transfers to non-insiders is 90 days.

I doubt three unsecured creditors will be able to collaborate and file an involuntary bankruptcy petition in the next 5 calendar days. Doesn't look like it's gonna happen.

Preferential Transfers (resized).jpg

Is my AIW ready to pick up John?

I haven't formally pulled out of the litigation yet. I emailed Zane again, and hopefully he'll respond.

Even if Zane doesn't respond, leave yourself on the books. You will only harm yourself and make things easier for guys like me.

Look, there are 11 of us plaintiffs in the lawsuit, soon to become 9 or so because of the delivery of MG. And of the remaining 9, a chunk of that debt has been greatly reduced, again by the delivery of MG. So in terms of the court case debt, Jpop probably owes less than $100K. That's pocket change and he could refinance his house and/or raid his wife's 401K.

More court case maneuvering by defense can be anticipated but I sense a settlement offer. And don't kid yourself. It was our lawsuit that got MG's made and brought all of us to this point.

Talk of bankruptcy only means years, YEARS of more waiting and penny's on the dollar. Whysnow's free legal and financial advice shows lack of intelligence and he is once again a buttinski Pinside embarrassment.

I will state again that I hope Jpop pays everybody what he owes. All vendors and customers need to be accounted for. But more than two years ago only a few of us took the long view when everyone was asked to join the lawsuit. I'm sorry so many chose to stand on the sidelines.

All he needs is an interested patent troll. License the patent to the troll, let the deep pocketed troll abuse the system. duckduckgo the term patent troll and you'll find numerous examples.

I want to stress that my quote is total speculation and based solely on real world typical results. I don't want to give anyone false hope of a settlement or even an acceptable offer. We may ultimately end up in bankruptcy court but for us to come this far and just quit now, would be foolish.

pennyondollar (resized).jpg

There still needs to be possible damages worth pursuing. In this case the lawsuit would cost more than any possible recovery. Compare the number of pinball machines produced having stolen the patent (as if) vs. how many cars were made with intermittent wipers while that case dragged on.

Any idea which can be duplicated easily having just heard of the idea, without even examining the patent (thus not stealing from it), ought not to be patentable.

I don't agree with this. Many things are obvious in hindsight.

I do think, however, that you shouldn't be able to patent something just to prevent others from building it. This is, you should only be able to collect for lost sales on a product you are selling.

Hmmm.... Maybe I should re-list my ad to sell my RAZA spot.

You're confusing a legitimate patent owner (such as the intermittent wipers holder) with a patent troll. Licensing lawsuits and threats thereof is how the troll makes money. A pt could license the patent from John years from now after thousands of machines using something vaguely resembling the patent is common. They'll send a vague demand letter and offer a license for a few thousand $$. Recipients of those letters will have the option of paying a few thousand for a bogus license or paying many thousands to defend a patent lawsuit.

Patent reform could happen in the meantime. Until it does the trolls still have an avenue to generate income. duckduckgo the podcast patent lawsuits for more information.

I'm lowering my price... I'll take 5K and it's essentially paid up.

I wasn't confusing them per se, as I never knew such an abuse of the system existed. Thanks for explaining it, I was too lazy to look up what you suggested! Ya learn something new every day!

Sounds like some reform is indeed in order, a la frivolous lawsuit recompensation, that'd shut that crap down!

And licensing should be in line with development costs. Along with the cost of popularizing new ideas, I agree that cheap, unlicensed knockoffs of gadgets where the inventor or their manufacturer spent a ton on "As Seen On TV" ads aren't fair.

But what really gets my goat is when profits are put ahead of the greater good, like when Big Dental supposedly bought all rights to a mouthwash that quickly solidifies cavities and then buried it. (Although I did see some benefit from that, my buddy Tom the dentist might not have all those awesome games I can play on occasion had it gone mainstream!) I guess that was never patented then, one trouble with patenting is it tells the secrets! If it was even real; I remember hearing about it years ago but I couldn't even find a reference to it despite some earnest Googling... Still an example of what I mean, at any rate.

There's a rumor that a contractor was used to program the Arduino boards that control the lamps on Magic Girl and the guy then installed the boards at AP during production. Does anyone know the name of the guy that worked on the Arduino boards and software for the 25 Magic Girl games?

I don't know exactly what commands are being sent to the arduino but there are libraries out there that can be used to control the leds.

Here is great one: http://fastled.io

No relation to FAST Pinball.

Aaron
FAST Pinball

I've got an Arduino on the way, this will be a good start. Thanks Aaron!

Sure thing. Let me know how it goes.

On our FAST Controllers we use a coprocessor setup where one processor manages communication from the PC and the state of the RGB LEDs. Then another handles instructions from the first processor and tells the leds what color to be in the method they require.

In your setup, I expect something similar where the Arduino is the second processor, taking commands from the PC.

If you can identify the message format being sent to the arduino then creating a "sketch" to work with it shouldn't be too hard. Especially when using frameworks like the one I linked to above.

Good luck!

Aaron
FAST Pinball

The coder stated that he has the arduino sketches ready to go, not sure if he would share them though?

I think that's exactly what is happening. There are two leads attached to the PWM 2/3 headers and those are the only IO's used on the board. I'll see if I can read the data somehow this weekend or explore other avenues.

I think that opportunity has passed unfortunately.

That is a bummer. Who programmed each arduino to put in each MG before they went out the door? I don't imagine that the programmer of the arduino sketches bought all the arduinos, programmed them and then brought them into American Pinball to install them.

Aaron
FAST Pinball

Just disassemble the ML!

I'd like to believe that those of us capable of that won't do it out of respect for the original unpaid programmer.

And if the board goes out, it's not helping the owners, is it?