Quoted from swinks:

interesting that that letter above states "mechanical and electro-mechanical pinball machines" so would that mean games up to the point and not including solid state and dmd era games.
also nice to have an offical release of trademarked protected game titles

Quoted from Taxman:

Sorry people. A DMD games is technically still and EM device. Electromechanical simply means mechanical device that is electrically operated. Using circuit boards to operate solenoids still fall into this category. Just because we use EM, SS and DMD to separate categories of machines does not mean it is the true definition.

Quoted from swinks:

my query is
I respect the point of view like copying art that is a direct copy from a game that is under your license but what I don't get is like above, Frax doing something that is creative and not a direct copy off the game but we get what it relates too due to the pinball elements but it is not copying the artist as they are not copies to existing art just an artistic creation.
If anything it is promoting a Bally game CFTBL for pinheads, so isn't that a good thing as eventually they may buy a game and need to get parts etc. He is not making any money, but just having some fun and sharing it with others.
Likewise the creative guys doing the apron art that is a continuation of the playfield art to the apron, technical it is not copying that art but a new creation of continuing the art as the apron art never existed.
If these are issues for you maybe you better head over to Redbubble and chase those guys for a while
http://www.redbubble.com/shop/creature+from+black+lagoon

Quoted from swinks:

is that the Simpsons lawyer?

Quoted from JDD:

Hey, it's a party! Is everyone having fun?

Quoted from o-din:

It didn't stop them from going after pinball rescue in Australia.p
Quality apron decals- RIP.

Quoted from iceman44:

Abandonment of IP?
"A mark shall be deemed to be “abandoned”. . . when its use has been discontinued with intent not to resume such use. Intent not to resume may be inferred from circumstances. Nonuse for three consecutive years shall be prima facie evidence of abandonment. “Use” of a mark means the bona fide use of such mark made in the ordinary course of trade, and not made merely to reserve a right in a mark.
This means that if a marketer stops using a trademark for three years and has not done anything substantial within that time to reintroduce the trademark into commerce, the trademark becomes abandoned.
After abandonment, all previous “goodwill” and name association that may have existed are gone, and the trademark is available for a new company or entrepreneur to create new goodwill. Its former owner has no legitimate grounds for stopping a new user from adopting its old brand name by asserting that it has residual goodwill."

Quoted from Damon:

Holy shit, I just finished reading through this whole fiasco and it reminds me how much the hobby has changed in the last few years. Im not a lawyer and i dont really know who is right and who is wrong in all of this legally. I just wanted to add my 2 cents from the perspective of a member of the community who buys roughly 12-15 pins a year and is likely your target demographic for both businesses. I have done business with PPS and BAA in the past and make them money everytime i buy a part from marco or any other legit supplier (prob). I try to never buy anything unlicensed unless there really is no other choice on the market. I think I, much like most people in the hobby want our money going to the right people and people who have done service and work in this community. That being said, youre kind of asshole about how you interact with the community Rick, so its not hard to understand the lack of sympathy for you. I wish i could say this persona that you have is specific to Pinside but Ive met you in person, and as a customer and found you to be very rude. I had a few questions at your shop, one day when you were still in Campbell and rather than answer them you put me down and made me feel stupid for having asked the question, then spent literally 5 minutes telling me how people on pinside were "retards." Needless to say, it didnt leave the best impression of you. If this same exac issue happened to, lets say for example, Melissa at Cointaker I think the community would rally behind her in a way that they just dont for you, and its not because youre not in the right, its just because as a person youre kind of a bully. In every situation where something "Licensed through PPS" goes wrong you seem to be the first to point the finger elsewhere. The most recent examples I can give is MMR being a PPS product until everything that went wrong with delays, coin mechs, color dmd, build quality and overall costumer satisfaction happened, then it was magically Chicago Gaming's problem/fault/game. Twisted Pins had the official PPS seal of approval and i think a shitload of us all got screwed on those WH20 Toppers, as someone who lost money in that whole fiasco the "Officially Licensed by PPS" means nothing to me in regards to build quality or safety. Nothing was ever done to make it right. This would all be moot if we could say that PPS products are number one in terms of quality but literally everyone agrees the best decals are the ones from Phoenix Games that used to be screened. I think I for one am going to vote with my dollars and try to avoid giving them to the companies i dont believe in and im going to take a long hard look at maybe slowly making my way out of the hobby if this along with the pricing on stuff recently is a sign of things to come
tl;dr: Everyone looks like an asshole in all this, Rick has never solved issues that involve officially licensed products anyway so for a customers the only real differentiation should be quality also i think im going to sell all my games if this current trend continues and make my way out of the hobby all together and suggest other large number collectors maybe consider doing the same. If we all stop paying for this nonsense it'll stop.

Quoted from desertT1:

Really? Every pump in AZ has to list what the current state gas tax is.

Quoted from o-din:

Who wants to know?