Ladies and gentlemen, let's do a little cross-examination...
We did contact Fox initially
[Mr. Coughlin] stated that there was absolutely no license for Predator pinball, they haven’t heard of Skit-B Pinball, and the project is absolutely Infringement
you know, it’s no big deal
Kevin was getting bombed by C&D’s and not saying a word [...] they are escalating the Predator matter to next steps. Bigger steps.
So when it came to licensing we could make these things and people could buy them.
They wanted to know if Kevin had shipped any finished games yet. We told them no.
at the time we were just looking for permission and we thought we found it.
November 2014 was the first time Fox had ever heard of Predator pinball.
When they asked us to take the things down from the website
Posts and updates from Kevin have dropped to non-existant levels. Kevin is evasive on questions concerning his true rights to the assets.
Let’s draw it back a little bit and stick with the agreement that we had.
Fox will be taking immediate action to stop Kevin.
to assume that there was absolutely no contact [with Fox] from the beginning to the end of this whole thing is somewhat irresponsible.
this process also inadvertently tipped Fox IP off to the project itself.
If we were trying to do something under the table, I mean I could probably do it a lot better than that.
People assumed there would be no way possible that any pinball creator or business [...] would have the brass balls and/or stupidity to [...] hide it all for safety, and simply PRETEND to have complete unincumbered rights to it all… [...] It just happened.
To say there was zero contact is mentally irresponsible.
He didn’t address anything about a license on the call. It was all questions.
We were told what we could do, but, as it more seems is, it is more like a fair use response
He said he was going to go look up Predator pinball, and give us his findings.
So this is what you can do with our IP, and those are the rules that we followed.
the tone of the call, and the material asked, sounded a lot like he had no clue about Predator pinball.
We took that as the permission, and we continued.
He had performed due diligence to make sure everything was searched, and he knew for sure.
Because, as far as we knew, we did. So it’s like, ‘Of course we do’, and we’ll just move on to the other questions everybody has.
He ended up wanting to know [...] how it came about, who’s manufacturing it, where are they being sold, etc.
You know, it never became a situation of, like, we should really look at the thing and post it.
Kevin NEVER had an actual license for ANYTHING on Predator. At any time. From day one. Of any scale, scope, or cost. Not a cent paid to anyone.
And by the time we were able to rectify the situation, it snowballed and exploded to something wholly uncontrollable.
the Predator project was unraveling on its own the last few months anyway. Pitchforks were out at varying times. Then Kevin would quell the masses with a poetic heroic email, and the pitchforks would go away.
I don’t understand the complaint. [...] I don’t know what the hell I did to anybody to make them this mad at me.
His plan was to attempt to build 250 Predators, license-less for all IP used.
Save/keep the license money. No approval processes, complete freedom.
It’s come to me from many people that there’s lots of speculation about who these [anonymous] people are, what they’re doing.
One of us still [has a monetary investment] actually, yes. [...] Two of us were pre-owners [...]
It’s come to my attention that a fairly small collection of people – 2 or 3 people – who were in on the project at one point, and bailed for whatever reason they had, and were refunded, and that was it.
Still not refunded, and have been trying since Q4 2014.
I don’t know where the animosity or the need to vilify me or my project comes from. I have no clue. No idea.
Removing who we are from the equation keeps the facts on track, to stand on their own, and just hang there in the light.
Well, I have to say, [...] wouldn’t that boil down to a matter of intent?
[His plan was to] completely hide the project after selling out the slots, to eliminate risk of ever getting caught.
it’s not a matter of deliberately lying to anybody.
Kevin couldn’t clearly explain it or produce compelling evidence [against the C&D letters].
if these anonymous folks would have started by contacting me [...] it would have been taken care of quietly and quickly.
new discussions [are] emerging about Kevin’s “Non-Profit” claims
It would be back on websites, and we would be able to promote the crap out of it
Those who are truly & legally licensed, proudly flaunt and promote their product(s) in the open market at all times.
in just a little bit more time it would have been handled completely up to the end.
it would seem odd that an infringer who was caught, C&D’d, and being sued, would be able to simply walk up at the end and buy a license for their production.
[Like] [...] we were doing it right and everyone else was doing it wrong for the last, like, forever.
The entire game, the last 2 years, was a case of Infringement.
we had to make some kind of a statement to get out in front of that, before it came out in a negative way.
The internet had long been scrubbed by Kevin of everything showing Skit-B is producing Predator.
I do not live the life of a multi-million dollar scam artist. I just don’t.
That means 240/250 (or 96%) of the funds should still be available, right? Somehow we don’t think so…
If I had any intent to scam people or rip someone off or just take the money and disappear and not do anything, I wouldn’t have assembled playfields in my shop, and I wouldn’t put my first and last name all over everything.
A white flag has been waved recently, that Skit-B self-admittedly isn’t even capable of building the run.
k7jgy.jpg