This should be a kickstarter campaign.

Depending on donation level, you get the product at different discounts.

Not trying to add fuel to the flame, but it would be interesting to know if any copyrights that are claimed to be protected are REGISTERED.

If the copyright is not federally registered, the copyright holder can't pursue statutory damages.

Without statutory damages, the holder would only be able to pursue actual damages.

Actual damages would be pretty hard to document if there are no revenue generated from the sale of the new product, and since the old product is no longer sold, there is no loss of revenue.

If they knowingly try to pursue a statutory damages claim, then you can file a counterclaim for abuse of process, and if you win, go back after them for malicious prosecution.

An IP lawsuit will costs both sides upward of $20k per month for at least 18 months in federal court. In this case I would expect that it will cost the plaintiff a lot more since he'd have to retain local representation in a foreign country.

As a businessman, I respect that Rick made an investment, however, there should be room for the little guys in this hobby that are just trying to make it better. No doubt that Rick is seen publicly as a bully and, even worse, a hindrance to the hobby. That's the real shame, because I'm sure he got into the hobby for the same reason as the rest of us... Reminds me of Anakin Skywalker.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer (but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night)

I'd be willing to fund the fight. I'm not a lawyer but I understand IP law and have dealt with it extensively. I'm also well-funded.
Email or PM me.

To be clear: I am not calling Rick a fraud or any other names. He's a businessman. I have respect his investments and the IP he owns.

As a pinball hobbyist, I'm thankful that Rick & PPS continue to provide us parts for our pins. He has the original tooling and without that, we'd all be missing a lot of large plastic parts. Should his investment be rewarded? Absolutely.

However, I do feel he has overstepped his bounds and legal authority on these ground-up sound re-orchestration projects. Here, I feel he is doing the hobby a sever disservice while at the same time harming his reputation and alienating a lot of enthusiasts.

That's why I'm willing to help. I'm actually hopeful that cooler heads will prevail and that when both sides calm down and discuss this, there'd be away to 'make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.' If not, I feel confident that that these sound projects could proceed with or without Rick's blessing.

PM received this morning, about 1am (someone was up late):

"Pinsider PPS has sent you a message via PinsideMail™:

WMS sounds on games are copyright WMS, are you seriously challenging that then read up on copyright and perhaps talk to the wms attorney. The only licensee for any WMS IP is PPS, so while we are probably willing to discuss with people ways to make things, we are not interested in people who decide that they can violate WMS IP, which we are contractually responsible to report to WMS, and they will take action on specific situations. Perhaps you should understand why anyone other than a licensee would be free to reproduce/remaster WMS game sounds?"

Rick --

See man, this is why the hobby you support tends to hate you. Always first with the threats... I was actually trying to defend you in my latest post, but you just proved what a D-bag you are by the tone of your PM to me. Now, putting aside your asshole-ness, let's get to some rather important questions:

Can you tell us if the sounds were (1) registered with the Copyright Office, (2) filed as a compilation, (3) when this alleged copyright was filed and approved, and (4) who is the owner of this alleged copyright?

If you could provide the copyright registration number, I'll have it ordered and then we can examine it for the purposes of possible litigation. You have my email.... send me a copy of the registration certificate. We'll start there.

Since you've told me to read up on copyright law, I have to assume you are already well-versed, and you must know that without a registered copyright, you're not entitled to statutory damages. Without one, at best you can try for actual damages.

Have you thought about how you're going to prove actual damages? I mean, how many original sound files would you sell if this re-orchestration were not available and competing? By my count... NONE. You don't sell the sound as a product. It's freely available for downloadable from your side http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/Williams/tech/wpcroms.html and ipdb.org.

And by change you do have a registered copyright for the game's sound compilation, you're still going to spend a minimum of $500k to defend your alleged copyright. I say let the fun begin.

Actually, this post includes two potential nose cutting off face-spites:

1) Rick (of course) threatening to not pursue projects and/or offer products as a retaliatory measure, and,

2) Skins selling off his B/W pins because he felt Rick was such a(an) [fill in the blank].

That all depends on the contract. I suspect that the contract Rick has with WMS is pretty solid.

Sound recordings may be treated differently: https://library.osu.edu/blogs/copyright/2013/05/15/198/

What we need is proof of Williams copyright filing, so see how it was filed. Compilation of sounds perhaps? Perhaps never at all...

Regardless, there's no doubt that a royalty to PPS is appropriate if PPS truly has the license for the copyright on the work. Then again, if this re-orchestration is given away for no consideration, then a royalty of zero is zero.

There are a few variables here. First to horse - Endprodukt needs to finish the project. Then the cart - does he want to charge for his masterpiece? If so, the easiest thing would be to pay off Rick with his 10% of sale price license model.

Either way, I think what is clear is that all of us with a WH20 would gladly pay a fair price to make one of our favorite games event better!

Rofl

Here stateside cheering you and your amazing project on!

I think he can share it, but can't make $$$ without paying a royalty.

I say charge $10 and give PPS their $1 royalty. That may not work since electronic -- however will Rick attach his hologram to an IP download??? LOL.

Of course, we're all free to donate more if we want to 'tip' the author...