rec.autos.simulators

It was brought to my attetion tonight that someone has decided to
plagiarize our league name on Hawaii. I have e-mailed this individual
asking for a response and instead recieved a form letter from him
indicating that money talks. Because his company is willing to put up
money for his racing league he feels this absolves him of any need to
give a proper response. He has also indicated that he has got the name
Weekend Warrior Racing trade marked. It is my understanding that
sponsorship and prize money maybe involved. Considering the uproar we
have of late on r.a.s. in the charging of money for software and
painting of cars it is pretty sad that we now see people trying to rip
off others for their league name in the name of money as you can see
by the enclosed e-mail that he forwarded to me.

Subject:
       Re: there is already one
   Date:
       Tue, 27 May 1997 23:01:33 +0000
  From:

    To:

    CC:

The NROS and other multiplayer racing series raise interesting
questions involving both the racing series and sponsorship aspects.

Here's my solution:

WWRS and Weekend Warrior Racing Series copyright 1997 by Shawn D.
Kosloff, Team Marriott, and Hospitality Software Solutions. WWRS logo
is a registered trademark of Shawn D. Kosloff and Hospitality Software
Solutions. All rights reserved.

Why, do you ask, would I have gone through all of this even before I
officially opened the series to membership? $$$$, of course.

Weekend Warrior Racing was started a year ago by Mark Piscatelli as
some of you may remember from Pete Reston's posting of Keith Zerbie's
letter that told of Mark's passing away from leukemia. We dicided to
continue the league on in his memory. It is sad to see that someone
who has money would rather rip off individuals than be creative enough
to come up with their own league name. We will still use the Weekend
Warrior Racing name.

Barry Clay
Keith Zerbe
Pete Reston

Actually I should point out that W.W.R. belongs to neither of you, as
myself and my team-mate Jorg Wachtmann have been racing under the moniker
"W.W. Racing" in ICR2A, NCAR, F1SA and IVGA competitions for more than two
years now. FWIW I'm going to break with this groups' recent history and I'm
not going to sue either of you over this breach :)  I think we can still
share the letters like ***s.

Of course I'm joking, in this case your whole name has been nicked, not
just the acronym. Short of expensive and risky legal action to prove that
you had the name first, just accept that you were beaten to the punch by
someone perhaps not as scrupulous and with less imagination than yourself.
Find a new name like "Weekend Winner" or something like that and carry on
racing.

As long as your league is better and the racing is fun that's what counts
right?

Cheers!
John

--
Cheers!
John (SRN-Europe)
(Remove "NOSPAM" from address before replying...)

Hi Barry,

I'm very sorry to hear of this.  Unfortunately, there probably not much
you can do about the name, unless you have something in writing (a team
newsletter, or perhaps some hard-copy letter from one teamate to the
next - even if it's to or from Mark).  I'm no lawyer, but I think it
might help.

The following is an excerpt from copy_06 of the Copyright Office:
===================================================
"The way in which copyright protection is secured under the present
law is frequently misunderstood.  No publication or registration or
other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright.
There are, however, certain definite advantages to registration.

Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a
work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the
first time.  "Copies" are material objects from which a work can be
read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a
machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film,
videotape, or microfilm."

Copyright Office
LM 455
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.  20559-6000
===================================================

I understand the reasons why you and your friends have kept the team
going, loosing a friend is a painful experience.  Sometimes you need to
protect yourself from the bozos on the 'net, and this note is just to
let you know *we know* who the real Weekend Warriors are.  Good luck,
and happy racing!!  =)

Best Regards,

Marc

Marc J. Nelson
L8BRKR on Hawaii
#21 Ortho Lawn & Garden Ford
6Pack Racing League

Sim Racing News / Sim Racing Online / The Sim Project

I have to agree that it is pretty pathetic someone would steal your
league name. I wasnt sure if the person (Sean Kosloff) was aware that
there was a league with that name already. But from the "from letter" he
sent stating that he had copywrited the name and that it belonged to him
I am sure that he knew and anticipated
the flak he would take as a result of him stealing the name.

I have only one question Sean:

If you went to all the rouble to copywrite the name, why didnt you
bother to think up one that was original????

Mick in Tampa

CNSRL Admin.

http://city-guide.com/CNSRL

I know that we're not changing a thing. Our league was started in May
of '96 and is verified by Papyrus. Mark Piscatelli and David (his last
name escapes me for the moment) had created WWR in May of '96. David
bailed out from the league and Keith Zerbe took over his spot. Since
then the league was run by these two gentlemen until Mark passed away.

 It's definitly better already. The support I recieved from everyone
has only enhanced this league and made it stonger than most. We are
here for the fun and frienships that we develope online and will
continue to pursue that aspect of racing.

Good race at the Brickyard,  (-o-)

SPEED- Cars, WC, BGN, Trucks, IROC, utilities and more...
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I assumed quite a bit in my post.  I don't know how the International
law would work in this case...The person in question *is most likely*
in the States or Canada, else the charges would be outrageous.

Marc