BOD forums no longer publicly visible
Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 8:54 pm
The BOD forums are now not viewable if you are not logged in. There has been some copyright claims put in which frankly is bullshit but I can't be arsed with the hassle so they are now not visible anymore. If you are an existing user you can still view the forum but public will no longer be able to. I'll explain why below:-
I'm sorry but I'm not putting up with threats and harassment over a game. This guy is claiming that one of our forum members pirated Blade of Darkness from a Chinese game and then added viruses then distributed it throughout the rest of the world and has been doing so for the last 19 years. I know the accused forum member is only 25 so how can a 6 year old take a game, translate it into various languages and then sell it to a publisher? Everyone knows that BOD was marketed as Blade of Darkness in the USA and Severance: Blade of Darkness in EU and was developed by Rebel Act Studios through the publisher Codemasters. It was distributed in China under the name Dark Blade, this guy is now claiming copyright and accuses this site of distributing the game illegally. This is untrue, the game is NOT hosted on this site at all.
All we are is a forum that has fans that talk about the game. This crazy guy is sending threatening emails, and harassing me wanting me to delete the accused member's posts. I've been through all of his posts and none have any links to pirated content and he hasn't done anything wrong. It seems to be a personal vendetta between those two people and he wants our member removed from the internet.
So as I've said above, this is just a game forum. I don't get paid for this and harassment and threats to sue me, letters from lawyers is all something I can do without. So to keep him off my back this is why I made the forum private. If I get any more hassle the (BOD) forum may have to go. I can understand if members want to set another forum up elsewhere.
I'll leave this open for comment.
Edit:
The guy who claimed copyright infringement now seems happy that I've assured him there's no pirated copies of BOD on this site and I've made the forum inaccessible to non registered users. He was bothered about links to forum posts here that were posted on another site. He failed to show screenshots of this which I asked for on several occasions. So now any links to here that he's unhappy about will not be visible any more. If he had provided evidence then I would have just removed them but he didn't other than send me increasing threatening emails.
I've also done some checks on the games copyright. Codemasters did own it originally but their copyright has expired so it is possible that someone else can claim it. It was available on gog.com until this copyright expired and now is unavailable. I don't know what goes on in China but I'd guess it's easy and cheap to buy it out. So let's say he does own the copyright to dark blade but that's only in China. Everywhere else it's known either as severance or blade of darkness and copyright in EU and USA is in limbo / considered abandonware. I'm no expert on these things but if someone is please comment.
Let's hope that's the last of it.
Edit 2:
Well it appears not, he's still relentlessly emailing me and his emails are in broken English. He still claims that he owned Rebel Act Studios and developed the game on his own and it was only ever sold in China and in Spain. He claims that one of our members stole the game and then sold it which is entirely untrue. Please bear in mind he said this was 19 years ago which would make our forum member 6 years old at the time.
What did happen was Rebel Act Studios based in Spain (now defunct) made the game and selected Codemasters as the publisher. They then authorised it to be sold in China under the name "Dark Blade" and that company who distributed it in China went out of business in 2003. This guy has set up a new company with the same name, bought the rebel act studios domain name then registered the game as "Dark Edge" which was originally "Dark Blade" and then claims he made the whole thing and our forum member is selling it illegally with viruses attached. No-one is selling the game now. It was being sold on GOG.com up until 2013 which is when Codemaster's copyright expired. So no-one owns the game now except maybe for China. He's basically took an abandonware game and claimed it as his own and then tried to sue any website that has any content related to the original game.
Furthermore looking at the guy's age he would have been 12 years old when he supposedly developed this game. I am sick to death of being pestered by this guy. Even though he said he was satisfied he still insists the member should be deleted along with anyone else who made mods for the game.
He wants to sue me but how can he sue a website that has nothing to do with his game apart from he does not like a few of our members. I've just added him to my block list so I'll get no more emails from him as it's a pointless argument. I've also blocked China as a whole from accessing this site at all. Sorry but that's just tough shit. I've whitelisted IP ranges of known members in both the Drakan and BOD community.
I'm sorry but I'm not putting up with threats and harassment over a game. This guy is claiming that one of our forum members pirated Blade of Darkness from a Chinese game and then added viruses then distributed it throughout the rest of the world and has been doing so for the last 19 years. I know the accused forum member is only 25 so how can a 6 year old take a game, translate it into various languages and then sell it to a publisher? Everyone knows that BOD was marketed as Blade of Darkness in the USA and Severance: Blade of Darkness in EU and was developed by Rebel Act Studios through the publisher Codemasters. It was distributed in China under the name Dark Blade, this guy is now claiming copyright and accuses this site of distributing the game illegally. This is untrue, the game is NOT hosted on this site at all.
All we are is a forum that has fans that talk about the game. This crazy guy is sending threatening emails, and harassing me wanting me to delete the accused member's posts. I've been through all of his posts and none have any links to pirated content and he hasn't done anything wrong. It seems to be a personal vendetta between those two people and he wants our member removed from the internet.
So as I've said above, this is just a game forum. I don't get paid for this and harassment and threats to sue me, letters from lawyers is all something I can do without. So to keep him off my back this is why I made the forum private. If I get any more hassle the (BOD) forum may have to go. I can understand if members want to set another forum up elsewhere.
I'll leave this open for comment.
Edit:
The guy who claimed copyright infringement now seems happy that I've assured him there's no pirated copies of BOD on this site and I've made the forum inaccessible to non registered users. He was bothered about links to forum posts here that were posted on another site. He failed to show screenshots of this which I asked for on several occasions. So now any links to here that he's unhappy about will not be visible any more. If he had provided evidence then I would have just removed them but he didn't other than send me increasing threatening emails.
I've also done some checks on the games copyright. Codemasters did own it originally but their copyright has expired so it is possible that someone else can claim it. It was available on gog.com until this copyright expired and now is unavailable. I don't know what goes on in China but I'd guess it's easy and cheap to buy it out. So let's say he does own the copyright to dark blade but that's only in China. Everywhere else it's known either as severance or blade of darkness and copyright in EU and USA is in limbo / considered abandonware. I'm no expert on these things but if someone is please comment.
Let's hope that's the last of it.
Edit 2:
Well it appears not, he's still relentlessly emailing me and his emails are in broken English. He still claims that he owned Rebel Act Studios and developed the game on his own and it was only ever sold in China and in Spain. He claims that one of our members stole the game and then sold it which is entirely untrue. Please bear in mind he said this was 19 years ago which would make our forum member 6 years old at the time.
What did happen was Rebel Act Studios based in Spain (now defunct) made the game and selected Codemasters as the publisher. They then authorised it to be sold in China under the name "Dark Blade" and that company who distributed it in China went out of business in 2003. This guy has set up a new company with the same name, bought the rebel act studios domain name then registered the game as "Dark Edge" which was originally "Dark Blade" and then claims he made the whole thing and our forum member is selling it illegally with viruses attached. No-one is selling the game now. It was being sold on GOG.com up until 2013 which is when Codemaster's copyright expired. So no-one owns the game now except maybe for China. He's basically took an abandonware game and claimed it as his own and then tried to sue any website that has any content related to the original game.
Furthermore looking at the guy's age he would have been 12 years old when he supposedly developed this game. I am sick to death of being pestered by this guy. Even though he said he was satisfied he still insists the member should be deleted along with anyone else who made mods for the game.
He wants to sue me but how can he sue a website that has nothing to do with his game apart from he does not like a few of our members. I've just added him to my block list so I'll get no more emails from him as it's a pointless argument. I've also blocked China as a whole from accessing this site at all. Sorry but that's just tough shit. I've whitelisted IP ranges of known members in both the Drakan and BOD community.