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rodder37
Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 7
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 Posted: Sun Feb 10, 14:40 |
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https://forum.tmcarthur.net/viewtopic.php?t=52
Tim McArthur, a 16 year veteran sim- racer and respected member of the online racing community, announced today that an agreement has been reached between himself and FIRST-Racing.net who had filed a Civil Suit against him in March 2005. McArthur, a single father in California’s Bay Area, has offered free add-ons for auto-racing software since 1999 and written articles to further develop the online simulated auto-racing community in which he is so passionate about.
“While I disagree with and deny the false accusations in the civil suit filed against me, I have come to understand why [they] had taken such actions.” McArthur stated in his final statement. It has become common knowledge that FIRST-Racing.net is planning to release “great new racing challenges for sim-racing” by modifying the NASCAR© 2003 software themselves and release it as a pay-to-play service. To accomplish this, FIRST-Racing needed to clear the way by making sure the free, 3rd-party modifications of NASCAR© 2003 were erased from existence as they were “direct competition to our software” (John Henry). FIRST-Racing.net is planning to charge a monthly subscription fee to play their still nonexistent product, say sources inside FIRST-Racing. This pay-to-play service has been attempted in the recent past with Motor City Online, and has proven to be a failing marketplace.
McArthur began speaking out at FIRST-Racing in February of 2005, asking for proof of FIRST-Racing’s ownership of the Copyright in the NASCAR© 2003. FIRST-Racing in fact did not own, at the time, the copyright in which they were attempting to enforce. It was only months later that FIRST-Racing filed for the actual copyright. Community members began questioning FIRST-Racing and even openly defying their claims. Websites such as www.first-racing-sucks.com began springing up, forcing FIRST-Racing to employ a “hired-gun” Public Relations person to quell the uprising. Some websites closed their FIRST-Racing related forums all together either in protest or fear that FIRST-Racing would target them in their next round of bullying tactics.
Dave Kaemmer, President of FIRST-Racing and ex-designer of the failed Papyrus Design Group, along with John Henry, main financial backer of FIRST-Racing and partial owner of the Boston Redsocks, began “bullying tactics” in February 2005, threatening financial hardship and lawsuits against anyone that opposed their unproven ownership of the NASCAR© 2003 software. Kaemmer went as far to call his own long-time supporters and customers “hackers” and “thieves” on the FIRST-Racing.net website. Kaemmer, self proclaimed “Grand-Father of sim-racing”, has done very little for simulated racing since his financial flop in 1998, Grand Prix Legends, which happens to live on today only due to the modding community Kaemmer now threatens with law-suits. GPL’s financial disaster earned Kaemmer a bench-warming position at Papyrus Design Group until he left Papyrus in 2003.
Kaemmer has a decade long history of allowing consumers to freely modify his software, before becoming the “puppet of John Henry” as some now see Kaemmer. In 2000, McArthur himself released over 3 dozen mods and add-ons for three of Kaemmer’s titles without any action from Kaemmer or his parent software company. McArthur’s mods for the NASCAR© 2003 software had been publicly released for nearly one full year prior to Kaemmer taking action. Other community members had mods and add-ons publicly released even longer then McArthur, and yet Kaemmer had remained silent.
John Henry masquerading under an alias username (RazorbackOne) in public forums, attempted to persuade the community that McArthur had previously released proprietary software of another company. McArthur, choosing to represent himself during the suit, was able to legally request user information from forum administrators to prove that RazorbackOne is John Henry, opening the door for a possible Slander/Libel countersuit. Apparently, FIRST-Racing tacitly acknowledged the libel by removing a past Press-Release from the FIRST-Racing.net webpage.
After weeks of discussions, the two sides were able to come to an agreement of which has not been made public. McArthur has shown regret that the agreement is being kept from the public but also showed understanding why FIRST-Racing would want it to be kept confidential. The only pieces of the agreement known to the public is that McArthur has agreed to no further modifications of the NASCAR© 2003 software, and that FIRST-Racing.net are now the owners of McArthur’s prior works based on NASCAR© 2003. With the settlement agreement hidden from the community that has eagerly awaited the outcome, more questions then answers are present.
If FIRST-Racing had such an “open-shut” case against McArthur, why would they settle? Why is FIRST-Racing keeping the settlement a secret? How much money did FIRST-Racing.net spend to get McArthur’s work? Was it within McArthur’s rights to release software that modified the NASCAR© 2003 software? Can others still modify the software as they have done for nearly 3 years? Can FIRST-Racing create an up to date title based on 8 year old code? All of these questions and more remain unanswered as the Civil Suit against McArthur never actually went to court for legal resolution of the matters, which brings up one final question; Weren’t FIRST’s initial intentions a legal ruling to prove that McArthur was truly infringing upon their copyright? It appears that FIRST-Racing was unable to prove such a case and was forced into a settlement. One in which they wish to keep from the public’s eyes.
When asked, McArthur offered only this response regarding the settlement, “The settlement with FIRST was amicable and I have no further comments on the company.” McArthur did state, prior to the settlement, that he was “very pleased” with the outcome of the settlement and went on to announce his retirement from the NASCAR© 2003 community to pursue interests in products that were “friendlier to their customers and community”. McArthur can now be found in the GTR and rFactor multiplayer lobbies furthering his passion for simulated racing.
“GTR and rFactor are leaps and bounds superior to the old code that I had previously been working with. I just recently acquired the funds to purchase a new PC and I am more excited about my online racing, with GTR and rFactor, then I have ever been in the past.” McArthur added, “I would like to thank the NR2003 community for their support during all of this.”
McArthur has documented the entire legal fiasco at his website https://forum.tmcarthur.net/viewtopic.php?t=52 and those who are industrious, can research the suit in public records.
- Lorraine Fontaine |
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PC_Racer
Joined: 07 Apr 2007
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 17:04 |
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Not everyone hates IRacing.
_________________
Asus P5E M/B. Intel 2.66 o/c - 3.8, 4gb ram, 8800 gts, XP Pro, TrackIR 4, Triplehead2go, 3 sony 20" CRT Monitors. |
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Ichibrothers
Joined: 23 Sep 2003
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 21:04 |
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| Please do not include "me" in your "we"...thanks. |
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rodder37
Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Mon Feb 11, 05:34 |
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| The "We" are the haters....why we (the haters) hate iRacing. Not everyone was around or affected by iRacing.....but those of us who had to witness the tactics of these still remember.....and this explains why we (The haters) hate iRacing. |
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2re
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 1238
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smokeyt
Joined: 07 Mar 2003
Posts: 151
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 10:26 |
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Hey, i liked nr2003 and all the great free addons. But its time to UPGRADE to a newer sim. Im thinking that rFactor is the one i would choose. So goodbye nr2003 twas fun. Hello rFactor. Ain't nothing iRacing can do about that. Even with all their money. Pay to play is not the sim racing style. Quit being so paranoid and greedy, iRacing. What goes around comes around.
Im not going to be around.
CYA
Smokey  |
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rodder37
Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 23:35 |
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| I've always used this name Rodder. The fact is that iRacing doesn't care about the community at all....their only focus is to separate you from your money. As far as hardcore sim racers go (stock car sim racers I should say), the "WE" is the larger group I believe. The rest of the sim racers either were not witness to this or were not affected by iRacing's treatment because they raced other forms racing or too new. I don't understand how anyone that was around at the time could feel good about doing business with them. Yes I hold a grudge. I think they could have went about it differently, DK was the most respected man in sim racing.....now he is just a slave to mr. redsox. They say they want to give the community what they want.....the don't have league play at all. I guess it will be nothing but pickup races. I read that you will be placed in races that match your skill level. Until your skill level is determined you will have to race against a field of novice wreckers until you get scored high enough to move up with others of the higher skill level. I think the majority of the community wants league racing where you can run with a group you know and go for league championships. They are out of touch and treated the community bad. iRacing might have a good sim but I will not support anything they do. The rest of you have fun and enjoy yourself. Hope to see you on the track sometime....just not iRacing. |
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fronk
Joined: 04 Dec 2005
Posts: 10
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| Posted: Thu Feb 14, 04:47 |
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still talking about this ? wow
People go where the simulation is good and yes they will not care if a friend of a friend of a friend's aunt was sued because he got messed up with this company's business, the company is spending a fortune to bring me a good sim. I suspect that if you knew what burger king did to a person and you didn't like that, you will stop eating their burgers for ever.  |
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Dracer
Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 31
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 05:22 |
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The rest of the sim racers either were not witness to this or were not affected by iRacing's treatment because they raced other forms racing or too new. I don't understand how anyone that was around at the time could feel good about doing business with them. I think the majority of the community wants league racing where you can run with a group you know and go for league championships. They are out of touch and treated the community bad. iRacing might have a good sim but I will not support anything they do. The rest of you have fun and enjoy yourself. Hope to see you on the track sometime....just not iRacing.[/quote]
It must be nice to know what everybody else wants and how they should feel!
I always wonder why, when someone isn't in the "WE" camp they just can't let it go. Sad very Sad.
I wonder how many people still believe that iRacing made people stop making mods for Nr2003. The only Mods they made people stop making were ones that modified the .EXE
Look at Superspeedway.nets new COT mod that just came out it's awesome.
Can't we all just get along! |
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Dave Hoffman
Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 02:44 |
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| Quote: |
I wonder how many people still believe that iRacing made people stop making mods for Nr2003. The only Mods they made people stop making were ones that modified the .EXE
Look at Superspeedway.nets new COT mod that just came out it's awesome |
Exactly. People have been, and still are allowed to mod NR03... there are just some limitations in certain areas now.
I don't know the whole story behind the Tim thing, or the Pits thing. All any of us really know is one side of the story. The question I always had was why does it even matter? (if those guys modded). For all the money that iRacing is pumping into it's product, they shouldn't be concerned about something people can make with outdated code. There's present-day competition out there... rFactor, GTR, ASR to name a few. So why cause a stink about people modding 5-year old code? It doesn't add up in the least bit....
... and that's the other side of the story that we don't know about. To go to all that trouble to make sure their code is secure, they have to have a pretty darn good reason. No, it's not because Mr, Henry likes to sue people... it's not out of fear of competition... it's not to help push NR03 closer to death... it's not because they hate the modders and want to shatter the sim community. Common sense, people. There's another reason.
I also think that those who placed themselves in the cross hairs are not being entirely open about their own sides of the story. Chances are they're leaving out a few minor details to make themselves look better. Of course they're going to paint themselves in the best possible light, and iRacing in the worst possible light. That's what happens when people have an ax to grind, an ego, and an audience. Don't believe everything you read.[/b]
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HuskerK19
Joined: 06 Jun 2005
Posts: 157
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 18:20 |
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| If you don't like what these guys are doing don't spend your money with them. Negative posts only make you look like you have an agenda. |
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adambrouillard
Joined: 16 Sep 2004
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Sun Jan 25, 17:30 |
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As long as people are willing to pay there pricing they don't really need to lower. Sucks for people who don't want to shell out hundreds a year.
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www.hollingsworthrg.com |
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