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WotC lawyers vs. Magic community

Ok guys and gals, it's official now. From the letter I received in response to my response to WotC's DMCA takedown letter to Apple:

"Wizards has committed to removing all of the relatively large number of applications on the iTunes Store that infringe its MAGIC: THE GATHERING(r) copyrights and trademarks in order to protect its intellectual property, and as a fan of the game, we assume you understand and appreciate Wizards' desire to do so."

They want to kill every iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile MTG application out there.

Apps affected so far: MTG Tracker, Decked Builder, Decked Drafter, iMtG, MTG Master, Deck Forge, MTG Depot, MTG Tutor and more. I will add them as we learn about them, please let me know.

As a fan of the game I totally fail to understand this. But I'm not stupid and I understand that some guy within WotC is trying to protect his 'Magic The Gathering Toolbox' app project and killing the competition off is the easiest way to do this. Unfortunately that means we the fans of the game will suffer as an expense of some guy's career.

A number of Android app has been already taken down as Google reacts to DMCA letters in an automatic way while Apple lets developers respond. They are after all of us, they want to replace thriving ecosystem of little indie Magic apps with one official app, and they will dictate you what is in it. Card prices will not be in it. Trading tools won't be in it. Scanner won't be in it.

I'm asking you to help me reach some other guys within WotC to stop this madness. We need to complain loudly but politely that this is not what the fans of Magic understand nor appreciate.

I believe that we the indie developers have done nothing wrong in the moral sense of the word (with the exception of a few apps who were using the pentagon of colours - and they are removing it as this is the right thing to do) and the moral side of this case is absolutely clear to me.

What I am asking for is that you the people, the customers and the fans of the game, stand with us and ask WotC in a civil and polite manner to work with indie developers rather than destroy them. From my reply to the lawyers' DMCA takedown letter: "I understand that you are not perfectly happy with iMtG as it is and I am looking forward to working with you to change it to a form acceptable by you. I understand that you are worried about possible confusion as to whether I am in any way associated with Wizards and I will add appropriate notice to the app description in App Store and on my website to remove any possible confusion ASAP. (...) Let's work together to resolve the problems in a civilised way, rather than use brute force and DMCA notices, please.".

Could everyone download the official app and rate it one star with a comment such as 'Please stop killing mobile MTG apps. Stop your lawyers, we want our apps back!'.

WotC official app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magic...491192015?mt=8

This will give them something to think about but at the same time we will not have to spam good people at Wizards.

While at it, please vote other reviews with 'Please stop killing mobile MTG apps. Stop your lawyers, we want our apps back!' up so other people are more likely to see our action. You know, 'Was this review helpful?' thing. You can easily find them by checking most critical reviews.


Moderators: please keep this thread here. This is not only about iMtG and other mobile apps. From the lawyer's letter: "Unfortunately, the only acceptable resolution of this matter is for you to remove those items from your app which we identified in our original notice as infringing Wizards' copyrights and trademarks: (1) the "MTG" trademark in the app name; (2) the abstracted version of Wizards' "Pentagon of Colors" in the icon for your app; and (3) the card art and creative content of the MAGIC: THE GATHERING(r) cards, which may not be copied, displayed or distributed either within the app, in the screenshots in the iTunes Store, or via the application."

You can clearly see that MTG is contained in the name of this forum the same way as it is contained in iMtG (and dozens of other mobile apps and hundreds of websites). You know that this forum contains the creative content and art of the cards the same way the mobile apps contain them. If they manage to kill mobile apps, they may decide to kill this forum, the very same way. Please help to stop this madness.

Thank you!
Posted 03 February 2012 at 13:55

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Wizards of the Coast is a money machine that doesn't give a shit about their product as a game nor its players. They are well known for destroying community efforts and pulling all sorts of shit. Many have protested in the past and non have been listened to. Bottom line if it isn't directly of financial interest to them they'll tear it down. There's nothing we can do about it because they don't care about us.

PS: I use MTG Decked on my IPad, it's the best editor I've used so far.
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Posted 03 February 2012 at 14:59

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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
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Posted 03 February 2012 at 16:53

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I had gone through the post, This is probably not WOTC's doing, But more of the cooperate tactics that we see happen whenever they do a new release. If WOTC had truly control, The OGL would not become the GSL when D&D 4.0 went live, As the creators really understood the benefit of the OGL to the development of the 3.0 game. Please produce some more attachments about the topic to view detail information.


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Posted 21 May 2012 at 11:31

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How can they stop those of us who have the apps alredy from useing them?
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Posted 21 May 2012 at 22:39

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How can they stop those of us who have the apps alredy from useing them?
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Posted 22 May 2012 at 07:33

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I had gone through the post, This is probably not WOTC's doing, But more of the cooperate tactics that we see happen whenever they do a new release. If WOTC had truly control, The OGL would not become the GSL when D&D 4.0 went live, As the creators really understood the benefit of the OGL to the development of the 3.0 game. Please produce some more attachments about the topic to view detail information
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Posted 23 May 2012 at 09:05

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[QUOTE=FFS L]How can they stop those of us who have the apps alredy from useing them?[/QUOTE]Well, if you never bother to connect your device to the internet, you could keep it safe, otherwise if the takedown is done properly a final patch could remove the product from your device, like with that one copy of 1984 via Amazon.
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Posted 23 May 2012 at 21:24

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if i tell it not to auto update it should be fine though?
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Posted 23 May 2012 at 22:39

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[QUOTE=FFS L]if i tell it not to auto update it should be fine though?[/QUOTE]It should prevent the programs from being removed, if the individual companies are required to put up a patch, which right now they're not required to.
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Posted 24 May 2012 at 00:34

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then theoretically, all that wizards can do is stop us from getting new apps...
this is so petty of them, they barely stand to gain anything.:rolleyes: if magic wasn't such a good game i would stop buying cards and feeding them money.
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Posted 24 May 2012 at 07:35

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