Lawsuit?

[derby]

The old DML was one of, if not, the best motorcycle forum on the web. Better than the dmf currently.  A lot of that credit goes to Michael Moore, who spent oggles of time tweaking the theme just right, just to get it deleted with a click of the button.  Maybe, one day, the dmf will be as good 

one of the benefits of having a guy on staff that designs interfaces for a living.

[748s]

A lawsuit will go no where very fast.

[ValveFloat]

I may be way off here (I am a noob), but a better analogy seems to me to be thus:
This VS outfit buys a wall that guys have been doing graffiti on, legally. The guys doing the graffiti decide to go use a different wall that someone else owns, and spray the same graffiti on it.
 
Did they buy the wall and the graffiti?

[EvilSteve]

It's like a small group of passionate guys had an offer for their business from a large entity that decided to do their own thing with the business in spite of reassurances...

oh wait, that's kind of what happened.

I'm not good at analogies

[COWBOY]

You do have to admit though, this site is an awful lot like another website that we used to go to...

Key word here is used to go to...the layout and DML that was, is no more.  Not in tone, not in layout, not in useability (images, sigs, etc all non functioning).  To blow something up and then cry that the old mods/admins have setup somewhere else is a farce.

I'm sure MM has all of his "old" work that he put in on the former (and now unused) layout.  Since the SMF software is the same theoritically it could be as easy as a copy/paste function in a few key places to turn it back on here or anywhere else.

As far as legality of doing it.  I'd have a hard time believing Jeff could/would sell the rights to MM interface and design and settings without MMs knowledge/approval.  Even if he did since they are settings used on a piece of freeware the copywrite/trademark law would be hazy at best which equals costly fight (not that Statler couldnt use a D16RR to go along with his 4RS).   VS or any company would probably just walk away.

[Howie]

Every day people leave a job and start up their own business, often competing with their former employer.  In this case people were volunteers, not employees.

[CETME]

They bought the DML. Thats it

They didn't buy the mods. They didn't buy the people.

Lets say you bought a bar. You changed it all around, taking down the old jukebox and ripping out the pool tables and putting in a Japanese Karaoke station.

Can you really say its unethical that the locals leave in disgust, then go open their own bar with a similar jukebox and pool tables?
not at all.

They bought the building. Not the people.

[BastrdHK]

They bought the DML. Thats it

They didn't buy the mods. They didn't buy the people.

Lets say you bought a bar. You changed it all around, taking down the old jukebox and ripping out the pool tables and putting in a Japanese Karaoke station.

Can you really say its unethical that the locals leave in disgust, then go open their own bar with a similar jukebox and pool tables?
not at all.

They bought the building. Not the people.

Well said!

[wana696]

Bar analogy says it best.....

[Munch]

I'm for sale VS... Highest offer! 

[printman]

great analogy

I was going to link in a post I saw at TOB, but it seems to have disappeared. The rumor was started by post whore, which was later denounced by admin as untrue.

[Ducatista]

I'm no fan of corporations, ads, or canadians (jk), but I have to admit it seems a slight bit shady to me to make a new site like this.

How do you think Microsoft would have reacted if they had successfully bought Yahoo, only to find all the employees working, instead, at a brand new competitor named Yahooo (with the a strikingly similar way of operating as the original Yahoo), the very next day?

VS isn't microsoft, and the legality of it is certainly a much less big deal, but still... It's basically the same scenario.

To be clear, I don't care (then again, I don't care about stealing software off the net either...), I just want to be honest about what's happening here.

Think critically people.

 

I am thinking critically.  There are some fundamental differences between the case you set forth and this one.  When the Yahoo employees were working for their company, they knew that they were working "to make rich people richer".  They already knew they were working to make money.  They were being paid and were probably under contract for at least something.  Sure, some may have worked because they believed in it, but do you think that their employees would have worked for free, as we visited TOB for free (or even paid $25 to work for Yahoo, as some of us have to TOB)? 

I think that case does not compare to ours.  The reason why I don't post on TOB anymore is because I don't want my friendships and camaraderie I share with my fellow Ducatisti to make a profit for some company.  I don't want to be moderated and warned by people who have no idea who I am and who probably never read a post of mine before a few days ago.  It is not like quitting a job and refusing to work for the company that took over.  They never paid me for anything, so I don't owe them any of my time, labor, or knowledge.

I think the bar analogy is best.  They bought the building, not the clients. 

[dlearl476]

They bought the building. Not the people.

Let's not forget, they canceled all of our "lifetime" memberships as well.  And to add insult to injury offered us a "deal" on a new, vastly inferior, membership.

If there are any lawsuits, it should be a "Titanium Class" action suit to recover our missing funds. 

[NAKID]

The Ti membership was never "Lifetime". It was supposed to be annual. They just never took away the stars...

[SSSA]

I hate that if I use the word "bike" in a post on another previously popular forum, the word "bike" is now a pop up add for some kind of a bike rack!

I hate that.

Really, I hate it! I'm inundated by ads in my daily life, online I can make a choice--thank you DMWW/DMF!

Thank you for keeping this forum(clubhouse) free from the pollution of the "super capitalist" advertising that the other forum is now polluted with.



....Lawsuit?

They bought a forum(clubhouse) and a name, you can not by it's members--we still have free will !  [moto]