[Scummvm-devel] ScummVM and iPhSoft

[Liron Barzilay]

Hi Max and ScummVM dev team,

We understand your view of things and updated our site with these additions:

1. On our home page, for each project that involve ScummVM: "Includes the
acclaimed ScummVM project" (including link to scummvm.org).

2. On each project page, that involve ScummVM (one click from home):
"Includes the acclaimed ScummVM project" (including link to scummvm.org), on
the Features list.

3. On each project page, that involve ScummVM (one click from home): ScummVM
logo on the right (including link to scummvm.org).

Please let me know if there is anything else needed regarding our site.

Liron.

-----Original Message-----
From: Max Horn [mailto:max at quendi.de] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 2:46 PM
To: Liron Barzilay; Yinon Yamin
Cc: ScummVM devel
Subject: Re: ScummVM and iPhSoft


Am 02.08.2009 um 23:29 schrieb Liron Barzilay:

> Dear Max and Eugene,
>
>
> We have launched a new site that we hope you will find honoring  
> ScummVM games and project:
>
> http://iPhSoft.com
>
> We also updated the sources (With much help from Eugene), Is there  
> anything else we can do for you on our site ?
>
>
>
> We also interesting in transfer some of the income (more that 10%)  
> to ScummVM Project, can you send us a PayPal invoice (with the sum I  
> will send you) ?  it is an option available inside PayPal account.
>

Hi Liro, hi Yinon,

Before talking about any money transfers or whatever, I'd like to  
discuss the content of your website first. First off, I am glad that  
at least this time you are providing what seems to be the full source  
code from the start. Good. I haven't checked it yet, but unless  
somebody tells me differently, I'll trust you that it is really  
complete.

However, we at ScummVM are rather unhappy about how you present (or  
rather, hide) any information / hints about the fact that you base  
your apps on ScummVM in an essential way. It took me a long time of  
digging to finally discover a page on which ScummVM is mentioned.  
Apparently there are only two of them, and both are only to be found  
after extensive digging.
  * http://iphsoft.com/fotaq_versions.html
  * http://iphsoft.com/fotaq_links.html

In fact, we are deeply troubled by this lack of attribution, and we  
have explained this to you several times before (not for this specific  
new website, but in general). Regardless of the legal side of things,  
we are not really inspired to cooperate with you in any way, as long  
as you keep conveying to us that you are only interested in using our  
work to earn money, but are not willing to give us public, well- 
visible credit for our work.

I am kind of surprise that it seems so difficult to get across that we  
would like to received recognition for our hard work; we are in fact  
(as we explained to you before, too) more interested in that than in  
money. I am especially surprised considering what you write on your  
About page (emphasis mine): "We at iPhSoft are *proud* of *our*  
technology and intellectual property, but we strongly believe that our  
employees are the key factor that drives the company."

Seems to me that based on the above, it should be natural for you to  
understand that we are also proud about *our* technology, too.
Yet somehow that sentence fails to mention the work of your non- 
employees (i.e., us) which also is kinda important for the drive of  
your company, isn't it?. And so we are disappointed that while you  
praise "your" technology, you don't really seem to put any effort into  
pointing out that a lot of it is really *ours*...


So, we'd appreciate to hear from you on how you plan to improve this  
situation.


Bye,
Max
ScummVM project co-lead


P.S.: You might wish to hire a professional English->German  
translator, or at least a native German speaker with good grammar  
skills, to revise the german page of your FOTAQ offering in the  
AppStore. The current one is riddled with spelling and grammar  
mistakes, or outright garbled sentences. It's also a bit weird that  
the "news" for it are partially in Dutch, not German