Coleco strong-arming homebrew publishers and fan sites

[enoofu]

I didn't say he was Red Vipor, just that Chris is buying massive amounts of counterfeit goods from China and basically is their main store front in ebay

Apparently he been selling massive amounts of their action figures for years and you can't do that without promoting the brand

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18 U.S. Code § 2320 - Trafficking in counterfeit goods or services

1)

traffics in goods or services and knowingly uses a counterfeit mark on or in connection with such goods or services,

(2)

traffics in labels, patches, stickers, wrappers, badges, emblems, medallions, charms, boxes, containers, cans, cases, hangtags, documentation, or packaging of any type or nature, knowing that a counterfeit mark has been applied thereto, the use of which is likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, or to deceive

----------------

In general.—Whoever commits an offense under subsection (a)—

(A)

if an individual, shall be fined not more than $2,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both, and, if a person other than an individual, shall be fined not more than $5,000,000; and

(B)

for a second or subsequent offense under subsection (a), if an individual, shall be fined not more than $5,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if other than an individual, shall be fined not more than $15,000,000

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2320

Edited June 1, 2017 by enoofu

[TheClassyGamer]

I don't know. I think there is a bit of difference there. This seems more of a Circumstantial evidence kind of thing. I mean considering the guy was previously in forums stating how he would never sell bootleg figures and took a bath on the lot he bought. Then here we go years later and he is dumping them like a truck. The vast majority of what he has been selling on ebay for at least the last six months are bootleg figures. I quit counting after the first several pages of his seller feed back but just in that little bit there were over 300 fake ass figures moved.

 

So when you see stuff like this listed.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-almost-100-1986-Style-Black-Major-Custom-BATS-Gijoe-Cobra-/311609104532

 

(when looking at that listing notice there were 16 lots for sale that all sold. I find it hard to believe he could have accidentally bought 1600 of the same bootleg loose figure. Why would anyone buy that many other than to resale? Well, from the auction listing - Also note that this auction is for ABOUT 100 bats. I say about because these come in bags of 100 and i do not crack them open to check to see if there are 100 exact.)

 

I can understand, maybe he isn't in bed with the guy making them, but he is getting so many and selling so many, it's hard to imagine he isn't getting a good bulk price, and if nothing else that would seem to make him in the very least a distributor. But I would be willing to speculate given what has been easily dug up that we've got a proven Big tyme collector without moral fiber selling a shit tonne of bootlegs from a single bootlegger.. Humm...

 

Also sent a request to Hasbro that they shut him down. I suggest everyone does the same.

Edited June 1, 2017 by TheClassyGamer

[Omega-TI]

This thread reminds me of some old sayings....

 

1) It's better to laugh with someone than to be laughed at.

2) Do as I say, not as I do.

3) Be careful of the poo that you sling, because it may come back and hit you in the face.

4) Don't dish it out if you can't take it.

5) Don't be annoying or easily annoyed.

6 ) If it sounds too good to be true it usually is.

 

One more...

 

7) It's actions and not words that defines ones character.

[enoofu]

Funny how Coleco claims it has a good relationship with stores like Toys“R”Us and they have Chris as the point man for the brand who sells counterfeit Hasbro products, believe Toys“R”Us alone sells around 200 Hasbro board games alone

[TPR]

Quoted from: https://www.facebook.com/ColecoToys/posts/1918564895087139

 

 

Dear Coleco Toys, please allow me to educate you on what a "personal attack" is:

 

 

personal attack (plural personal attacks)

1. Making of an abusive remark on or relating to somebody's person instead of providing evidence when examining another person's claims or comments.

 

Now that you know, please refrain from using that term when people are simply making factual statements or questioning evidence found online, because at no point is any of that a "personal attack."

 

Let me break it down using a graphic you might be able to understand better:

[dj_convoy]

Love it. I can infringe on someone else's IP, but don't dare infringe upon mine.

[Ikrananka]

What's hilarious is that Cardillo pretends that it isn't him replying by saying that the attack is on one their "employees". WE KNOW IT'S YOU FOOL ! ! ! ! ! !

 

This appears to be a common tactic of his to avoid answering actual question(s). Although it seems from Pat's YouTube video that Cardillo is a master of that even face-to-face. In Pat's YouTube video, Pat recalls asking Cardillo about his knowledge of the Chameleon being a fake and that Cardillo just totally ignored the question and didn't respond - TWICE ! ! !

[TPR]

WE KNOW IT'S YOU FOOL ! ! ! ! ! !

 

Quoted. For. TRUTH!

[DuggerVideoGames]

What's hilarious is that Cardillo pretends that it isn't him replying by saying that the attack is on one their "employees". WE KNOW IT'S YOU FOOL ! ! ! ! ! !

 

This appears to be a common tactic of his to avoid answering actual question(s). Although it seems from Pat's YouTube video that Cardillo is a master of that even face-to-face. In Pat's YouTube video, Pat recalls asking Cardillo about his knowledge of the Chameleon being a fake and that Cardillo just totally ignored the question and didn't respond - TWICE ! ! !

All the more reason to believe Cardillo knew what a farce the Chameleon was from the get-go.

Edited June 2, 2017 by DuggerVideoGames

[enoofu]

Cardillo didn't care if the Chameleon was fake as it was giving public awareness to the new brand of Coleco

[Ikrananka]

Is it only me or are others also irked by Cardillo describing his selling of Sydney Hunter & The Sacred Tribe at his Crap Expo as the "Official Release" when the game will already have been sold beforehand by CollectorVision? Has he agreed with CollectorVision that his will be the "official" release? I seriously doubt it ! ! ! ! !

[DuggerVideoGames]

Is it only me or are others also irked by Cardillo describing his selling of Sydney Hunter & The Sacred Tribe at his Crap Expo as the "Official Release" when the game will already have been sold beforehand by CollectorVision? Has he agreed with CollectorVision that his will be the "official" release? I seriously doubt it ! ! ! ! !

I was also annoyed with the presentation and wording of their site for the expo; they practically implied that the game is THEIRS. Coleco Holdings obviously doesn't believe in giving credit where credit is due. They also implied that it's a partnership; to my knowledge, there is no partnership between Coleco Holdings and CollectorVision. Everything Coleco Holdings has done thus far has been to feed he-who-must-not-be-named's ego.

[CPUWIZ]

he-who-must-not-be-named

 

Kovfefe?

[driph]

I wish to remain engaged by this thread, please do not disassociate me.

[TPR]

I wish to remain engaged by this thread, please do not disassociate me.

 

That's another great point to bring up! How Cardi...I mean "Coleco" was threatening to block that guy or remove comments when he plays victim and cries whenever someone has done it to him. More examples of hypocrisy. And just in case SOME PEOPLE may not quite understand what that means, I'll post a basic definition below...

 

Definition of hypocrisy for English Language Learners

• : the behavior of people who do things that they tell other people not to do

 

So for example:

 

Telling someone they cannot publish unlicensed homebrew games and then that very same person is found selling unlicensed homebrew action figures.

 

That's "hypocrisy."

 

Are we all on the same page now? Goooooood......

[retroillucid]

Is it only me or are others also irked by Cardillo describing his selling of Sydney Hunter & The Sacred Tribe at his Crap Expo as the "Official Release" when the game will already have been sold beforehand by CollectorVision? Has he agreed with CollectorVision that his will be the "official" release? I seriously doubt it ! ! ! ! !

The deal happened in March

He asked me 150 copies for his Expo

So that's pretty much the same thing as when we're selling bunch of games to Michael at Good Deal Games

 

Official?

What does that mean exactly?

What is and what should consider official?

 

As far as I'm concerned, Sacred Tribe is an original game develop and release by CollectorVision Games

Nothing less, nothing more

[Flojomojo]

"exercise our discretion to disassociate you from our page" = ban and delete anyone who has a question?

[TheClassyGamer]

Every time Coleco makes a statement I can't help but think of this.

 

[TPR]

^ LOL! Same here! I'm pretty sure that's been quoted at least once in this thread but I feel like it should have been more!

[Chuck D. Head]

 

 

Speaking of that, I heard a story, not sure if it's true or not...

 

A guy goes out and buys a new all-in-one printer, hooks it up, fills out the registration, etc.

This printer is also internet capable and hooked to his router.

He sticks a $50.00 bill in for scanning, the printer will not scan it.. even after multiple attempts.

The next day Feds are knocking on his door about suspected counterfeiting activity.

Apparently his new printer told on him.

 

I don't know anything about this particular story's veracity, but the general idea is true. We had a high end Minolta graphics machine leased through a copier company, back around 2002. Someone copied something innocent, I think it was an internal gift certificate of some kind. The machine locked up and we had to get service. The tech told us that the machine interpreted the size and design as some kind of a bond certificate which locked the machine and they were required to send a report to, I believe, the Treasury Department. Never heard any more about it, but they did include a copy of our copy job in the report.

[enoofu]

The Central banks of some countries basically forced some printers and image editing software to add Anti Counterfeiting devices or software

 

 

I don't know anything about this particular story's veracity, but the general idea is true. We had a high end Minolta graphics machine leased through a copier company, back around 2002. Someone copied something innocent, I think it was an internal gift certificate of some kind. The machine locked up and we had to get service. The tech told us that the machine interpreted the size and design as some kind of a bond certificate which locked the machine and they were required to send a report to, I believe, the Treasury Department. Never heard any more about it, but they did include a copy of our copy job in the report.

 

LOL it was funny, since the Fan page didn't sell anything or service so there can't be no claim of Trademark, since consumers can't be confused

 

Plus, what copyright does the 2005 Coleco own out of all those images they claim they owned on the DMCA request???????????

Since the pictures basically did a Andy Warhoul which Campbell Soup couldn't prevent

[mr_me]

Is it only me or are others also irked by Cardillo describing his selling of Sydney Hunter & The Sacred Tribe at his Crap Expo as the "Official Release" when the game will already have been sold beforehand by CollectorVision? Has he agreed with CollectorVision that his will be the "official" release? I seriously doubt it ! ! ! ! !

I suppose someone could argue that whoever holds the rights to the name "colecovision" can claim it's use "official". Looking at the box image on their website it says "coleco" on the box rather than "collectorvision".

 

But there's lots of other problems in their game description on that website. https://www.colecoexpo.com/home/coleco-officially-releases-exidys-sydney-hunter-on-cartridge

"The release will mark the first commercial release of a video game cartridge in 15 years."

"Teaming up with Coleco is game developer Exidy which made popular the arcade smashes Venture and Mouse Trap..."

"Sydney Hunter, ... was recently voted "Best Game of the Year" on the online mega forum Atari Age."

"...the game which will debut at this years "Retro Gaming and Collectible's Expo hosted by Coleco."

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

I don't know anything about this particular story's veracity, but the general idea is true. We had a high end Minolta graphics machine leased through a copier company, back around 2002. Someone copied something innocent, I think it was an internal gift certificate of some kind. The machine locked up and we had to get service. The tech told us that the machine interpreted the size and design as some kind of a bond certificate which locked the machine and they were required to send a report to, I believe, the Treasury Department. Never heard any more about it, but they did include a copy of our copy job in the report.

I wouldn't doubt it.

 

More reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/counterfeit-money-eurion-constellation_us_576a3aa8e4b0c0252e77b6c4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation

 

The Eurion constellation is public domain IIRC, so if someone wanted to imbed these patterns in their artwork to prevent unauthorized printing and scanning, more power to them.

 

I scanned a $20 bill when I was a freshman in college, circa '99 (old 20s, not sure about the new ones) and the image showed a duck nested in Andrew Jackson's hair. I pulled the bill off the scanner and looked at it and the duck was gone. I still to this day have figured out how the Bureau of Printing and Engraving superimposed a duck into the image that only renders visible when placed on a flatbed scanner...

OT, but anybody ever seen the "fake" duck? It is normally not visible on a real bill but shows up on a scanner:

 

I could not find any references to the "duck" online, but it exists. FYI, this heavily cropped image was from an older series 1996 bill, so a lot may have changed with the redesigns.

[Great Hierophant]

Let's break down this incompetent advertising copy, sentence by sentence :

 

"ColecoVision, one of the gaming giants of the 80s is back with the release of Sydney Hunter, a new video game on cartridge."

Do consoles release games? Sydney Hunter is not technically speaking, a new game, but it is a new port of a nearly completed game for the ColecoVision.

"The release will mark the first commercial release of a video game cartridge in 15 years."

There have been hundreds of cartridge games released in the past fifteen years, not even considering the games released by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance, DS, 3DS and Switch. Will I see these cartridges for sale at Wal-Marts and Rite-Aids in the spaces formerly occupied by the ColecoVision Flashback?

Teaming up with Coleco is game developer Exidy which made popular the arcade smashes Venture and Mouse Trap both which were ported to the early ColecoVision.

The game developer known as Exidy was defunct by the 1990s. The developers who made or ported this game only have the license to use the name, there are no personnel in common. Also, what is the "early ColecoVision"? Are there some game breaking differences between early and late ColecoVisions? I think not.

"Sydney Hunter, Exidy's newest creation was recently voted "Best Game of the Year" on the online mega forum Atari Age."

It's "AtariAge", one word. Moreover, could someone point me to a poll where it was voted best game of the year? Which year? Which version? You can't really expect people to vote best game of the year for a game that has not been released yet.

"Gamers who wish to get their hands on a copy can do so by preordering the game which will debut at this years "Retro Gaming and Collectible's Expo hosted by Coleco."

The person who wrote this sentence failed his use of possessives and quotation marks test. The original sentence should use "year's" and "Collectibles", and is missing the closing quotation mark after Expo, unless the name of the convention is the "Retro Gaming and Collectible's Expo hosted by Coleco."

Edited June 2, 2017 by Great Hierophant

[Flojomojo]

If I lived nearby, and cared just a little more, I'd stand on the public sidewalk in front of their venue. I would hand out informative leaflets to anyone who walked by, with information like the preceding post. Peaceful protest that couldn't get shut down via Facebook editing or cyber bullying.