German GT forum "GTRP" sued by Sony

As the owner of the German Gran Turismo forum GT Racing Point officially announced today, Sony sued the forum for the use of the forums GT logo on a flyer without their permission. Interestingly, this logo is only similar and not the same as Sonys trademarked GT logo and has been used for years without any problems. Sony has asked the GTRP team to release the domains www.granturismo.de (registered since 1999) and www.gt4.de immediately. Connections with Sony which were already established before this issue suddenly froze. Why Sony decided that they want the domain name right now remains a puzzler.

The question is: what has the GTRP done to Sony? There are thousands of forum members. Some spend a lot of spare time there to help others with problems and questions about Gran Turismo. The whole project is financed privately. We voluntary did the work Sony would've been supposed to do. And now they decided to get rid of us.
Even if Sony was successful this would not neccessarily mean the end of the GTRP, it could move to another domain. Still, this could mean that Didi, owner of the GTRP, would give his project into the hands of another person. Being sued by a company after years of hard work and lots of money he invested in one of their products, you may understand that this spoils the fun for him.

You might imagine that there is lively response to this by the GTRPs members. At the moment, we are considering if there is a feasible solution to this problem. If you have any useful ideas you are very welcome to share them with us! Any contacs with friends or relatives working at Sony might also help! 👍

Here's a link to the thread in the GTRP forum: *click*

Rod, one of the GTRPs administrators, just added the following lines:

Rod

This is not about us not being able to live with the option "www.gtrp.de", neither about how much Sony is willing to pay as a compensation. It is about the way how the team including Didi, me, all the mods and some ultramembers are being treated. It just can't be that we are being put in the wrong light after all these years.

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I ask you not to insult Sony or SCEE in this thread, as it might affect the issue negatively. Thank you! 👍

Cheers
the Interceptor

Why GTRP? Alots of other sites has the GT logo as well. Just plain stupid 👎

are you not worried?

sony should treath there customers better.

They obviously, desperately want the name of the website for their own. They've found a way to intimidate you to get it. Get a lawyer and fight.

You could offer to sell them the domain name, too, because that's their main goal, here. Offer to sell the domain name, and end the lawsuit. But first, file a lawsuit agains them, bogus or not, for a large dollar amount. That should let them know that you intend to fight.

I agree - they want the domain name and have found a way to get it for free. The issue is that a lawsuit may cost Didi a lot of money which he doesn't want to or even can't spend. However, this might get interesting. I'll keep you informed.

Cheers
the Interceptor

I guess this means I'm getting a new LG flatscreen. Shame for Sony, because those things are expensive.

Dammit i wish i could read german....
well looks like sony is pulling a microsoft.

sn00pie

I guess this means I'm getting a new LG flatscreen. Shame for Sony, because those things are expensive.

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Nice avatar!

I guess I'm screwed then

its really clear that they want the domian name

The thing is, if they want the domain name, there are far cheaper ways to go about it. I mean, what's the point of getting the name for "free", if you've paid thousands of dollars for the lawsuit? It would be far cheaper to simply ask for it. If Sony approached them nicely, and just asked for it, they'd probably come to some arrangement to transfer it, for a LOT less money than this lawsuit is costing them. Sony gets it on the cheap, and the website has funds to keep their servers going for a while.

Indeed there are cheaper ways to get the domain. I suppose it mostly is about putting up a warning for people like Didi: "Don't get in our way or we'll crush you!". If things like this become public, you'll think twice before you freely use something that has to do with a product of a huge company like Sony. On the other hand they want you to buy, use and talk about their product, so I guess they're absolutely missing the point.

It has something to do with control. If they don't own granturismo.de, they can't control what's going on there. If you can't control something, you might be scared it could be used against you. The next logical step is to get the control by getting granturismo.de. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be of any interest to get it like "normal" people would do it: talk about it and find an acceptable compromise. To demonstrate absolute power you sue the opposite side. Even if you fail, you've shown that you will take every necessary and unnecessary step to get what you want. The result - people will stop getting in your way, and eventually you own the whole world...

I'm sure that if PD hears about this they would immediately tell sony to retreat from this. I'm sure it was some stupid lawyer working for Sony who came up with this idea, while not having any heart for the games.

smellysocks12

I'm sure that if PD hears about this they would immediately tell sony to retreat from this. I'm sure it was some stupid lawyer working for Sony who came up with this idea, while not having any heart for the games.

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I agree. Also for the reasons Jedi noted, this is fishy. Who wins here?

• Sony - Will lose some of the fanbase for their cash cow videogame. Negative publicity for their brand. It would acquire a very nice domain name.
• GTRP - At the risk of being dismantled by Sony. Fans will lose a local and respected GT site.
• Lawyers - $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

AAww man not PSM, please don't e-mail PSM!

Really weird of Sony, and I liked your warning pop-up Famine.

Famine

I've e-mailed Playstation 2 Official Magazine (UK) and am firing off similar e-mails to other UK Playstation 2 magazines.

Publicity is the key...

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You are living up to your user title: "sticking it to the maan"!

This is a shame, does this mean you can loose your brilliant database as well?

Famine have you got any answers back from your emails? and could i have a copy of them so i can send to some Australian mags.

Lets hope sony and Didi can settle this quickly and nicely. This is bad move from sony 👎

PD will already know about it, and I'm sure they will keep on a back seat over the matter and leave Sony, their owners to deal with it. PD don't have the ability to boss Sony about, tell them what to do or how to run their business. Sony allow PD leeway in creating games, thats all, they say we like the idea of this game, go create it we won't get in the way, but thats just for games.

Only slightly "Off Topic" (NOT really) & five days late...but here goes.

Many years ago I owned a small company that specialized in importing & selling High Quality 1/43 scale model autos to Serious Collectors. EVERY Summer not long after "Graduation" time, I would get a registered letter from "Goodyear" ordering me to "Cease & Desist" selling model autos bearing the "Goodyear" Logo. I mean...COME ON!!! it was FREE Advertising for THEM!!! The first time it took MANY Phone calls to finally contact the "Right" person at "Goodyear" but every year after, only ONE. Seems "Goodyear" would get a fresh batch of Lawyers eager to make a name for themselves & start threatening people withOUT authorization.

We can only HOPE this is the situation with SONY that www.granturismo.de is now facing. All I can say is "Good Luck" 👍...O.G.

This seems really weird to me. Why does Sony make such a nasty affair of this? Like others have said; they could have asked for the domain name! Surely an agreement of SOME kind would have come. They're making themselves look very bad... 👎

Come on sony, some people need help with Gran Turismo. Not to mention that you'll lose some payin' customers!

Update:

The "Gran Turismo Racing Point" has moved to www.gtrp.de, and according to the forums owner Didi, Sony will get the domain www.granturismo.de immediately without anything in return.

As Sony is not that well at the moment, I don't get why they don't "accept" the free support we provide, just like they did in all the years before.

Regards,
the Interceptor

the Interceptor

As Sony is not that well at the moment, I don't get why they don't "accept" the free support we provide, just like they did in all the years before.

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Define "well." They are at their average level. Their stock took an unnatural jump in March due to the PSP launch and the stock drop since then has just been a matter of balancing out. They also made a 4% jump two days ago with the announcement of their new digital Walkmans. They are doing fine on a long-term basis.

Also, they knew that you all would find a new site to host from that would not use any name or logos that could border on a copyright issue. Then when you condsider that 80% of their profit comes from the video game industry it would mean that the members of one fansite for one game would not be enough to hurt them.

I think what Sony did was a crude move and I am sure if certain people found out how it was handled some heads would roll. But with the income they make from their video games they wouldn't flinch if everyone of you boycotted Sony for life. They probably wouldn't even notice.

The only thing that could have stopped them was major press coverage and bad PR, but that didn't happen either because the media outlets didn't care or none of the ones that could make enough noise were informed. I thought someone said they were sending out emails but I could be wrong.

Jordan...better watch your back...

MachOne

Jordan...better watch your back...

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No, it seems like someone mentioned earlier. Sony only wanted the domain name and used agressive tactics to obtain it.

Lets all bombard the new owners of the domain