★ PEOPLES ★ UK DENIES PIRACY CLAIM ★ |
| UK denies piracy claim |
IJK Software, which last week was at the centre of two separate piracy storms, has laid the blame at the door of the programmer in both cases. Ian Sinclair of IJK accepts that its Crimebusters inc is similar to Mastertronic's Spellbound, but says that he released the game without being aware of this. "We hadn't seen Spellbound until Mastertronic contacted us, but within half an hour we'd withdrawn it from sale." Copies of the game are now being destroyed as they come back to IJK. "Any software house in the country is open to things like this," says Sinclair. "I just worry about how much of it can go on." Mastertronic itself is now pursuing the matter with the programmer, who has been given the option of admitting guilt or being sued. "I'd like it to be known to any software house not to go near the guy," says Alison Beasley of Mastertronic. The second clash, between IJK and Audiogenic, seems to be more complex. Audiogenic's The Last of the Free and IJK's Quest for Freedom are very similar, and were written by the same author, but Sinclair claims UK had the program first. "We payed him £300 for exclusive rights early in 1986, and we made it clear that we would not release it until Christmas. The programmer seems to have signed with both IJK and Audiogenic, but Sinclair insists that he signed with IJK first. Neither software house has as yet seen the other's product, but it seems unlikely that the matter will go any further. "I'm prepared at this stage to accept that Audiogenic published it in good faith," says Sinclair. PCW
|
