first postlol

Dude you asshole, you got this app shut down.

Just couldn't stand the fact that some other devs are putting out beautiful apps, huh?

Um, my only intention was to feature it for its amazing UI. I have nothing but respect for the app.

Phill:
I have a feeling 'realpolitik's post was to be taken in jest .

I wouldn't feel bad, you did nothing wrong, many people before you have created top 10 lists of beautiful OS X apps before you, I'm sure things will be sorted out in due time.

Didn't they steal it from the Russian in the first place?

Awesome blog Phil, the design is espectacular and the content isn't dull.
Can't wait for the damn Adium replacement..

Scum Bags

FIGHT THE POWER, POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Phill you say u got 50,000 hit in a week get Quinn to set up a donation site, with help from the offer community sites TUAW, The Apple Blog etc, $1 donation from a couple hundred thousand hits will make a sizeable donation for a night school lawyer to FIGHT THE POWER,

Let the community show its teeth

Let's go

"When two tribes go to war"

Jimi:

The only problem with your suggestion is that it seems like a pretty open-and-shut case...whether they typically enforce their copyright or not, the Tetris Company still has the right to do so.

Looks like he's not the only one who's had this problem with the Tetris Company: http://www.abednarz.net/tetris.html

This is truly disapointing.
Me, a long time quinn player, loves playing with all sorts of people. It looks like now there will be no more newbies to play with. Hopefully there can be some sort of agreement. And your blog is great for exposing this.
Guess it will be just me and the ol' timers playing.
It was good while it lasted....

Good news is that the game tracker is still up. Hope that can continue in operation, even if distribution is stopped.

Perhaps this is a good sign, perhaps the creator can combat this by adding a discerning feature of his own devise, to this wonderful Tetris game he's made. Tis could push Quinn in a new, creative direction, not that I don't love it as is.

I think we should collect donations to bring back Quinn. We as a mac community were able to raise money for some random college dude named Stefan to get an iMac. I think we should raise money to give to somebody that has done us a great service by making this tetris game.

Not realizing that Quinn was freeware, I take my previous comment back. Quinn probably is not infringing a copyright. Or even if they are, then they most certainly are operating within the statutes of the fair use doctrine.

If you read the link which poster Justin Prine provided, The Tetris Company (TTC) appears to be asserting a "look and feel" copyright, a demonstrably difficult position for them to take in court.

Furthermore, the fact that the developers of Quinn have no profit motive, fair use can be fairly easily established.

If I were the people behind Quinn, I would flip the bird to TTC and continue distributing the software online.

BTW, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia regarding TTC:

"This company had a moment of fame in the late 90s when they tried to get every freeware and shareware version of Tetris off the market by sending out cease-and-desist letters. It's widely believed that the company has no valid legal basis to claim rights to any Tetris clone that does not infringe on the Tetris name trademark, since copyright "look-and-feel" suits have not stood up in court in the past, and the company apparently holds no patents related to Tetris."

One important clarification should be made – a game like Tetris cannot be patented, only copyrighted, so the fact that TTC does not hold any patent is irrelevant. Regardless, there is no reason why Quinn's developers should be intimidated by the tinhorn pieces of **** at TTC.

Thanks realpolitik, justin. I'm going to email the dev and let him know, we'll see what he thinks. It is starting to sound like this is not the dire situation we thought it was.

I've sent an email to the dev letting him know the developments here, hopefully it'll help! Thanks again guys.

It is shutdown but the universal version is still avalible for download in the forums.

Does anybody have a mirror of this application to download? Willing to share?

http://www.stud.tu-ilmenau.de/~siha-in/downloads/Quinn.dmg

Seems to work...

Thank you.

So are they going after most every install of Unix as well? If not the developer should tell them to kiss his ass.

Love the blog. You turned me on to some great stuff I did not know was out there.