Just over a month ago (and shortly after being featured in my Top Ten list of Most Beautiful OS X Apps), the awesome Cocoa Tetris client, Quinn, was pulled from Simon Haertel's site due to legal threats from The Tetris Company. (You can view the actual threat here. As readers pointed out, the whole thing seemed rather fishy (and The Tetris Company's past actions extremely sketchy). However, Simon had to make sure everything was A-OK before feeling comfortable distributing Quinn again.

Today brings good news, in the form of an email in my inbox from Simon.

"After investigating the legal situation thoroughly with the help of several people, including the EFF, I am now sure that Quinn doesn't violate any copyrights or trademarks. All this stuff has dragged on _far_ longer than I expected, but now I really hope I can concentrate on programming again "

Awesome to hear Simon! Go grab the latest version of Quinn, slap on the awesome replacement icon (as pictured) by Susumu, and start hosting some games. I hereby declare today to be Quinn day... or something. Actually, disregard that comment, and just go play some Tetris. Woohoo!

Recently featured in my Top Ten list of Most Beautiful OS X Apps, the wonderful freeware Tetris clone, Quinn, has recently been pulled from Simon Haertel's website. The reason? The Tetris Company has sent a legal threat, viewable here. According to the developer's post, "I do not know of any clear legal precedent on this matter and The Tetris Company has never actually taken anyone to court over the issue while numerous Tetris-like games continue to be distributed today. In fact, this is not the first time Simon has been bullied by this company and it seems the mere fact that I live in the United States represents a much clearer path for The Tetris Company to push us around."

 

This is truly a disappointing event, and hopefully it wasn't my list that brought the game on to the Tetris Company's radar. My sincere condolences to the developer, and I hope that the story will not end here. If you liked the game, maybe this is a good time to shoot off an email to the developer and offer support.