AKA Legal Defense Fund Pledge Drive!

[logamus]

Originally posted by ProX9
Oh yeah Logamus have you donated to any children for christmas because my parents and I raised money on our own accord to give presents to a family that would have no presents for christmas if we hadnt done anything. Just thought I would say that after he implied that people donating to aka didnt care about other peoples suffering.

as a matter of fact i have, as i do every year. i dont go waving a big flag saying "i help the needy" but i help in the small ways that i can. im sure everyone who dontates to aka spends at least as much helping the less fortunate. just as i am sure that aka donates on a regular basis to all sorts of charitable organizations.

[ProX9]

The majority of the people who donate are the people who are affected beause they own an aka gun or plan to in the near future. The average paintball player will end up seeing the effects of this if aka loses and smartparts decides to hit a much bigger company with a patent infringement lawsuit, if aka wins this suit then sp will have no legal grounds to sue any other company.

[shartley]

Originally posted by spantol
Then Sam, and those like-minded, this is not the thread for you. If you wish to discuss the relative merits of this effort, please start your own thread.

I will not comment more on this issue. I said what was on my mind, and more than I had intended.... and only because someone tried to turn this into a personal issue.

Folks are allowed to spend their money any way they want.. period.

[logamus]

Originally posted by spantol
logamus: I can't quite parse this. I think what you're asking is if I believe that AKA would have started such a thing on their own. I do not.

my point was that at this point in time who started the idea is not as important as the fact that aka said "sure give us money". no, i dont think aka would ever go out and ask the community for money, but they sure didnt say no when the community wanted to give.

[ProX9]

Originally posted by logamus


as a matter of fact i have, as i do every year. i dont go waving a big flag saying "i help the needy" but i help in the small ways that i can. im sure everyone who dontates to aka spends at least as much helping the less fortunate. just as i am sure that aka donates on a regular basis to all sorts of charitable organizations.

I didnt mean to bring out the flag but it just seemed implied that we didnt care for others. In a way I believe that keeping AKA alive would benefit people within the company who might go jobless if AKA were slapped with a 20,000+ legal fee or worse if they lose and have to pay sp and for their legal council if im not mistaken. someone correct me if im wrong.

[spantol]

So you're faulting AKA for accepting money that the community was freely willing to give? Interesting.

Originally posted by logamus


my point was that at this point in time who started the idea is not as important as the fact that aka said "sure give us money". no, i dont think aka would ever go out and ask the community for money, but they sure didnt say no when the community wanted to give.

[logamus]

Originally posted by ProX9


I didnt mean to bring out the flag but it just seemed implied that we didnt care for others. In a way I believe that keeping AKA alive would benefit people within the company who might go jobless if AKA were slapped with a 20,000+ legal fee or worse if they lose and have to pay sp and for their legal council if im not mistaken. someone correct me if im wrong.

im sure there is a very real chance that if hit hard by a lawsuit that those people could very well lose their jobs. while i dont support hard working americans being thrown out on their butts, that doesnt exempt aka from not being prepared for this day. thats really the bottom line here folks, every company is going to have their turn with sp and its up to them to be prepared. i feel that a solid well thought out defense can beat sp. however, if your defense is to bury your head and then cry out to the pb community that sp is trying to rape you then you get what you have coming.

[logamus]

Originally posted by spantol
So you're faulting AKA for accepting money that the community was freely willing to give? Interesting.

yes i am faulting them. i personally think it reflects poorly on their management that they are resorting to accepting donations from random people to fight their legal battles.

[FordPrefect]

Originally posted by logamus


yes i am faulting them. i personally think it reflects poorly on their management that they are resorting to accepting donations from random people to fight their legal battles.

So you're saying if you started a business, worked hard to get it off the ground, made a good reputation, and then a big company with good lawyers came to sue you, you wouldn't accept money from people supporting your business?

Maybe you wouldn't. But I know that if it came down to it, I would, and so would a lot of people.

[spantol]

logamus:

Look, no one is claiming that AKA's problems are not ultimately theirs and theirs alone. A small subset of people, though, feel strongly enough about the greater issue that they're willing to contribute to AKA's cause. You are clearly not one of them. Why you continue to "contribute" to a thread created for those people is a mystery to me.

AKA is "resorting" to nothing. Money has effectively shown up on their doorstep, with a note attached reading "Good luck with Smart Parts." What possibly motivation would they have to ignore that?

[logamus]

ok, i will make this my final post in this thread.

my point all along has been that aka has apparently done very little to prepare for this day. i say that because i feel that if months and weeks of preparation had been in place they would say, "thank you for your support but we feel we have the situation in hand. please keep your money and have a lovely holiday". and while its one thing to be blindsided by a lawsuit, it is something else to know its coming and do squat to prepare. its your money, do with it whatever you please. just dont try to act like there was nothing aka could have done to stop this and its up to us, the small but mighty pb community to put a stop to this. if thats your idea, follow shartlys suggestion of a class action lawsuit against sp, but shedding tears for aka is rather pointless.

[Dubstar112]

Hooray for SP . They are a million dollars closer to owning paintball.

[03vert]

"paintball has sold its soul to the corporate devil"
cant remember who said it but its true. in the end its always about #one and how much #one makes. But since i really hate sp ill trow in as much as i can after x-mas which im suspecting is gonna be around 20-30. it'll make my bushy jump for joy funny thing is its got sp grips (should be getting new ones) and a freak on it. evolution anno with lines so it doesnt stick out like it should but man do i kick myself when i think ive got that on my bushy. oh yea and if they go after wgp ill throw in at least $100. really.

[LaW]

The people that want to spend their money to help aka are crazy in my opinion but its your money do with it as you please. I also dont like that fact that AKA would be willing to accept public donations. I have a small problem with that but whatever let them do what they want to do.

[theraidenproject]

Originally posted by logamus
my point all along has been that aka has apparently done very little to prepare for this day.

Ok, tell me if I'm wrong here:
Shocker patent approved, Aka started, Viking made, Shocker patent changed to cover all electronic markers. Where does that leave AKA for preparation?
I don't see these donations as giving money to a private company, I see them as keeping Smart Parts from changing OUR sport to accomodate their bottom line. That said, I'm not donating a cent because I'm a poor 15 year old with no job and $150 in debt. I barely afforded a used Emag. The costs of extra lawsuits and a potential SP levy on all e-gun sales will be passed onto the consumer. This means, next time, I might not be able to afford the gun I want. Or, I will buy a lesser mechanical so I'm not giving money to Smart Parts. It would be cheaper to get a decisive court victory for AKA now, so that SP will sue the next company and lose. I don't know who in their right mind would continue suing after a precedent like that. Then, paintball can continue like this mess never happened (except hopefully SP going out of business).

I've been playing for 2 and a half years, I've never owned a SP product, and now I never will.