Ultrasabers selling illegal sound fonts

[Ky-Wan Zann]

Hi there,

If this should be removed or posted elsewhere please do so and I apologize.

I recieved this from a friend of mine who owns and runs Genesis Custom Lightsabers. He beleives that many of the artists who work in this field may also have their tech stolen and sold by Ultrasabers. I know a good many people purchase their sabers so I thought I would post this here from e-mails sent from the plantiff. Thank you.

Hello all,

Some of you know me as "Novastar", the guy who created the NSCFCDs (Crystal Focus Sound Compendiums). In fact, you purchased them from me, knowing the quality of my work, attention to detail, and you know I've always worked to help the LED saber community "go to the next level" with saber sounds over the past 5+ years.

Unfortunately, my recent dealings with the company called "Ultrasabers" has rendered me speechless, as... THEY ARE NOW PROVIDING MY FONTS FREE OF CHARGE TO ANYONE WHO E-MAILS THEM.

They are doing this in spite of a signed, explicitly clear agreement between myself and Alex Buckner, the owner of Ultrasabers. I issued a C&D (cease and desist) request on 10/6/2011, along with notice of copyright infringement. Of course, these notices have been ignored.

My attempts to get this resolved have been in vain thus far, as, despite making SOME folks aware via Facebook:
( www.facebook.com/groups/207717372582367 )

* I haven't been paid a dime (violating a signed agreement)
* Ultrasabers won't stop / cease

* They've ignored / violated the signed agreement I had with them (Alex, actually... although it's all "Ultrasabers")
* They've ignored C&D (cease & desist) requests
* They obviously do not care that they are distributing MY works illegally

* From their forum "saberforum.com", they banned myself, Caine (Mark Preader), and anyone who has anything to do with sound fonts and/or people who are requesting that they do the RIGHT thing, and act like human beings

* The Ultrasabers customers do not really know, nor do they care--they see it as "free fonts", and free is a great price.

The only thing that can be done... is legal action at this point.


IF YOU KNOW ANY COPYRIGHT LAWYERS WHO MIGHT DO THIS PRO-BONO or on a contingency... let me know! Otherwise... I'll be shelling out big bucks and tying up a lot of my life to defend what's right, and to try paving the way for future folks. Granted... this doesn't help make sabers "fun" anymore, but... well... it's everyone's call on how they'd like to make a move here! I wouldn't blame you if you'd rather not get involved.

I personally believe that Ultrasabers simply thinks that:

1. I will not do anything about this.
2. I will not afford to wage a copyright infringement / violation of agreement war (which may be true--legal costs are $300/hr. minimum)
3. By the TIME I get anything going... the damage will already have been done, and my work (along with everyone else's) will have been de-valued to $0.
4. Signed agreements should be ignored or broken, especially if it comes down to digital art forms.

There is nothing stopping them from grabbing up Madcow's fonts or Shade's or Phoenix's or JuanSith's or ________'s fonts. it's a simple matter of having "Bob Smith" request/buy or pirate those fonts... and distribute them freely.

IF YOU WISH TO HELP (and again, I don't blame you if you don't wish to get involved), the best thing to do is to raise awareness.

Share this e-mail.
Make a video.
Re-Post this on Facebook (or post in your own way!)
Take whatever action you think will help in order to simply raise awareness...

...so that the possible U-Sabers customer discovers this information... and learns the truth.


That being said... again... "free" is a great price--one that few question.

It's much like anything else out there though... big programs like "Adobe Photoshop" or your favorite artist's song. Quite "gettable" for free.

At this point, just having CREDIT for my work would be a step in the right direction. LOL


THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT OVER THE YEARS, and... thanks for your time!

--Nova

-- --------------------

[Starkindler (The Naked Jedi)]

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will."

"Is the dark side stronger?"
"No...no...no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."

I lost respect for Ultrasabers some time ago....sorry to hear of this.

[Mi Kcha-El]

sorry not to nit pick but being an audio engineer , I get confused seeing sound fonts, the correct term would be sound bytes or clips. font is a graphic/print label

[Starkindler (The Naked Jedi)]

but when the sound is specifically designed and used to give "voice" to a saber I think "font", while not totally accurate expresses the core idea "eloquently".

[Kryin Dragen]

I am sorry for novastars falling out with ultra but I do disagree on this I just hope they can solve the problem and not flame

[Mon-Jas Charan]

I just though both sides of the story should be told. I talked to Emory and he directed me to this link.

www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=4039.msg49977#msg49977

All I know is with the dealing I have had with Ultra sabers, I have a good feeling about the transactions.



A note concerning some of the rumors flying around...
« on: December 01, 2011, 05:12:25 AM »

I hate responding to internet rumors. I choose to keep rumors off the forums because I truly believe that addressing rumors gives undue validation to them. Ignoring rumors typically makes them go away, however, its been months now, and people are still asking me about random rumors about our business practices.

The first thing every REASONABLE person must remember, is that REAL business disputes are fought in court, not internet forums, facebook, youtube, or email chains. If the first thing a person does is start a forum war, it means their argument is personal, not professional, and their statements should be scrutinized.

However, not everyone is reasonable...

There is also a very illogical belief that by not responding to these rumors, I am admitting they are true. This is just plain stupid, but unfortunately, the belief has become wide spread and now I feel compelled to respond against my better judgment.

This is the bottom line: Ultra Sabers is not involved in anything illegal or unethical. If we were a lousy company that defrauded our customers and made inferior products, we would be out of business by now. As it is, we are the most successful combat saber manufacturer on the face of the planet. This hobby is actually pretty small, so the majority of our business is from repeat customers that continue to choose Ultra Sabers year after year. I think that speaks for itself.

Some people have wanted to know what's going on with me and Novastar, well, I can't really think of a nice way to put this, so I will just say it like it is: Novastar lied to everyone about what transpired. He told everyone he wasnt paid a dime, when in fact he was paid thousands and then decided to break our contract based on a personality conflict with Emory - it was personal, not professional. I've had enough of the lies and I am going to legally hold him accountible for his actions. I now have impending litigation against Novastar for material breech of contract and defamation of character. The details of the impending case will not be made public here nor will I be discussing the case in public until a ruling is made. I also cannot allow discussion of impending litigation on these forums until the case is settled, so please, no questions. Just know that we are distributing fonts with permission, so have no worries there.

Like I said, true business disputes are fought in court, not the internet.

Rumors have been spread about me and my company ever since we dared to compete with other sellers. Our loyalty and obligation are only to those who wield the weapons we create - that's it. We hold no loyalties to any seller's club, clique, council, society, or guild and we will not artificially inflate our prices to a pre-agreed-to pricing structure just to make other sellers more money.

All we do at Ultra Sabers is provide high quality dueling sabers that cost a fraction of what other sellers charge and even less than it would cost to build yourself. Why? Because we can. As you can imagine, doing this doesn't make us many friends in the saber building establishment, but frankly, I dont care what other sellers think about us. If the only way they can compete is by spreading vicious rumors, well, that speaks more about them than me.

I prefer to do my talking with my Sabers and then let the public vote with their wallets. If we have the right combo of product/price/service then we will thrive. If not, we will fail. That's all there is to it. Everything else is just meaningless drama that does nothing but take advantage of you, the customer, by trying to get you to buy something from someone else that will cost you more money.

My deepest wish for this hobby is that every seller will adopt this same philosophy and drop the tired tactic of negative campaigning.

Now here's my message to the other sellers out there creating all this drama;

If you want to compete with Ultra Sabers, you can easily do so with the following formula:

Make a better product than us, for less money than us, with better service than us. See how easy that is? So stop spreading rumors on the internet and do it, already.

[Leda EmBorr]

And such is the nature of competition.

I wish both parties justice and a fair resolution to their conflict.

[Ky-Wan Zann]

Agreed. I think it's suitable to tell anyone looking for a new saber. Shop around, check forums and feedback and decide what you want from the vendor, product and such. It's really up to each individual as to what they want and where they choose to get it from