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HORACE: HOW HUNGRY IS TOO HUNGRY?

31/10/2019

34 Comments

 
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I was away when Horacegate really kicked off. You know the one I'm talking about. For a week or so, pretty much the whole of the UK retro gaming community seemed united against a common enemy.

You probably don't need me to recap it all here - and it had so many twists and turns that I struggled to keep abreast of it, in all honesty. But I felt I wanted to at least acknowledge what transpired, and sorry if I'm a bit late to the party.

From what I gather, the short version of it is this: one Paul Andrews, via his company Subvert Ltd, exercised his alleged ownership of the ZX Spectrum character Horace to instigate copyright strikes on YouTube videos produced by Digitiser The Show co-host Octav1us, as well as plush toys made by friend-of-Digi Retro Princess.

There's more to it than that, of course, with Andrews - already a notorious figure in retro gaming circles - attempting to justify his side of the story.
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PLUSH
In the words of Paul Andrews, regarding the plushies: "Several months ago a mutual contact introduced myself to the person who runs sew8bit/retro princess as they were making soft toy versions of the game character we purchased ‘Horace’ (as referenced on Wikipedia etc. these games among others  was purchased through the historical chain of owners which is fully documented) this is not in dispute.

"I said how much I liked her work and was happy for her to continue and said we could discuss a small donation from the sale price of £35 a toy to our chosen charity (which is normally the MS society) we agreed to pick up the conversation in future emails.

"I sent several more emails over several months even going so far as to offer the potential use of other characters again with a small donation to the charity. I received no answers to these emails. I asked the original mutual contact to ask her to reply to my emails as they were both attending an event. They did and told me her reply was she would answer when she had time. I privately messaged her asking her to respond to my emails.

"What followed was a brief but polite on my part exchange in which she disputed our ownership of the games and promptly blocked me allowing no further means of communication. This person also acts as a point of contact for her friend a youtuber.  They went on to make public statements they wished to find replacement retro characters to produce toys with but did not wish to make charity donations to others which might also request them."

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NO POINT
With regard to the Octav1us situation, here's what Andrews had to say: "At no point have I demanded or asked or even mentioned money to the youtuber this issue is about, I have no interest in their income, this has solely been about the use of our character in a manner we were not comfortable with. 

"There is no point re-treading the story of the past 18 hours or so, other than to be very clear as soon as the youtuber reached out to me via twitter we had a dialogue in which I made it clear I had no axe to grind but was unhappy with the way the character had been used as a sort of co-presenter of the videos but in a sexualised way.

"I also over the course of the dialogue tried to compromise with them, again even going so far as to offer to resolve the situation with mutually agreed guidelines for its continued use, and even other characters we also own if they wished to.

"I made it very clear I had sent one email to YouTube, and yes had asked for removal of those handful of videos but did not ask for a copyright strike, nor was I aware why or how two strikes had been issued by youtube having never emailed them before and having no plans to again as things stand, as that was not requested by me.

"The youtuber declined these offers, and when I requested she make public the fact I was trying to resolve it and would she agree to our conversation being made public she also declined that request. 

"I also told her I would be writing to youtube to ask why they had done two copyright strikes, when I did not request even one, and I have done this as I had already planned to. I have no wish to inflame this situation further but I also cannot stand back and be attacked over claims which are literally untrue, or distorted. 

"I am doing my best to resolve this unfortunate situation, but feel I have to make this statement of the facts, as opposed to wild speculation and untruths being told, let alone threats of physical violence also being made on social media."


Drama... meet Triangle.

Suffice to say, it did little to quell the fury of the retro gaming community at large (not least when screenshots of the copyright strikes appeared to show that Subvert Ltd. was indeed behind them), and Andrews' reputation did little to assuage the argument that he'd been acting in good faith. 


Octav1us, naturally alarmed at having her sole source of income threatened, removed herself temporarily from the internet after posting a video in which she appeared tearful and shaken, kicking off a lot of anti-Andrews sentiment. In the wake of this, and the huge backlash against Andrews, she and Subvert came to an agreement which allowed her to reinstate the videos. ​​
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FAIR ASSESSMENT
Most objective assessments of the situation would suggest that Octav1us's use of Horace is protected under UK fair use laws, in which parody and comment are legal, and that Andrews had no claim to issue copyright strikes against her. 

Suffice to say, Andrews did not come out of the Horace situation well.

The backlash was swift and widespread. He had apparently purchased the 36 year-old Horace IP a year or so ago ago - along with a bunch of other ageing trademarks (Subvert seemingly also owns "Sinclair Spectrum", "Zike" and "Jet Set Willy", among others) - with an alleged view to "cultivating the legacy" of these brands.

However, his actions appear - at least on face value - those of a "patent troll".


Wikipedia describes it thus: "Patent trolling or patent hoarding is a categorical or pejorative term applied to a person or company that attempts to enforce patent rights against accused infringers far beyond the patent's actual value or contribution to the prior art, often through hardball legal tactics (frivolous litigation, vexatious litigation, strategic lawsuit against public participation, chilling effects and the like). Patent trolls often do not manufacture products or supply services based upon the patents in question."

In short, the technique is typically deployed to scare individuals by issuing heavy, official-sounding, threats, which in many instances aren't ever backed up by action. I've had a couple of them on this site, and on both occasions simply dug my heels in until they went away.

Wikipedia continues: "While in most cases the entities termed 'trolls' are operating within the bounds of the legal system, their aggressive tactics achieve outcomes contrary to the origins of the patent system as a legislated social contract to foster and protect innovation."
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CURIOUS
Paul Andrews is a curious figure, with his fingers in many pies. As well as Subvert, he's part of the core team at Retro Games Ltd, which is currently planning to release a full-size recreation of the Commodore 64.

Previously, he conceived the ill-fated Spectrum Vega, and was embroiled in the Vega+ debacle, at one point being accused of "illegally" appointing himself, along with Chris Smith, as director of Retro Computers Ltd, having earlier resigned due to "irreconcilable differences". 

Dr David Levy, chairman of the company,  and hardly a man with an unblemished copybook, described Andrews as "the vilest enemy of RCL and the Vega+ project".

Andrews was also CEO of Altern8, which announced the controversial mobile game Office Massacre in 2006, causing another backlash (including Altern8 being called a "bunch of idiots who don't understand the first thing about social responsibility" by Bethesda founder Christopher Weaver) that led it to being rebranded Office Zombies.

Oddly, in addition to its obscure mobile games, Altern8 released a DVD featuring Animal Magic presenters Johnny Morris and Terry Nutkins.

Andrews' self-penned IMDB biography describes him as "A media producer, and business entrepreneur in the media and technology fields. Paul has conceived and helped bring to market two video game consoles already with sales of hundreds of thousands of units across the globe.

"Other milestones of note Paul is behind, include; the creation of online video material watched in excess of one million times, over one million phone game downloads, created the worlds one time most visited online retro game store, hundreds of thousands of DVD and CD sales in retail, the words first 3D film embedded in an eBook, heading for two million book related sales, writer/producer of multiple TV/Film projects.

"He is funding a new educational inspirational 'creative and business program' for young people which will be launched in 2019 working in conjunction with the (UK Government funded) SEMLEP Enterprise team."


The latter, by all accounts, is being done via Subvert, the company which is alleged to have issued the copyright strikes against Octav1us. All very educational and inspirational. 


Andrews' most recent credit is as producer for a crowd-funded burlesque film called Dirty Tuppence​. The synopsis reveals the following: "Two egotistical all-female rock bands who can't stand the sight of each other are on tour - documenting them are the presenter and cameraman for 'Degenerate TV' - and what they see is shocking, petty and at times just purely ridiculous ."
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HOWEVER...
Since all this happened... Andrews' ownership of Horace, and other properties, has been called into question. This has become murkier still after Andrews posted the above statement on his Twitter account only today.

The vagueness of the wording suggests that even Andrews himself is unsure whether he has the rights to Horace, and certainly doesn't clarify whether Subvert simply owns the IP names, or ownership of the character's likeness.
​
The rights history of Horace, like so many characters of that era, is a bit of a mire. The games - Hungry Horace, Horace Goes Skiing, and Horace And The Spiders - were created by William Tang and published by Melbourne House/Sinclair Research.

​Through bankruptcies, and company closures, it's almost impossible to trace exactly where the rights to Horace ended up, and who exactly Andrews could have purchased them from.

​Indeed, earlier this year 505 Games published a nostalgic platformer entitled Horace, and it seems strange that Andrews would not have contested it given his determination to protect all things Horace. Would Sega let it pass if somebody released an unrelated game called Sonic?
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BACK OF THE NET
Ultimately, the whole thing was an enormous own goal, causing unnecessary distress, and only damaging the IP that Andrews claimed to be protecting. It has also soured attitudes towards Andrews' Commodore 64 project. 

It's hard to know precisely what Andrews and Subvert was attempting to achieve, and the actions taken in the wake of the initial copyright strikes reeks of trying to save face. Not least if Andrews didn't even have any claim to Horace in the first place.

Horace, as a character, is remembered fondly, but it seems unlikely he'd ever have been a big earner for Andrews. The three games he appeared in were derivative of popular arcade titles, and the character's design seemed like an afterthought, sort of accidentally iconic because, frankly, he was a bit rubbish. Nobody, apart from gamers of a certain age, remembered him... and even fewer of them really cared.

For Andrews to claim that he was protecting the integrity of the character, and objected to Horace being used in a "sexual" context - as he alleged was the case in Octav1us's videos - seems tenuous at best. The best summation of the situation seems to be that it was a massive lot of fuss and upset about quite literally nothing. 

All that seems to have come out of this is for Andrews to have frittered away any stubbornly lingering goodwill that might've been remaining for him in the retro gaming community, and simply reaffirmed his reputation as somebody to whom the label "vilest enemy" could be applicable. 
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34 Comments
Fatnick link
31/10/2019 01:10:18 pm

The problem with the likes of Spotify and you tube etc is that their systems aren't really set up to handle the concept of fair use. They aren't legally obligated to publish your stuff or keep your account open, so if you haven't got car iron proof that you can legally use something, they generally don't want to put it up

This means good-faith users are hostages to fortune, while pirates earning money from affiliate links are happy to have their accounts taken down repeatedly.

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Dan link
31/10/2019 01:16:48 pm

There he is! I can see Horace sitting at the left hand table in the second photograph. His head has morphed into his body...

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Not Dr David Levy
31/10/2019 01:20:31 pm

This is a man who released photos of himself at the Vega launch into the public domain (complete with a statement saying people could use them) that then issued takedown strikes against at least 3 Twitter accounts because they had dared to publish a photo of him standing next to Levy that he himself had stated were 'public domain images' taken at a public press launch. A ludicrous man and seemingly VERY thin skinned.

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MD Cribuffs
31/10/2019 01:34:44 pm

Was Levy being sexualised?

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Peter Ainsworth link
31/10/2019 01:33:14 pm

I have very little knowledge of this Andrews bloke, aside from what has been written on various blogs and social media accounts after the Horace debacle.

I was thinking of getting the C64, but after finding out that he's one of the people behind it, and remembering the mess that was the Spectrum Vega, I don't think I'll bother.

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Lita
31/10/2019 08:33:31 pm

Me too, by having this tantrum I looked into what was going on and will now not buy anything he has to do with.

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D
14/11/2019 05:15:45 pm

Same here. He sounds like a right arse.

Adam H
31/10/2019 01:35:05 pm

The whole situation was a nightmare & Paul Andrews has handled it terribly. I’ve actually cancelled my C64 pre-order over it as I don’t want to support any company he is involved with at all. That said, I think the threats of death & violence that various people have received are going way too far. I know that there are people who have connections to him in one way or another that have been blamed for things & swept up in the situation. People need to find ways to support people that doesn’t involve victimising others.

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Beefkr10z
31/10/2019 01:39:01 pm

The whole situation was a massive sh*tshow that (to me, at least) smacks of sour grapes on Andrew's part. Seeing his history of investing in failed money-making schemes, it seems that he didn't want anybody making good use of an IP that he couldn't turn a profit on by himself.
It should also not go unmentioned that chasing up the IP of Horace- who was originally created as a Pac-man IP dodge- is irony on the Alanis Morisette scale.
I will also make a note of how appalingly some people on BOTH sides of the argument acted. Violent threats and personal smear campaigns should not exist in this hobby / community, and shame on any of you who acted in this manner.

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Ted Maul
31/10/2019 02:09:17 pm

A couple of things should be pointed out. Firstly we only have Andrews word for it some of these threats took place. Secondly many of the accounts that rushed to defend him were the same accounts that were trolling RCL/Levy and who SOMEONE was leaking internal RCL information to.

The whole Andrews thing stinks. Why did he jump from RCL? Why did he want to try and rescue a project he knew was doomed because RCL had no money? Who was leaking the RCL info? Why is it the accounts that had the leaked information are the same ones that have had a longstanding obsession with trolling Octav1us? Which brings us back to why he picked on Octav1us rather than anyone else?

It all stinks. There is far more to this than meets the eye. If your stomach can stand it, go on Twitter and look at some of the 2 follower accounts that troll Octav1us. Scroll through and links to the RCL troll accounts are easy to find. These accounts have fake nudes and the sickest of accusations against her and her associates.

If it is all a coincidence then so be it. But at the very least, associates of Andrews have been attacking this lady for years. And for what? Jealousy? Hating a woman running a Youtube account far more successful than they will ever have?

The best of luck to her and her account. Whatever you think of the content, she deserves success more than Andrews and the dregs of humanity who troll her.

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B3tan_Tyronne
31/10/2019 02:11:58 pm

I was thinking about getting one of these full size 64`s for Christmas as a present to myself but I think I`ll stick to emulation now as my interest has wained greatly due to this.


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King of Sass
1/11/2019 02:47:49 pm

I'm fairly sure full-size C64s already exist.

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Tyronne Mann
3/11/2019 07:47:19 am

I meant the new ones released this year - thats the only main issue with this site, once a comment is posted you cannot edit it.

PixelGuff
31/10/2019 02:12:37 pm

Andrews is ALLEGEDLY a knobhead, and it is MY OPION that he SEEMS TO ME to be the sort of person who would THEORETICALLY get off on smearing animal slurry on his bits and pieces.

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PixelGuff
31/10/2019 02:14:00 pm

We can also PRETEND that I typed OPINION correctly.

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Keir
31/10/2019 02:34:20 pm

THOPION.COM = SATIRE = FAIR USE

TromaDogg
31/10/2019 02:59:47 pm

I'd like to see somebody put out a new game called 'Horace On The Edge'

Then I'll sit back and and munch some popcorn whilst Andrews and Tim Langdell go to war with each other over who is the most triggered.

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Dys Overture
31/10/2019 03:15:21 pm

It’s pretty blatant to me that Andrew is a bully and for some reason didn’t like Octy. He knew that Octy is often a nervous wreck and would have a better chance at bending her to his will. I love Sarah/Octy and she deserves so much more than this troglodyte bullying her.

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Ted Maul
31/10/2019 03:51:56 pm

Given the person/people the mysterious RCL source was leaking internal info to also dislike her, it's not hard to see the link. Certainly "Bum Fun Gaming" seemed to have a lot of info and has a curious obsession with her. Also the Facebook Vega group of which Andrews is a part decided to go 'hidden' but not before screen captures were taken showing they were also not fans. Hmmmmm. Someone call Columbo.

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Jet Set Willy
31/10/2019 03:22:31 pm

Such a shame that such an archetypal piece of our childhoods, whom we all remember (and parody) with such fondness, is viewed as nothing more than a cash cow by Andrews.

Patent Trolls such as he and his followers will always come unstuck, as the failed Vega and about-to-fail C64 projects will testify to; who's going to buy that now?

Conversely, those who embrace the same memories as us and, share them amongst our community with passion and good humour, will always thrive, as recent weeks have shown.

Perhaps rather than engaging in negative rhetoric, Andrews could put his time to better use by learning how to earn an honest living like the rest of us, and enjoying his free time without it being at the expense of others' enjoying theirs...

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Rudy Manchego link
31/10/2019 03:31:52 pm

As a fan of Octy's, I found the whole affair baffling. Even if we assume that yes, full IP ownership and all that being above board and that this was about the character itself, the whole thing is rather quite mad. The retro gaming community in the UK is very passionate but also relatively small, especially those who would immediately recognise the Horace character. I would go further to suggest that brand recognition and future use of the IP would have been hugely helped by videos produced by Octav1us. I remember when I first saw one of those videos and was like, 'Oh yeah, that Horace was a thing'. Which means if you were serious about doing good with the brand and indeed, monetising it to make the investment worthwhile, collaborating or communicating properly with those who had stirred up interest in the character seems like good business sense. Since this doesn't happy, I can personally only assume this was an attempt to do some trolling and get a reaction or maybe bring the character and therefore the IP to attention again so that money or interest could be gathered.

God I hope Beanus isn't a copyrighted IP.

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Johnny Blanchard link
31/10/2019 03:48:32 pm

My bigger concern around this is that Andrews /Subvert is hoovering up a ton of IP around the retrocomputing / gaming community. Such as the Spectrum related stuff and the rights to the Oric and Jupiter Ace trademarks. Now there's no trace of a few of the trademarks that he claims to own on the government database yet, but that doesn't mean he hasn't started the process

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Johnny Blanchard link
31/10/2019 03:51:25 pm

Someone on Twitter suggested retro community members clubbing together and grabbing some of the IP ourselves, that way we can protect it. It's sounding like a better idea every day

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Jet Set Willy
31/10/2019 07:36:00 pm

Good shout, I'm in...

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Nigel
31/10/2019 04:21:58 pm

I followed the Vega+ saga, and Andrews would frequently say he's just had some confidential news that he cannot possibly report as he was a RetroComputers shareholder, only to be "leaked" via anonymous Twitter accounts soon after. These Twitter accounts would also smear his opponents, from RC staff to anyone who did business with them. Then they went quiet as the Vega+ story died down. Then they fired up again with this Octy episode.

When the same mysterious thing happens again, anonymous trolls attacking Paul Andrews' enemies, it doesn't take a genius to cross-reference them and identify the only common factor: Paul Andrews himself.

If Andrews isn't the person posting those anonymous Tweets, he certainly know who's doing them.

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tuki_cat
31/10/2019 04:43:26 pm

I can see this “to the best of my knowledge” thing catching on.......

Does anyone want to buy a car? black Ford Focus.

A man parked it outside my house this morning. I opened my window and shouted “can I have your car mate?” I am not sure if he heard me over the traffic, but “to the best of my knowledge” he said “yes”.

So the cars now mine. I don’t have any documents or background on the car, like how many miles it has done, how many previous owners, etc, but to the “best of my knowledge” it is mine to sell.

£2,000 or near offer

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Adam
31/10/2019 04:49:15 pm

I wish someone would 'sexualise' me.

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LightsOnNo1Home
31/10/2019 07:14:17 pm

I held off buying a C64 mini because I was waiting for the full size one to come out. I'm glad of that now, because he hasn't had (and won't get) any of my money. I'm sure I'm not alone here.

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Voiced By Guides
31/10/2019 07:27:39 pm

Hmmm- I had a cuddly toy called tuppence (purchased for me in good faith back in the days when when I was merely voiced by brownies). Not impressed by this blatant sexualisation of my IP, lawyers have been instructed.
.

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Robobob
31/10/2019 08:43:48 pm

Surely the weirdest part of this whole story is that someone out there somehow got someone else to give them actual money for the "IP" of "Horace". I mean, look at him. What the fuck is he? He looks like a medical experiment gone wrong. He probably scares small children.

Rebirth that legacy, though!

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ArtichokeJoy
31/10/2019 09:32:57 pm

It's worth watching the @thezxkingpin Twitter feed as it's Paul Andrews himself. He doesn't tweet much, but look who he retweets!

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Wagoo link
31/10/2019 11:37:08 pm

His Wikipedia account (Ch.Davis) has also been banned recently, it looks like due to repeatedly adding that he owned things to articles, then as a source linking back to his own website. Tsk!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Ch.Davis

Then of course when he got banned he tried to redo the edits from his IP instead (on the Atari SA page)

I'd still be surprised if any publisher ACTUALLY owned the rights to the character of Horace.. I'd imagine it would have stayed with his AWOL creator, and the publishers had the rights to the games.

Still, all much ado about a pathetic blob character that Octav1us was doing the world of good for.

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Rich
1/11/2019 02:45:15 am

I eagerly await the Andrews and Horace oversexualised YouTube videos.
Judging by Andrews previous releases, I fear for Horace and his 'dirty tuppence'

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mrak
1/11/2019 07:44:15 am

Shhhh, it's not a *Commodore* 64 since laughing boy didn't licence the "Commodore" name or logo.

It's a "The C64", a deliberate obfuscation including similar graphic design in its printed materials/packaging clearly designed to fool the unwary into thinking it's a genuine Commodore product.

{{Ironic Palpatine gif}}

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