FIRST-Racing.net Open Letter to the Community

This is an open letter to all who love sim racing.  With recent controversies and some lingering questions, I would like to offer some background on FIRST-Racing.net, discuss certain copyright and intellectual property law issues, offer FIRST-Racing.net’s stance on these issues and offer some insights into my interest and commitment to the future of sim racing.

Some background:  FIRST-Racing.net was formed after Vivendi Universal Games shut down Papyrus (the company that I founded, for those new to sim racing).  Fortunately, I found a passionate, dedicated partner in John Henry.  Together, we were able to purchase the rights to the source and object code to NASCAR 2003 from Vivendi.  We paid a significant sum of money for these rights, as we felt that it was the first step in reaching our goal of producing the most realistic auto racing simulations ever conceived.  We are currently investing millions more to pursue this goal and to develop a product which we hope will be enjoyed by longtime simracers as well as those new to this “sport”.  With the relatively small size of the market, this investment is risky for sure, but John, the rest of the FIRST-Racing.net team and I are committed to making these sims a reality.

As for copyright laws:  Why do they exist?  What would happen without them?  Well, first, there would be very little in the way of music, literature, movies or software.  Without the protections offered by these laws, musicians, authors, actors, directors and companies like movie studios and software developers would be unable to see a return on their investment.  Not many people would sink considerable resources (time or money), like the resources we are pouring into our sims, into producing a product for which there would be no potential for commercial gain.  For sure neither GPL nor NASCAR 2003 would have been made.  The publishers wouldn’t have funded either.

Copyrights in entertainment and software are particularly difficult for people to understand.  It is hard to imagine that unauthorized duplication and distribution is thievery.  However, it is not at all different than the following examples:

First, what if automobiles could be copied as easily as software?  What if we could drive a BMW M3 into a car copier and drive two out?  What if we could make several copies so that we could use one during the week, one on weekends, one for leisure driving and one for going to the market?  At that point, since we have already made several copies, what if we decided to make several more for our family and, heck, even our friends?  How would BMW react to this?

My second example involves the railroad.  Building a railroad requires considerable investment and risk, but let’s assume that a railroad company dedicated the resources to building its network of tracks.  What if some ingenious person living near the tracks discovered that he could produce a rail car to run on these tracks?  What if he decided to spend his free time moving goods and, even, passengers back and forth on these rails as a hobby?  What would the reaction of the rail company be?

Certainly, BMW and the rail company would take issue with these activities.

These scenarios are similar to the situation that FIRST-Racing.net finds itself in. We have made, and continue to make, substantial investments in producing what we believe will be the most realistic auto racing simulation ever made. But we cannot continue to do so if others’ unauthorized activities erode the value of our software.

We are passionate about our sims and are driven to achieve our goal. We can not, and will not, sit back and let hackers prevent us from achieving this goal. As a result, we are prepared to take whatever legal action we deem appropriate to enforce our intellectual property rights.

Many have asked about the line between acceptable modding and hacking, which is unacceptable. Hacking, as the term is used in this letter, is any act involving our intellectual property not expressly permitted in our end user license agreement (or otherwise expressly authorized by us).  Without limitation, hacking includes reverse engineering, disassembling, or modifying the object code for any executable. 

Acceptable activities are those that don’t violate copyrights and other intellectual property rights.  As it relates to NR2003, creating new car graphics and tracks is ok-so long as the executable isn’t hacked in the process.  In general, creating new artwork or sounds is also not a violation of copyrights.  All of this, of course, is acceptable only if it doesn’t violate third party trademarks or other intellectual property rights (such as logos, car designs or tracks owned by other parties).

We will not tolerate the violation of our intellectual property rights, including the hacking of our executables, distribution of hacked executables, creating tools intended to hack our executables or distribution of such tools.  We are prepared to take whatever legal action we determine is appropriate to protect our intellectual property rights.  If you are hosting any files that violate these rights, we respectfully ask that you remove them immediately and ensure that they do not get put back up.  If you are aware of any such files or sites we would appreciate your cooperation in helping us stop this illegal activity.

We at FIRST-Racing.net plan on creating terrific experiences for racers and racing enthusiasts, but to do this, we must operate a profitable company.  We will act accordingly to do this and we will deliver spectacular products.  There will be a home for modders in our products.  As for me?  I have spent my entire adult life building what I am passionate about--auto racing simulations.  I have always appreciated, and even marveled at, the mod community for its passion, commitment and desire.  Likewise, I am passionate about sim racing.  I will continue to be.  And, I will strive to deliver the most realistic auto racing simulations possible.

Dave Kaemmer

P.S. We appreciate the cooperation of those of you who have reacted respectfully and appropriately when informed of our rights and those who inquired with us before beginning any action that could possibly violate our rights.  We appreciate your respect for our property.

In the next several days, GTP will be re-released.  This is being released under a one-time license granted to Redline Developments.

Posted on 03/03 at 06:35 PM