Seems Atari are doing the rounds on various sites and sending out cease and desist letters to anyone using the Atari name. This includes any reference of the Atari name or products be it emulators or Atari programming or Atari memorabilia. The Emulator-zone and a bunch of others where sent 'letters'...

http://forums.emulator-zone.com/showthread.php?t=18880

gamasutra.com/view/news/36744/Report_Ata...ing_Company_Name.php

games.slashdot.org/story/11/08/22/195925...ty-with-cease-desist

It sounds to me like some monkey intern is just googling things like 'Atari Download', 'Atari ROMS' without looking at the true content of the pages. Effectively a spambot.

I highly doubt some of it is illegal either, as it comes under fair use. The use of their name in an emulator could be argued, is a way to encourage copyright violation. It does fall within one of the key aspects companies can enforce. (If you promote or encourage the use of something to violate copyright you are liable). Domain name rights are understandable, but seems pretty jerky to me.

And this is why I fear SOPA and PIPA. I'm afraid we'll get this site taken down.

This reminded me to get the IP address for MacScene for future reference (65.175.90.217). However, when I tried accessing the site via IP, I got an Elemodo page (which is ironically just a picture of a copyrighted character).

Did I get the IP wrong? Is there a workaround to access MacScene in case of a hostname seizure?

Thats due to virtual hosting (ie one webserver hosting multiple sites). If you want to make sure you can still access it in the event of domain name seizure, you would need to add the ip and website to your hosts file.

In this case the line would be
65.175.90.217 macscene.net

To edit the hosts file, you can run this command from the Terminal
sudo pico /etc/hosts
Make sure to put it before the fe80 line.
Make sure to save your changes

After that, you need to run the following command
dscacheutil -flushcache

The thing about what Atari sent is, there is very little detail on what is actually infringing. If a company sends a DMCA takedown notice, which this is despite the jargon, then they need to specify the content that needs to be removed and why. (You work together to remove it).

These letters are nothing more than a shot across the bow in the hopes to scare enough people into closing stuff down. The It seems they took the lazy route and didn't look at the content of pages they deemed inappropriate in the initial cease and desist letters. (lazy lawyering).

Reading through some of the forums where this is discussed, it seems Atari are at least listening to some site owners and agree they may have been over zealous.

Its pitiful because they are attacking the very fan base that keep them somewhat relevant. I think they have realised they went in with two feet flying when a more tactful approach might have been best.