Hello,

I have not seen any posts of this but the BBTools project is gone. This is the one that had BBToday, BBLight, BBReply, BBWeather, and BBSpell. I see now that BBSpell is now a pay product. I have to say this is very disturbing that this happened. I never seen the author say anything about yanking the project and selling it.

Also the BBSpell spell server he was hosting has also disappeared. I see one can be created with open-source project on windows. Has anyone done this? If so share your thoughts on how easy it was. I am now forced to create one myself.

Here's his explanation from RimRoad.

http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/show...threadid=57375

-David

Ok I usually do not read RimRoad forum. I would recommend that everyone get the latest of each software. I know the spelling server can be setup with open-source software and the rest is all stand-alone. All the software was very well advanced and has tons of features.

I think he got bought out ... but that is my theory.

Legal issues.

From RIMROAD.

There is no relationship between the BBSpellCheck product that was on SourceForge and our (somedevelopers) bbSpell product. They are entirely different products.

I assume this means that the legal action came from someone else? (I didn't think it came from you anyway.)

New thread:

Replacements For BBTools
BBToday,BBWeather,BBSpellCheck,BBReply,BBLight

But that project is open-source. Which mean the public owns the project. With that said I did not see someone sue each of us so I do not see where anyone (including the author) can be sued. I have NEVER seen such a thing happen.

I think this board should post all of the last version of the program for all to use. Like I said the public owns them so the public should use them.

If anyone needs them I will happy point them to get them.

I need BBReply and BBSpell. It would be great if I could get them.
I did not have a chance when they were available as I was trying the "other BBs".

Thanks,
Zontalk

Why is the explanation of the "legal issues" such a mystery? For one thing, that was great software, and it would be nice for others to know who the pressure came from and why. Seems like legal action would be public record anyway, wouldn't it?

Since this was all open source, anyone can repost the project as a fork and open it back up for dev. on Source Forge. Once a project is released under GNU, you can't really get rid of it. I'm sure any legal issues could be addressed, if they where to be made public.

Well, I'm new to the blackberry, but I'm certainly not new to using GPL and other open source software on commercial platforms in commercial environments. I'm surprised and disappointed that there isn't a lot more discussion going on about these apps going away. The 2 main questions in my mind are 1) why? and 2) was it justified?

What are we supposed to do, start developing our own apps with a publicly available SDK, and if we happen to do "whatever" we'll find out? The only things I can imagine are that somebody either felt the author had used some of their code, a patent, or was simply a threat to their margin.

Bottom line for me, is if you have the guts to run somebody out of town, then have the guts to stand up and say why.

You know what I will look into putting the files into another sourceforge project or Yahoo group. They are open-source so there are no legal issues. Does anyone have the source code to the project? I know I did not take it and I think it was never posted. I remember once browsing the CVS and not see it.

Well I have learned my lesson that I will take everything I can find and store it in case someone pull a dirty move like this.

I have most of the files. I found a sourceforge server that did not update and found all the binary files there. I took at least two version of each. Now I check today and that server is empty. I will contact sourceforge and see if they have a backup of the contents of the project but at least we have the latest version of the files.

I have setup my own spell server and it was so easy. It has instructions to put it on XP machine but it worked fine under W2K Pro. I make one mistake on the URL and when I fixed it, it is as fast as the new bbSpell and server the author had setup.

where are the instructions?

The instructions were in the zip files that came with BBSpell.

AMEN Brother. There are two commercial products out there that "compete" with Deadsticks offerings, bbspellcheck from Some Developers and PocketDay from Cross River Systems. Both of these products were put out AFTER Deadsticks. One of these companies decided that instead of putting their resources into developing a product that was good enough to compete with existing applications, that they'd take the lazy/slimy way of threatening to sue someone who was doing great work and contributing significantly to the Blackberry community. I am disgusted by this developer, and I plan to boycott the product AND spread the word as much as I can. I am greatly surprised that some newly coined lawyer out there isn't looking at this as a case. Free publicity, serious legal issue, David and Goliath angle. I'm pretty sure this is an un-winnable case for the Slim developer and they would in fact have to drop this when someone pushed back. This case would start with a strong following from the tech sector and would spread beyond because people are getting tired of this BS behavior from companies who feel they don't have to obey the law. Maybe a company the size of Microsoft is outside the reach of the common person, but one of these BS startups is not. I will be writing this up and forwarding it around to as many tech writers as I can to try and drum up interest in this case, and hopefully shed some light on the litigation happy losers (and their product) that decided to step on our rights as consumers. If any of you out there like having the ability to create or load free software, you may want to get involved in this debate because they are trying to take away your rights.

So, based on no factual information whatsoever, people are all ready to boycott and protest. Hmmmm.

Is that so suprising? <sigh>

Umm.. I think my point was that there isn't any factual information.

Being in the IT industry, I'd like to know what the problem was so I can decide wether there is anything to protest or not. The only conclusion I guessed about is that typically legal problems that you "can't get into detail" about have a lot of money or basis behind them. If the legal issues were personal, then I don't need any details. Just tell me it was personal. If the legal issues were related directly to the projects, then I would like to know what to watch out for.

What I am protesting is that a popular sourceforge project gets closed down with "legal issues" as a reason, and there is hardly any talk about it? I bet if gaim vanished because of legal issues, you'd hear some noise.

Let me set the record straight and end the speculation.

Despite the lack of exposure here, we have been using the name “bbSpell” since February 2004. somedevelopers utilizes trademark with “bbSpell”, and has a pending trademark application for “bbSpell”. From our website you can see we have also invested in the brand.

Due to the obvious confusion between “bbSpell” and “bbSpellCheck”, somedevelopers politely asked Chris (deadstick) to change the name of his product, noting the above points.

Chris declined.

We then asked Chris to reconsider, highlighting the above points again, and informing Chris that if he refused to change the name of “BBSpellCheck”, he would force us to take legal action.

We did not hear back. Chris pulled his products.

Those are the facts, period.

Gee. Now we've got the answer. Sounds like an overreaction by deadstick.

I vote that one of us asks deadstick to email someone source code to "take over" the projects, and be willing to honour SomeDevelopers' request. Or at least the other projects.

Then that'd resolve the problem, wouldn't it? Opinions?

I'd like bbLight and bbWeather back, at least, please.

IMPORTANT: Please keep your replies in this thread civil!
(We don't want flame wars erupting in this thread.)

We would provide free hosting for the suite - including the newly named spell checker which is our direct competitor.

(Free hosting meaning downloads, not hosting a free spelling server)

I don't want to play devils advocate here, but I can't find any trademark application (pending or not) on the USPTO site for "bbspell", and the domain bbspell.com wasn't registred for till March 17th, long after the first versions of bbspellcheck appeared...

With that in mind I can understand why Deadstick was a little weary to have his name taken away... Anyone can walk up and make these claims, was Deadstick given enough evidence that he was not the first?

Somedevelopers.com wasn't registred till March 11th, there is also no archive.org entry for either website, where can we find any kind of announcement that it has been around since Feb2004?

When you say you have "invested" in the brand? What more than some board posts and nice logo did that involve?

I am happy we heard your side of the story, but I just think a few things don't add up here, and hope this isn't a case of a small developer being bullied out of business.

I am not 100% sure, but I think that the date of the trademark application is grounds enough - perhaps this could be simply pointed out (link to scan of application, etc.)

I should express my opinion as follows:

(1) If SomeDevelopers was the first, then I definitely agree deadstick should have changed the name. That was a reasonable request, even if he disagrees with it. (i.e. common name, etc.)

(2) I think it was an overreaction by deadstick. I don't agree that BBTools should have been taken completely offline, regardless of what happened.

(3) This is still bad press for all parties involved as things are currently being taken out of proportion.

It's now more-or-less safe to post the source code again, assuming just a simple name change for one of the utilities (it was just a simple trademark infringement with just one of the utilities). If you have the BBTools source code, please email them to me at .

I hereby accept all legal responsibilties of holding source code in proxy until I've transferred it over to a developer that can continue the BBTools project while satisfying the name-change request.

The dates you posted sound about right for when I registered the domains. It takes months for trademark listings to appear. I have a build off bbspell literally going back to Feb 2004. Chris never questioned how long we've used the name; we would have gladly shared evidence.

I am a small developer. This is a case of two small developers.

I'm not going to discuss this matter further.

Thanks but no thanks ... it will go back into sourceforge project. I am in the works to set one up now. If I do not get it then I will look at other GNU sites. I do not think a company should host the code or binaries. I would rather put it in yahoo group.

I am also asking sourceforge if they have backups and I would like to fork the code. Honestly I do not think that it was ever checked into the cvs.

Sorry for jumping to conclusion but the project are very simular. I would not dought they share code.

I will keep everyone posted on the outcome.

Great! I look forward to seeing the SourceForge project returning.

However, please respect the name-change request (even if you disagree with it). Let's keep everyone's lives simple.

Fair enough -

Without further information, and the need to be fair to everyone involved (regardless of your opinion of fault), I am taking this discussion offline.

This is merely an informational thread for people curious about what happened to BBTools. The question has at least been (partially) answered, so this thread is closed before conspiracy theories by other forum members starts and this thread goes downhill...

I'm talking to all parties by private message and emails. If you need to be involved in this matter, please email

[Edit: I should note I got the SomeDevelopers.com spellchecker beta *before* the release of deadstick's SourceForge project]

I would like to announce that I now have copies of the latest source code to ALL BlackBerryTools utilities.

I am pondering what my next step is.... Since I want to satisfy all parties involved, including commercial entities.

I think a simple rename to "bbSpellCheck" to "bbCorrector" is what I'm going to do, before giving it to someone to put back onto SourceForge. I'm doing this for all you little guys...

If any concerned entities would like to contact me, or that there are any other legal issues, please send me an email to .