Everyone’s second favorite reformed hacker named Kevin writes about Temco Inc. for Security Focus:

In a nutshell, Temco is taking a page out of the RIAA battle plan of alienating users against your product. In this case though, Temco is not going after users who have pirated copies of their games, but users who legitimately bought their game.

See, the users who bought copies of various Temco games, would post hacks on ninjahacker.net. Now, these hacks won’t allow you to have a free game, but just to skin or add new functionality to an existing game.

Now, I hear what you are saying. Geoffrey, users like this are one of the reasons Doom exploded in popularity. You’re right. But Geoffrey, shouldn’t a company nurture communities like this? Give them free stuff, access to source code, publicity??

Well, in the old days, the answer would be yes. Id Software, makers of the excellent Doom as well as Quake, did an unorthodox thing by opening up the engine to allow users to make their own skins, levels, and even whole games! Who can forget, that is was this so-called hacker community that brought us Capture The Flag, the Grappling Hook, and Action Quake!

The irony is, the more mods people made for Doom and Quake, the more popular these titles became. Because, you couldn’t use most of these mods unless you owned a legit copy of the game! The community, essentially became a merry band of viral marketing commando’s.

Tecmo, you have officially lost the plot. You don’t sue people who encourage the community to buy and extend your game. This, is yet another law suit filed under the banner of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a truly terrible law that must be banned or re-written in its present form.