What happened to VSTplanet?

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vurt wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:49 pm im off to start a company "vurts spaghetti treats"
vst for short.

and there's nothing steinberg can do about it :lol:
:lol:

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chk071 wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:29 pm Well, it doesn't have to be about that. Imagine that Steinberg wants to launch a site called "VST Planet" one day, and realize... well, bummer. Someone took that name, and made use of the trademarked VST label.

Imagine someone calls himself DJ Ermac one day, and you already registered that artist name for yourself. Not cool.
Oh, then short story.
The word "DJ" is a self parody. I’ve never been into DJing. But as soon as I said I was producing electronic music, people said "oh, so you’re a DJ ?"... :D
And I took my nickname from playing everytime Mortal Kombat using the character Ermac, some friends used to call me that way then.
So in the end there would be nothing I could do in my own case. My nickname is indeed registered to the SACEM (french organism collecting music money) since 2007. A lot of other people use it and I don’t care for the moment.

But in the end I know you’re right in what you’re saying. I’m simply thinking they’re overabusing for a simple free plugins website that has no powers over them.
Please don’t read the above post. It’s a stupid one. Simply pass.

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Weasel-Boy wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 6:09 am First question: why did Steinberg go after these particular guys?
The more people who find and use free alternatives to steinberg products, the less money steinberg makes.

Their attitude is like the city-councils that shut-down kids lemonade stands that don't comply with restaurant grade health codes.

This will transition potential cubase customers to Reaper, Bitwig, Mixbus, and the free Cakewalk By Bandlab etc. While having precious little impact on the ocean of free software.

Thud :hihi:

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I just looked tried to access VST Planet today and saw the site had disappeared.
A couple of searches online quickly brought me to this forum page...

I noticed the new name of Plugins4Free, but thought that was their own decision to be more general, since some plugins exist in other formats too.

I am really disgusted at Steinberg's attitude. Which, since these sites existed for years before with no problem makes me thing that problem is indeed to do with the ownership by Yamaha.
I have made a mental note to never buy anything from Yamaha or Steinberg from now on.

About this point:
FrogsInPants wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:04 pm I've seen the word "copyright" a few times in this thread. It's not a copyright issue. It's a trademark issue. I'm no expert, but my understanding is that one aspect of trademark law is a requirement to defend a trademark to prevent trademark dilution which could limit your control over the mark in the future. A lot of people are acting like they're just being shitty, but it may be they're acting out of rational business interests given the legal incentives of trademark law.
I agree it is a trademark issue. However, I am not sure if Steinberg's position really is watertight from the legal perspective. If you introduce a trademark as a brand (say Coca-Cola) of course you can and should restrict anyone else's use of that word. Because there is only 1 Coca-Cola.
However, if you introduce a trademark as a technology standard, and you make this standard available to others so they can develop software that is compatible with said standard, then by definition you must relinquish some control over the word.
- Imagine if an mp3 player could not be called an mp3 player - what would you call it? an "MP 4 minus 1 player"?
There are many other examples, LEDs, LCDs, etc were all invented and patented and yet these terms are in common use.

Of course, Steinberg have a lot of money and very well-paid laywers, whilst VSTPlanet does not. So the case is probably settled already...

I hope many of you in the music community will join me in boycotting products from Steinberg and Yamaha. That should teach them a lesson better than any lawyer could.

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AlienXXX wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:03 pm However, if you introduce a trademark as a technology standard, and you make this standard available to others so they can develop software that is compatible with said standard, then by definition you must relinquish some control over the word.
A good counter example to your logic here is USB, to use the USB logo and claim to be compatible with USB one must be a licensor with the USB standard group and have your product certified to being to the USB specs.

Of course many low budget brands are likely cheating and relying on chinese factories being willing to slap the USB logo on anything without any evidence of compliance, but the fact remains that to do so legally one must have signed those agreements and paid those fees.

While I feel steinberg/yamaha are out of line to do this with the acronym behind virtual studio technology, it is, sadly their right to do so as a trademark holder, and I have expressed displeasure at the industry throwing it's all behind steinberg/pinnacle/yamaha in the past, but no-one ever seemed to care about letting one brand control the entire ecosystem.

tl;dr I told you so.

edit: I also intended to point out that it's very unlikely vst4free or vstplanet or any other vst* website has a valid license with Steinberg, and thus can use the virtual studio technology acronym legally, unless they happen to be run by brands that produce and sell VST plugins.

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FrogsInPants wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:04 pm I've seen the word "copyright" a few times in this thread. It's not a copyright issue. It's a trademark issue. I'm no expert, but my understanding is that one aspect of trademark law is a requirement to defend a trademark to prevent trademark dilution which could limit your control over the mark in the future. A lot of people are acting like they're just being shitty, but it may be they're acting out of rational business interests given the legal incentives of trademark law.
This. They need to be able to demonstrate that they have defended their trademark for future cases. Nowt to do with copyright.

As for VST on the NYSE - the trademark only applies to similar fields where there is the risk of consumer confusion/diluting the brand. So a VST name for bars of soap would be fine. When you apply for a trademark, you need to specify what area the trademark applies to (e.g. software, or whatever).

This is why Apple (computing and recording) existed in parallel for years, and why it only became an issue when Apple started selling music. It's only then that the Beatles got active because Apple (computers) were competing in the same space.

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If more sites use vst in their name it is free advertisement for them.if a site offers photoshop tutorials,it has to be named photoshop-tutorials.com. not 2d-tutorials.like photoshop and Xerox vst has become a generic term, whether they want it or not.

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I still think good lawyers could fight the case. Although it is pointless and would be far easier for VST planet to rename itself.

From a moral and ethical point of view, there isno justification for them to take this hard stance against indie sites that do not compete with them.
Of course, these things carry no value unless we consumers take a stand.
I am not buying any Yamaha or Steinberg products. Period. If many other people do the same they might get the message.

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Wow. Just petty of them. I hope the guys at VSTplanet will come up with a new domain and bring their site back up. It's been one of my favourites for years and I would visit it every now and then to see what was new. This is horrible. And Yamaha? Shame on you. Treat your customers right.

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Markus Krause wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 9:43 am I am aware of VSTplanet. It was a small website about freeware plugins. We supported this website financially for many years by showing advertisements for our commercial products.
It's really a shame what Steinberg does.
They're sending legal threats to indie-developers, the open-source community and now even small websites with freeware.
Hello Markus

Since you previously advertised at their site, any chance you still have a contact?
Would be great to try to find out if they plan to come back online...

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their Facebook page still gets updated

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hues wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 3:18 pm their Facebook page still gets updated
Their FB page is still active and there have been a few recent user posts discussing the website closing, but no one from VSTplanet has posted anything new (or any information whatsoever) in over a month. All product links on the FB page point to the defunct website. Same thing with their Twitter account.
On a number of Macs

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Is VSTPlanet just like one guy? Or is an actual company with employees?

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I noticed recently VSTmuseum is also not accessible.

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music is under attack, stay out of sight.

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