September 27, 2004,
All SPB League Managers,
For the four (4) years, Seasons Past Baseball has been operating at a yearly deficit of approximately $125.00 to $140.00, all of which has been covered at his own expense by SPB Treasurer, Jim Wheeler. Unfortunately, this can no longer continue and I am now announcing a new Seasons Past League dues policy.
The reasons for this deficit are primarily threefold. First, the cost of Deluxe season disks from Diamond Mind Baseball has increased to $24.95, exceeding the league dues collected by $ 1.95 per disk. Next, web rental and support is now at approximately $125.00 per year. Lastly, our policy of league purchasing season disk for each stat in every league where he is a member, is draining the amount of revenue that the league collects.
Therefore effective immediately, the following league dues policy will be in place.
1. League dues will now be $3.00 for each league in which you are a manager. SPB is currently operating seven (7) leagues and at each manager’s option, yearly dues may be paid each November. For a manager playing in all seven (7) leagues, yearly dues would be $21.00. We encourage you to pay your dues for every SPB league your in at this time each year. Otherwise, individual league dues must be paid in full ten (10) days prior to the scheduled date of the rookie draft. League dues should always be paid to:
Jim Wheeler
833 Blue Mountain
East
2. Each manager is now responsible for purchasing the appropriate season disk directly from Diamond Mind Baseball. Don't miss this one, it is very important!
3. As SPB intends to comply with the letter of the law regarding Diamond Mind software copyright protection and software piracy laws, ten (10) days prior to each rookie draft, SPB will send Diamond Mind a list of managers in the respective league and ask for Diamond Mind to confirm that each manager is a registered owner of the season disk. From the Diamond Mind web page:
“NOTES: The Diamond Mind Baseball game and related season disks are copyrighted products and may not be copied or distributed to others without the consent of Diamond Mind, Inc. However, league commissioners are given special permission to distribute copies of the league disk (with rosters and stats for the season-to-date) to league members, provided the commissioner has previously checked with Diamond Mind to make sure everyone to whom the league disk is being made available is a registered owner of the game version and season disk being used for league play. Joining a league does not entitle you to a free copy of a Diamond Mind game or season disk, whether or not the league charges dues.”
4. Any manager found not to be a registered owner of the season disk will then have forty-eight (48) hours in which to purchase the season disk from Diamond Mind Baseball.
5. League dues must also be paid in full prior to the date of the rookie draft, if you do not pay them all in November. Again, those managers not up to date with league dues will forfeit their team to the next manager on the back up list.
6. Those managers who cannot comply with either of the above provisions will not be eligible to participate in the rookie draft and their team will be awarded to the next manager on the back up list.
7. SPB will continue the policy of the league purchasing the season disk for the league stat, however this will now only apply to the league where the stat is THE ACTIVE LEAGUE STAT. Additionally, active league stats will not need to pay league dues for the seasons in which they are the active stat.
We regret that the change in dues policy has become necessary. However, we cannot expect Jim or any other manager to continue to fund the expenses relating to operating the league. Additionally, this will put the responsibility on each manger to purchase his own disk from Diamond Mind and alleviate the situation where I am constantly finding myself in the role of a collection agency in trying to get managers to pay league dues. Actually, for many of you this will be an easier situation to deal with, and in some instances, even less cost.
A copy of this letter will also be sent to Tom Tippett at Diamond Mind Baseball.
If this presents a particular hardship to any league manager, please contact either Jim or myself with the specific details. Also please let me know if you have any questions regarding this new policy.
Thanks,
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Important information for all those asking questions concerning DMB ownership and SPB's new dues policy. Be sure to read this entire message. This exchange between Jim Wheeler & Tom T. of DMB should answer your questions, and give you a lot of insight into this situation.
Best,
You may want to release this note from Tom to the league. After
you update your league e-mail addressees :-). Regarding the SPB records, we
should be able to supply Tom with information on who bought the season disk
through us.
Jim
Our new policy is aimed at enforcing all DMB copyrights.
Your new policy is similar to that of most other leagues, so we're equipped to handle any questions that might arise. And thanks for being so careful about our copyrights. We appreciate it.
Since we released this today, we are being flooded with questions perhaps best answered by you. However, the major question seems to be whether DMB has an up-grade price or policy for season disks that may have been purchased several years ago. Also, several managers are expressing concerns over not being listed as a registered owner when they had previously purchased a season disk.
Can you coment
on this or is it best to direct the manager to you?
Yes, we have an upgrade policy for season disks that is described on our web site at http://www.diamond-mind.com/products/seasons/upgrade.htm. In short, it says that any registered owner of a season disk that was purchased from Diamond Mind since 9/1/1995 can buy an upgrade to the latest version of that disk for $5 plus shipping.
As for
managers not being listed as registered owners, the following comments are
relevant:
- I believe we have a complete and accurate record of all season disks sold by Diamond Mind since we opened our doors in 1995. There's always the possibility of human error, but we've been very careful about this over the years, and if there are any errors or omissions in our records, they are very few in number.
- When the season is received as a gift, we can validate ownership if the current owner of that season can tell us the name of the person who bought it for them.
- We do not have records of season disks sold by Pursue the Pennant prior to 9/1/1995. They simply didn't do a good enough job of keeping track of those sales.
- We occasionally hear from people who say they bought a season second-hand, perhaps at a yard sale or through eBay. We cannot validate these purchases unless the seller has arranged to transfer his ownership rights to the buyer, something that rarely happens.
- We don't have good ownership records for your Seasons Past managers because you've been sending us a check for the entire league and distributing the disks yourself. Without knowing which managers were in your league at the time of each purchase, we have no idea who is a registered owner for which seasons. If you have those records and can provide them to us, we'd be happy to update our files so we can validate the legitimate rights of these owners.
All in all, I think we're in a very good position to tell you which customers are registered owners of which seasons, especially if you can help us determine who bought disks through Seasons Past over the years. We deal with questions like this all the time, and we try hard to track things down when someone acquired a season disk via a gift or through a league.
One point I want to emphasize is that when we tell a commissioner that some members of the league don't appear to be registered owners, we're not accusing anyone of anything. It just means that we need a little more information from them so we can identify how they came to be legal owners. There are people who illegally buy and sell copies of our disks, so we can't just take someone's word for it, but we are aware that there are legitimate ways to acquire our products other than making a purchase in one's own name, and we try very hard to be reasonable.
Tom