Fotopic (and Pikfu) update

For those who have been following the problems with the photo sites, you may be interested in this). Joel was the founder of Fotopic who did so much to help out again when they started having problems a couple of years ago but eventually started work on a new site.

Joel Rowbottom <joelr@pikfu.com> May 07 06:46PM +0100 ^

Hello everyone --

I'm breaking radio silence on this. Are you sitting comfortably? Then
I'll begin. I've also posted a version of this to the
former-fotopic-users list.

Background: Snappy Designs assets (ie. the Fotopic servers and
intellectual property) were purchased by ANY-Web, former Snappy Designs
shareholder, who has expressed a wish to put the servers back online and
allow people to download their photos. See http://fotopic.net for the
proper statement - I don't believe their general strategy has changed at
this stage.

Their issue is that I have in their eyes a competing product and
consequently I can't do anything with Pikfu until that is resolved.
Although I have put in a lot of effort to assist them in the technical
side of things, this morning I received an email which I see as a major
setback: it has been suggested that in filling the void with Pikfu 3
weeks after Fotopic disappeared I have been acting criminally (!); the
loss of revenues in Fotopic.net are directly attributable to Pikfu which
is in their opinion why Snappy Designs went bust; therefore they will be
exploring litigation despite there only being 79 users on Pikfu (whereas
Fotopic had about 40000). Most of those users are friends and family and
of course nobody's paid a brass farthing to Pikfu yet. Hell, we hadn't
even finalised subscription levels.

I've also been accused by said former Snappy Designs shareholder of not
caring about the Fotopic users, which surprised me.

The first time I can meet with the ANY-web directors in person is 18th
May so I'm not expecting any resolution before then (if at all). While I
would love to refer them to the response given in the
Arkell-vs-Pressdram case, I believe that is counterproductive. Whatever
happens, it is likely that this will be dragged out even longer.

For the avoidance of doubt, Pikfu.com Ltd is a privately owned company,
solely owned by me (at this stage).

The person who has bought all the hardware, servers, intellectual
property etc. of Snappy Designs Ltd (t/a Fotopic.net) is Angie Barrow of
ANY-Web. I do not know if she bought the assets personally or if one of
her companies bought them but I suspect the latter. They were purchased
just before the company was placed into liquidation.

I can't begin to even express how utterly gutted Nicky and I are right
now as a result of what's going on, but as attempts are being made to
hold us personally liable I have to tread very very carefully.

We almost got there with making the Fotopic data available too :(

Best wishes

Joel.