I'm not a lawyer, but have dealt with copyright/intellectual property issues in the passed with, of all people, Sony Electronics Co. of America filed in Joint with Sony Electctronics Co. of Japan.
First of all, it is my understanding that the remake will *reqire* an original FF7 PC disk so that the dependincies (Such as the menus, character pics, 3d models, and backgrounds) will be taken from the disk. This way any user willing to play our remake will have to purchase a perfectly legal copy of FF7 or the game won't run. If you guys are contemplating sending out anything it *CONNOT* be a) ripped and converted from the original or 2) any thing that *resembles* data that can be taken from the CD, Not a single sound effect, background, model, Midi or MP3 snippit of a soundtrack can make it into our package unless it'a an original non-derived item. (An exaple will be a model for Seph's mom and dad)
What the Bid for Power guys did wrong was make assumtion that just because ID Software gave you permission to alter Quake to make a new game, that everything under the sun can be done in the name of a "fan add on"
Also the idea that it's going to be free doen't "hurt anything"
Playing devil's advocite for a bit I'm going to pretend that I'm Infogames. This company probably payed upwardly of *ONE MILLION DOLLARS* to get the sole release rights to *any* Dragonball game. Now if I just made that kind of investment and a bunch of programmers with too much free time on thier hands decided that they didn't have to pay Funmation. They make a free game that becomes wildely popular cutting Funmation and Infogames totaly out of the loop. This is called "copyright dillution" when you create something with no value and place it along something that has great value. Espically something between two companys that have an agreement with each other.
Comapnys have to fight copyrights or risk loosing them. When Funmaion bought the right to Dragonball they payed for the right to do whatever the hell they want with it. (Usally there is a clause in the contract to at least stay close to something that resembles the original work) They could even sell a portion of this right to someone else (as they did with infogames)
Think of this as a wake up call. When you buy a DVD, or a game for that matter, you bought the right to own a copy and to play it out of the kindness of the author's heart. (Ok so the author can line his pockets) but anything more than that, and you are seriously asking for trouble.
Now back to or remake. Can Square come after us for copyright violation, even if it reqires the original product? Yes. We are placing thier characters into situations not intended by the orignal author. Are we violating copyright? Maybe. We can argue that we an no more violating copyright that a fanfic. That we have changed enough to make it a "derivitive work" But, you see, Square can go after fanfics too. This is why it's key to release only the derived stuff in a form af a patch.
There are some sacrifices we have to make. Let me share you one of mine. Because I made my PSX doc without signing a Non Discosure Agreement. I have now found myself thrown out of the homebrew PSX deveolment group, and I almost had to fly 2000 miles to be a witness in a lawsuit.
But there is something nasty that I have to put up with too. I get job offers, much like this.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hi my name is Terry Haynes and I work for Pelican Consultants (www.pelican-consultants.com), I hope you don't mind me writing to you, as I obtained your e-mail address from the PSXDEV Group via
Yahoo.
Pelican Consultants are a recruitment company working in the video games industry, and at present I'm working on exciting opportuinites
with this field in the UK. Therefore, if the game indutsry is of interest to you and you have skills in C or C++, and you would like to work in the UK, please contact me by return on e-mail
([email protected]).
Yours,
Terry Haynes
Pelican Consultants
[email protected]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is one of many. I quit replying to them. You see, big companys hire headhunters to get them staff. Companys bearly ever hire themselves. Once the headhunter (In this case Pelican Consultants) finds out that I have this doc that was key to a lawsuit about the secrets of the PSX. They magicly don't return calls anymore. I have now lost Job interviews with Sony, Square, and I'm guess because this is the UK, either Psygnosis or Rareware. Even though I'm a programmer, Japanese language is my thing. That's what I'm going to collage for.
In closing remeber this. According to the licence agreement that we all clicked through when we installed FF7, "Any unautherized reproduction or redistrobution is strictly prohibited"
Pretty vauge huh?
[This message has been edited by halkun (edited August 06, 2001).]
