Keeping the dream alive...

[Wolf Kanno]

You know, I was never keen on the idea of a 3D Chrono Game but watching this fan project and playing DQVIII has kind of made me start to reconsider it.

[qwertysaur]

oh Gaspar.

[VeloZer0]

That's the exact same video I saw like 6 years ago when they got slapped by a big ol' cease and desist.

[black orb]

>>> They should have kept with it.. What is the big deal about being sued by SE?.

[Wolf Kanno]

>>> They should have kept with it.. What is the big deal about being sued by SE?.

criminal charges, possible jail time, huge fine's that will bankrupt you...

this project, though made for innocent reasons, is still clearly breaking copyright laws.

[black orb]

>>> They should have kept with it.. What is the big deal about being sued by SE?.

criminal charges, possible jail time, huge fine's that will bankrupt you...

this project, though made for innocent reasons, is still clearly breaking copyright laws.

>>> No one goes to jail for making a game´s fan tribute.. If they were planning on making money from this, well thats another story.

[Wolf Kanno]

>>> They should have kept with it.. What is the big deal about being sued by SE?.

criminal charges, possible jail time, huge fine's that will bankrupt you...

this project, though made for innocent reasons, is still clearly breaking copyright laws.

>>> No one goes to jail for making a game´s fan tribute.. If they were planning on making money from this, well thats another story.

The NET Act of 1997 allows criminal prosecution of copyright infringment even when there is no monetary gain and has maximum penalties including up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines, none of this including statutory damages which can get ridiculously high.

While SE probably wouldnt go as far as the maximum charges, the fines and damages cost would be more than a few fans would be able to pay without significant debt and filing for bakruptcy.

the team even had plans at one point to make this into a full remake which if distributed would probably had allowed SE to hit them with maximum charges.

[black orb]

>>> They should have kept with it.. What is the big deal about being sued by SE?.

criminal charges, possible jail time, huge fine's that will bankrupt you...

this project, though made for innocent reasons, is still clearly breaking copyright laws.

>>> No one goes to jail for making a game´s fan tribute.. If they were planning on making money from this, well thats another story.

The NET Act of 1997 allows criminal prosecution of copyright infringment even when there is no monetary gain and has maximum penalties including up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines, none of this including statutory damages which can get ridiculously high.

>>> And where is the copyright infringment? I can see crearly in that video "Chrono Trigger is a trademark of Square Enix Co. Ltd."

While SE probably wouldnt go as far as the maximum charges, the fines and damages cost would be more than a few fans would be able to pay without significant debt and filing for bakruptcy.

>>> SE probably wouldnt go as far as sue them at all, that would be the worst publicity ever..

the team even had plans at one point to make this into a full remake which if distributed would probably had allowed SE to hit them with maximum charges.

>>> Well thats stupid now, distribute a full remake would be pushing the limits. They should have planned to make a short demo and be happy with that..

[Bolivar]

As a copyright lawyer, jail time is a very rare outcome, and because they probably weren't going to sell this for commercial gain, the likeliest outcome, if anything, would be fines (and fines don't happen a lot even when there is infringement). With defenses like waiver, fair use, and the sympathy that they're just a couple of passionate kids doing all of this for a fan community, there's a chance the judge might even only grant Square nominal damages of $1. More than likely, though, they would settle out of court before it came to that, just as 99.9% of all cases do nowadays anyway. The settlement would likely be them stopping.

Orb, them attributing the trademark to Square has nothing to do with copyright. All you have to do to infringe someone's copyright is to actually copy it. Or distribute it, reproduce it, publicly display or perform it. The big one, though is preparing derivative works, essentially making sequels or spinoffs. That's the big issue here, as only SE has the exclusive right to do that.

As far as my opinion of the video, it was kinda cruel for them even to make it since it's only a hint at what could have been and what will very likely never be.

[VeloZer0]

I think that in the beginning the group got so caught up in what they were doing they were just thinking about keeping the internet in the loop, rather than the full legal consequences of what they were doing.

SE probably wouldnt go as far as sue them at all, that would be the worst publicity ever..

Well they were sure having their lawyers make a big mess about it.

Also remember that even if they get a slap on the wrist from a judge the whole court process would probably ruin them.

[Wolf Kanno]

To be fair black orb, when they originally gave the cease and desist order, it was when they were planning to make an actual remake of the game which is copyright infringement, so I think there was a mixed wire in the conversation.

Bolivar: I don't know man, there is still always a chance. At least some of the big names like Masato Kato and Yasunori Mitsuda are still very interested in the franchise, so I could see SE some time down the road giving this game a 3D remake, though it will be more like the DS remakes than say something on a major console tech level. I mean they ported to the DS and iOS so its not like SE has completely abandoned it.

[black orb]

Orb, them attributing the trademark to Square has nothing to do with copyright. All you have to do to infringe someone's copyright is to actually copy it. Or distribute it, reproduce it, publicly display or perform it. The big one, though is preparing derivative works, essentially making sequels or spinoffs. That's the big issue here, as only SE has the exclusive right to do that.

>>> I guess all the millions of fanarts, fanfics, doujin, etc out there would be copyright infringment too. But no company seems to make a big deal of it.

Fishy..

[VeloZer0]

There are lots of legal guidelines and precedents to distinguish between 'Fair Use'* and Copyright Infringement. There exists a whole body of law that deals with this which has been determined through legislative efforts and actual court decisions. It doesn't go by what some of us on the internet feel is right (or makes sense).

*this is a legal term which may or may not reflect an individuals opinion on fair.

[Freya]

I'm currently replaying chrono trigger on my 3ds so omg that trailer was awesome!

[Wolf Kanno]

Orb, them attributing the trademark to Square has nothing to do with copyright. All you have to do to infringe someone's copyright is to actually copy it. Or distribute it, reproduce it, publicly display or perform it. The big one, though is preparing derivative works, essentially making sequels or spinoffs. That's the big issue here, as only SE has the exclusive right to do that.

>>> I guess all the millions of fanarts, fanfics, doujin, etc out there would be copyright infringment too. But no company seems to make a big deal of it.

Fishy..

Largely because its not worth the hassle of going after each person and many companies often see this as free advertisement. SE shut down the remake project but as we can all see the "Tribute Video" is alive and well.

Honestly Copyright Law is a bit tricky due to the language used in the laws and also because many of them were written without proper foresight into how the Internet and technology would change things. I mean the NET Act was intended to allow film and music companies to criminally prosecute peer to peer websites like Napster back in the day, but due to the ambiguous language a company could theoretically press criminal charges against more innocent fan works. They don't because its a waste of money, often its not hurting anyone, and it looks bad when a company tries to sue a twelve year old for drawing fanart and selling it for a dollar on the school playground.

This is a fun video to explain it...