Posted by Strider on 5/13/2009, 12:24 am, in reply to "Re: Square-Enix shuts down fan modification"
I want to preface this by saying that I agree that this is a shit move on Square's part with shit timing, but I also feel that this post really needs a counterpoint, so here we go.
: what ticks me off the most
: about all this is how long Square *waited*
: before pulling this stunt. The creator of
: Crimson Echoes listed his home address in
: the readme from the beginning, so Square had
: every opportunity to shut it down in early
: stages of development. But no. They were
: quiet, let other hacks come and go, and let
: the programmers work for *five years*.
Well, have you considered that Square didn't know about it until now? I mean, I'm not in the ROM Hacking "scene" myself, but I pay a lot more attention to this than anyone who's not can be reasonably expected to and I'd never heard of it until yesterday. The fact that it was nearing release also meant a sharp uptick in 'buzz' which could draw it to the attention of Square's legal department.
I have also heard it suggested that they don't care because 99% of projects like this are never completed, and Square sees no reason to needlessly antagonize fans who are never going to complete their projects anyway.
: in fact, many companies have actually given the
: OK to ROM hacks, usage of their
: graphics/characters/whatever in fan
: projects, so long as no money traded hands.
Just out of curiosity, what companies have said this? I can only think of a couple cases where this has happened, and never specifically with a ROM hack. Just as many times as I've heard this sort of thing okayed or ignored by IP owners, I've heard angry fans complaining about C&D letters... This isn't the only mod project to have been shut down without warning in recent memory.
: Within their legal rights or no, this is a low
: blow, even for them, and just smacks of
: straight-up cyber bullying.
That isn't remotely what cyber-bullying means, by any reasonable definition of the term. Legal bullying, perhaps, but I generally reserve that term for cases where the C&D sender isn't clearly legally in the right. These terms mean things; they are not just accusations to throw around willy-nilly at anyone taking actions you don't like.
: The only
: logical justification behind it is if
: they're truly afraid a fan hack could cut
: into their sales... which, frankly, is a bit
: sad.
Is it really? There are two statements here, which I will address separately.
1. The fan hack, if successful and popular, would draw a lot of attention to the existence of emulators and ROMs right around the release of the DS remake of Chrono Trigger. It is essentially encouraging the downloading of Chrono Trigger ROMs, which will compete with the retail product- I don't find it too hard to believe that this could shave sales of the DS release. Perhaps not significant numbers of sales, but still- 1 out of 50? 100? I don't find that too hard to believe.
2. There are other reasons as well: dilution of Square's brand and intellectual property, loss of any trademarks they own on anything Chrono Trigger-related, confusion of Chrono Trigger canon. Any fanmade product is outside of Square's editorial control; if the game takes a hard left from a family-friendly adventure into Magus and Crono having gay sex, there's nothing Square can do about it. Once something like this is actually released to the internet, the cat is out of the bag and it'll be out there forever- hence the need to C&D it before the release. I suspect ignoring or selectively enforcing these things would, in the long run, cause more drama than it would prevent (picture a very similar post to yours, only centering on "why was X allowed to release and Y not?") and possibly make it harder for Square to win related court cases in the future... Remember, while this group was not attempting to make a profit on Square's property, others certainly are.
: Honestly, it's hard to find where any laws were broken
Uhmm... They are distributing a game with copyrighted source code, art, and music that belongs to someone else. They are distributing this game with story that is a derivative of a copyrighted one. I think I can see where the problem lies. 
: short of the whole nonsense about ROMs being
: illegal (of which nobody can really come up
: with a good reason *why* they are, short of
: semantics stemming from draconian American
: copyright laws).
Not even gonna start.
: So, way to go, Square. You just showed the
: world what big men you are! I mean, wow, you
: can successfully bully the little guy (who
: in this case, happen to be *your own loyal
: fans*) into doing as you say with hollow
: legal action. Just threaten people with
: ludicrously unreasonable fines if they don't
: bow down and do your bidding, and you wins!
I really thinking you're attributing actual malice to Square that simply doesn't exist. Even the ROM hackers apparently know that they were doing something illegal- they said it in their goddamn readme file, for ####'s sake. They were apparently hoping that security-through-obscurity or selective enforcement would save them, and it did not. While, again, I agree that it was a shit move on Square's part, the ROM hackers clearly knew that this outcome was a possibility.
Just what do you think Square's goal is here?
- HC
