Most fanmade games don’t involve professional programmers, artists and musicians cooperating to produce a valuable and polished product, free of charge.
But how does Square know that these people are professionals? How can they be sure they won’t change around their intellectual property in ways they don’t like? How can they protect their assets? It doesn’t matter how good it is, the fact is that at some level it’s out of their control, and that’s what matters.
Then S-E should have hired the group to complete the project under their control. They wouldn’t even have to pay them much, just enough to make it worthwhile for them to give S-E the control they wanted.
CT is nearly 13 years old. Even if you start dating from FF:Chronicles, that’s almost 7 years. I want to see a copyright system reform that requires holders to be actively doing something with the copyright if they want to maintain control of it. And shorter terms overall.
That’s an entirely different issue altogether.
There are some companies which are lackadaisical about their characters. Enix before the merger was one of them, funnily enough. Square has never really been open with their fans or shown much interest in pandering to them, up until the recent influx of remakes.
Another reason why Square may have wanted nothing to do with CT:R is the simple fact that it was programmed by non-Japanese people. Japanese tend to have a very low opinion of gaijin, and I’m not surprised they’d be leery of letting them touch a Japanese classic.
I’m down with the artists’ children living off that work, but the regulations for derivative works should be more lax. As for the extended corporate authorship and its 95 years of protection, cry me a river. Bla bla free markets and nanny state accusations when we can make a buck, necessary protection when we can’t.
Square knows they’re professionals because Square logged site activities for several months before sending the cease and desist letter, and info about the creators was on the site. Square has veto power over the whole project, so if the CT:Res creators do anything to damage the CT intellectual property in the fans’ eyes (which doesn’t seem likely, based on the incredibly positive fan reaction to CT:Res), Square can nip it in the bud. Square, protect its assets? I’m not sure what you’re referring to, other than the intellectual property, because Square certainly isn’t <i>selling</i> CT or even CC anymore. From another angle, given the frequency with which Square has re-released FF4-5 lately, it doesn’t seem too concerned about oversupplying the market with old games; why not a somewhat <i>new</i> version of CT? It’s true that CT:Res wouldn’t be in Square’s direct control (although the veto power is something), but it’s no different from when any company licenses a franchise to a 3rd-party developer and retains rights to decide whether or not to sell it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_B…_Extension_Act
I’m down with the artists’ children living off that work, but the regulations for derivative works should be more lax. As for the extended corporate authorship and its 95 years of protection, cry me a river. Bla bla free markets and nanny state accusations when we can make a buck, necessary protection when we can’t.
I’m continually amazed by how much you learn about America in Greece. I do think the modern copyright system goes laughably beyond the realm of overkill, in terms of fulfilling its initial purpose (to ensure that people profit from the expression of their ideas). It was never supposed to reserve profits from one’s creations for a century-plus. The original system maxed out at 28 years.
It’s all free, courtesy of the internet and its many American users. After all, trends in the US influence Europe. Another point is that while people here often accuse the Americans of being ignorant of the European realities, many Europeans don’t know jack about the U.S.
I sadly cannot find now some amazing photos of our Prime Minister, after the fires that burnt 11% of the country’s forests, dressed like Bush post 9/11. Small stuff like that makes it worth following the news.