since this thread is still active..
this was my youtube comment on the playthrough..
"what square did was completely ridiculous. all theyve done is alienate the fanbase.
hopefully this beta version gets leaked as well. barring that, maybe someone can debug/improve the already-leaked alpha version and make this game a reality.
the internets always hated censorship."
but yea, i along with many others are against the C&D. however, i also question whether square-enix was really willing to legally pursue CE, or if they were just sending a C&D out of routine and werent going to do any more.
not only that, but to completely delete a work that took years seems like an enormous waste. if the 99% complete beta version was leaked, lets say by a beta tester who didnt comply, what could the creators do? after all, if it were put on wikileaks it would be pretty safe.. people post classified documents on there that piss governments off, but the info stays up. overall, the leak of the final game doesnt seem to me as dangerous as you make it out to be.
of course, if i wanted the game to be leaked, i would put on a big public display of deleting it and banning everything about it to cover myself legally.. not accusing anyone of this, but thats what id do. Very Happy
That's what I'm saying. I highly, HIGHLY doubt Square would sue over a beta leak. That said, it's ultimately the creators' risk, and their decision to make. Nobody should be bashing them over their decision (though I don't think there's anything wrong with criticizing/disagreeing with the decision itself). The thing is, even if two of them wanted to leak the game and the other one didn't, the two that did wouldn't make the other guy take that risk. There's no way we can know for sure if one of the guys still has a copy of the beta. They can swear up and down and left and right that they deleted it, but of course they might just be saying that to cover their asses and keep from getting sued. If there is an "official" leak someday, we'll never hear about it on here, at least not until it goes public and the creators have to put on a big show of damage control to cover their asses. I'll always hold out hope that the creators will find a way to get this thing out there. Maybe the economy will improve and they'll feel safe enough in their personal lives to take the tiny risk of a court case. Maybe one of them will stagger home drunk one day and in a fit of drunken confidence will upload it to Rapidshare (which might be the real reason they deleted it, so that one of them doesn't accidentally leak it!). Maybe in ten years one of the guys will just say "fuck it, Square's forgotten about this" and leak it then.
Or maybe Anonymous will actually somehow finish the alpha. I doubt it, but hey, it could happen. They've done more with less, that's for sure.
