Cease & Desist Letter

[utunnels]

I know that feeling man. I used to work for a FF IX fan translation project for more than 2 years. It is not easy to put those who even bearly know each other together, there were almost members who left suddenly and the organizer had to recruit new members. After it was finaly completed, I almost swore that I won't play the game anymore. 

So I really admire you guys for making it that far...

[utunnels]

Sorry, double posted.

[BO200929]

On May 8, we received a wide-reaching cease and desist letter from Square Enix, Inc. As with Chrono Trigger: Resurrection and Chrono Trigger Remake Project's letters, we have uploaded the letter for viewing here as a matter of public interest.

We have decided to comply with Square Enix's demands. Most of the Chrono Compendium webpages and forums will be unaffected by these changes. However, our compliance has the practical effect of ending the Compendium's support for ROM modification projects of any kind, with regard to copyrighted Square Enix works such as Chrono Trigger, Radical Dreamers, and Chrono Cross. We have already destroyed all known copies of Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes and other modifications and projects. We have also shut down and made inaccessible any discussion boards used for the development of ROM-hacking fan projects on this website, including:

* Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes
* Chrono Trigger: Prophet's Guile
* Retranslation of Chrono Trigger
* Chrono Trigger Re-amped
* Chrono Trigger Rebirth
* Chrono Trigger Azala Style

Affected parties may contact the administration in private if there is any personal information they wish to retrieve from the deprecated forums.

We do not accept the validity of Square Enix's claims, nor the legal rationale underpinning their position. Nonetheless, we are complying with their demands so as to avoid the expenses and burdens of litigation, because, frankly, they can afford a frivolous lawsuit more than we can.

We thank all those who have been involved in the affected projects for their spirited energy over the years, and we look forward to the day when non-profit, fan-made projects will be properly recognized as a fan-base boon and marketing opportunity tool, rather than silenced as innocent victims of prohibitively interpreted copyright law.

Sincerely,

ZeaLitY and the Chrono Compendium Staff

I jus reg wit this site n wanna say this:
I dont think u guys should listn 2 SquareEnixs Cease n Desist.If u guys wanna hack the Chrono Trigger roms n otha roms u should do it.If it was me hackin the roms n SquareEnix sen me a Cease n Desist I wood stil b hackin the rom n woodnt listn 2 SquareEnix.U dont c otha compnys sayin stop hackin their roms.

[Unclever title]

I thought this tribute might be in order... or something along those lines...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvGK4c5uBL0&feature=channel_page

Heh, well speak of the devil...  Much sadder than I had envisioned though, but that's the music for ya.

[tapir3147]

So sad.. I had lurked these forums for many months and really thought you guys were gonna pull it off. My condolences for all your hard work. If SE goes bankrupt in 10 years I hope the project leaks out, I'll still play it then!

[ZealKnight]

To be honest I saw this coming about a month ago. I saw the large publicity we had, and knew it was too much. We flew too close to the sun and the only thing we can hope for to turn our frowns decent is that the announce a CC remake for PSP at E3 since they wont do anything for the series.

I wonder are we within our rights to post a video of the entire play through of CE?

[Alcyone]

I saw it coming too. >__<;;

I'm curious about one thing though... What would have happened if CE had been released and THEN Square found out and wanted to sue... .___.; Cause I mean... they could do that, I'm sure.

[Julford]

...

...

Goddammit, I'm crying.

I wasn't even that interested in Crimson Echoes, to be honest. I remember the first demo from ages ago, and not being that impressed. Over the last year or so, though, with all the announcements about the game, I was getting genuinely excited at the prospect of play this hack that was made with so much love. I've been checking the Compendium every single day since August last year, when I moved out to Seattle; it was something that kept me connected to friends back home, who were also excited about CE.

I got a text message from one of those friends this morning that told me to check the Conpendium. I was expecting good news.

I... I need to go lie down now.

[Dark3mx]

Your fucking kidding me right? GOD DAMN SE ALWAYS GOTTA FUCK THE GOOD SHIT UP! Although... with Kajar Labratories down, we the people, who still have our hands on Temporal  Flux, can still hack on a private non-public release basis right? If there is still 1 beta copy of CE, it can be distributed without it being known as a public release, send it via PM/email/IM etc. Then from there, the ones whom have TF can make minor changes to the rom, and call it their own.

 just a suggestion....

i have now lost all respect i had ever had for SE...

[FaustWolf]

Believe me, the way SE tracked this down, even releasing over bittorrent would get the Compendium's ass handed to it the way things stand. Big Brother is really watching, and he knows where we all live.

In any case, as ZeaLitY indicated, all beta copies have been summarily destroyed in compliance with SE's order. There's more smallpox running around in the wild than there are CE beta copies.

[KebreI]

I saw it coming too. >__<;;

I'm curious about one thing though... What would have happened if CE had been released and THEN Square found out and wanted to sue... .___.; Cause I mean... they could do that, I'm sure.

There would have to deal with damage done. The thing about a ROM hack as opposed to say a full game is that is MUCH harder to round up an remove once its out in the sea of the internet. Although the Compendium can't not deal in this anymore out of risk of legal action that wouldn't end in our favor.

Still I think ZeaLitY should seriously look in to send not a letter of full agreement but a counter proposal, there is a way through this I imagine other then just doing what they say. Often Companies throw in all the claims and demands they can in a C&D, some of which they can't actually take action against, in hopes that the receiver will comply out of fear of lawsuit. After all this is just a fancy, and legit, threat.

It seems the Readme file claiming the you acknowledge infringement was the kicker. $150000, other wise all they could sue you for was in the $200 to $3000 range under unintentional infringement.

Your fucking kidding me right? GOD DAMN SE ALWAYS GOTTA FUCK THE GOOD SHIT UP! Although... with Kajar Labratories down, we the people, who still have our hands on Temporal  Flux, can still hack on a private non-public release basis right? If there is still 1 beta copy of CE, it can be distributed without it being known as a public release, send it via PM/email/IM etc. Then from there, the ones whom have TF can make minor changes to the rom, and call it their own.

 just a suggestion....

i have now lost all respect i had ever had for SE...

Please if anything talk like that does NOTHING to help the Compendiums image, the fact they sent the C&D, it is perfectly reasonably to say they are reading the forums. Be careful with what you say.

[Lord J Esq]

It seems the Readme file claiming the you acknowledge infringement was the kicker.

Yeah. That was really stupid. Whoever put that in wasn't thinking clearly.

[Alcyone]

I saw it coming too. >__<;;

I'm curious about one thing though... What would have happened if CE had been released and THEN Square found out and wanted to sue... .___.; Cause I mean... they could do that, I'm sure.

There would have to deal with damage done. The thing about a ROM hack as opposed to say a full game is that is MUCH harder to round up an remove once its out in the sea of the internet. Although the Compendium can't not deal in this anymore out of risk of legal action that wouldn't end in our favor.

Well, obviously they'd never be able to remove it from the internet if it got leaked, but I mean... I guess it's actually a good thing that this happened now rather than after it was released because the consequences would have been far greater, otherwise.

[MasaMuneCyrus]

This C&D is totally and ridiculously inane. I don't know much about it, but maybe we'd do good to contact the guys over at Zophar's Domain. Zophar was basically the father of rom hacking sites, and they've been through their share of legal issues with Nintendo, and ultimately won in the end. This still host a WIDE arrangement of rom hacking tools, documents, and actual hacks and Nintendo can't do a thing about it. Perhaps someone more involved in the CE project could hop on over to the Zophar Forums. Perhaps SwampGas would be kind enough to offer some advice.

Otherwise, I'd like to see the remaining 2% finished, and then turn it into a movie. YouTube is free, and there is a great SNES9X version built for the purpose of recording videos. After the game is finished, I think surely a series of movies could be released that could show all the series of events that unfold in CE. Machinima is legal, I can't imagine this wouldn't be.

[chronomitch]

Has anyone considered sending letters to the address on the cease and desist letter? If everyone would do this, it might attract some attention.

In fact, we should try to attract as much attention to this incident as possible. Blog it, digg it, create youtube videos, even tweet (christ I hate that) if you have to. If enough of an uproar is generated, it might make Squenix change their minds, or, at the very least, it should make Squenix think twice about pissing all over its fan base.

I hate to say it, but I highly doubt this cease and desist letter means we will be seeing any new Chrono games from Squenix anytime soon. Squenix seems to assume we are trying to generate some kind of competition or keep revenues from them, which is laughable considering it is sites like these which hyped the recent release of Chrono Trigger DS and fans like us that bought it.