Eh, this whole incident has gotten me really pissed off, so I've been saying a bunch of stupid stuff. I hope this whole situation works out so that everyone gets to play CE, but the less likely that's become, the angrier I've gotten. I know a lot of people around here don't want me staying pissed at S-E, but I think I'm going to resent them for this for a long time to come no matter what anyone says.
I for one welcome the ongoing enmity. Square Enix will not change its ways until forced by a court, a legislature, or a huge wad of money. That's how progress happens. The villains usually have the law on their side, until suddenly they don't anymore.
The people who defy the big media companies are the ones who will eventually trigger the events which bring about better copyright laws. I recall that it was you who said, earlier in this thread, that the CE team is a bunch of cowards for complying without a fight. Maybe there was some of that. But it was a pretty straightforward strategic decision. Not every single injustice can be a trigger for change. This time, the ingredients simply weren't there. All of us at the Compendium management and everyone on the CE development staff disagree with SE's legal reasoning, but it's definitely a gray area. The development team stood an excellent chance of losing any suit, for lack of money, for lack of solid legal arguments, and for lack of friendly legal precedent on this matter. Their only real mistake was publicizing the game ahead of release. Had it been released, and then followed up with the marketing blitz, there would have certainly been a C&D letter, but probably no lawsuit, because the development team would have complied, but the game itself would have already been out there for the world to pirate as it saw fit.
The development team got a firsthand taste of the story of Icarus. They knew there would be a C&D, but they had not truly grappled with the ramifications of it. In all my time here, I have consistently counseled "serious" fan projects to stay underground. No one seems to take me seriously. Oh well. Maybe this will change things. One thing is for certain: Square Enix has won this round decisively, but, if the thinking of the fan community evolves as a result of this disaster, then the
next feature-length fan game will be released under the radar, and thus the long struggle for intellectual property law reform will be that much farther along. I expect the video game industry, and SE in particular, to "get it" much sooner than, say, the music industry--which has been eviscerated by its own trade group--but for that to happen there will have to be compelling fan works out there, accessible to the world, and thus able to demonstrate their value. If you're looking for a show of contrition from the development team, they would certainly tell you that they regret being so visible with the game prior to its release, which undermined their ability not only in releasing a feature-length Chrono game, but to participating (productively) in advancing the relationship between game companies, fans, and fan projects.
Being an ideologue isn't very useful. Strategically, the dev team undermined their own ability to put up a serious challenge to Square Enix by being so loose with the game prior to its release. Once the C&D was sent out, it was already too late to defy it. Any show of resistance would have, very likely, cost JP (and potentially ZeaLitY) a lot of money--possibly in court judgments, but certainly in legal expenses defending in court.
