Author Topic: CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status  (Read 22069 times)

ZeaLitY

  • Entity
  • End of Timer (+10000)
  • *
  • Posts: 10797
  • Spring Breeze Dancin'
    • View Profile
    • My Compendium Staff Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« on: May 19, 2005, 08:32:57 pm »
The Chrono Trigger Remake Project has received a ceast & desist letter from SquareEnix. Although nominated most likely candidate to get such an order, no one truly believed it would happen. It's as if a warning siren has blared to all Chrono modders. I advise everyone to take your projects underground if it's of something grand like CTRP. TheBrain offers a few words on http://www.chrono-trigger.com : "We from the CTRP team would like to say sorry to Square-Enix, Co. Ltd. and its affiliates. We didn't realize that a fan game would be so harmful to your business." Although it's tough to say this, the only good thing that could come of this recent C&D order is the hint that something Chrono related could be in the works. It also means SE cares about the franchise enough to take down something inifinitely smaller than Chrono Trigger Resurrection. Anyway, do watch yourself from now on.

I've been gone for four days on some trip. I figure now is a good time to update everyone on the Compendium's status. Right now, I'm awaiting my own completion of the Chrono Trigger characters section and the moving of fanfiction from MediaWiki to the new Stories system. Then I'm going to officially open the site (at which point we'll link to everyone and be linked in return, and generally cause a big ruckus to let everyone know we exist). Gifts and party favors for everyone, too.

Wanderer359

  • Iokan (+1)
  • *
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2005, 10:32:49 pm »
It's a shame to see another remake project with so much potential go the way of the dodo. As you stated, since it was less publicized than that of CT: Resurrection, I was hoping this would one would go unnoticed by SquareEnix. I suppose not. Well, here's hoping all these cancellations will lead to something official from SE such as a remake or new game.

Anyways, I'm looking foward to the "official" re-opening of the site.

...And uhh...hi everyone. I'm sort of new. (I've been lurking for long enough so I figured I start posting and such.)

ZeaLitY

  • Entity
  • End of Timer (+10000)
  • *
  • Posts: 10797
  • Spring Breeze Dancin'
    • View Profile
    • My Compendium Staff Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2005, 10:49:47 pm »
Welcome. Your name's been in the back of my mind due to the "Who's Online" thing, so it's surprising this is your first post.

The Arbiter

  • Iokan (+1)
  • *
  • Posts: 14
    • View Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2005, 01:00:38 am »
Well, can't say this wasn't inevitable. But for a while there I felt as though Sqaure-Enix might leave it alone. What’s so weird is that I haven’t checked on the Compendium or the Remake in quite a while; Just checked back today and I get treated to some pretty bad news. The only good news is this could signify that this franchise is not dead (at least yet) in the eyes of Square-Enix.

Zizzlebop

  • Porrean (+50)
  • *
  • Posts: 66
    • View Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2005, 06:14:42 pm »
I'm not nearly as forgiving as all of you. I think SE is just throwing its weight around and being unethical. All the greats that made CT and CC great are gone and the direction there games are going are not all that impressive at all. I feel like they sold-out in a major way. I am just happy to have enjoyed what they did when they were still cool, but very pissed about how much they hate their fans.

V_Translanka

  • Interim Global Moderator
  • Arbiter (+8000)
  • *
  • Posts: 8340
  • Destroyer of Worlds
    • View Profile
    • http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/v_translanka/
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2005, 07:42:07 am »
I feel bad because I was like just chattin it up over at MySpace...I hope it wasn't somehow my fault...:?

Lord J Esq

  • Moon Stone J
  • Hero of Time (+5000)
  • *
  • Posts: 5463
  • ^_^ "Ayla teach at college level!!"
    • View Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2005, 09:01:58 am »
Creating fanwork is one thing. I've got no problem with that. Most of the time, a healthy fan following benefits the companies that produce the original material. (Just look at the Zelda or Star Wars franchises.)

But at the same time, I have no problem with a company defending its intellectual property. Not only are they within their legal rights to issue these C&D directives and bring further litigation if infringement continues, but it is in poor form for people to denigrate them for defending themselves in this fashion.

In other words, I believe we should respect the choices an intellectual property holder makes. It's their property, after all. They are rarely draconian in the exercise of their rights, as evidenced by the continuing prosperity of this very Compendium, which is full of copyrighted material that is republishered here in public without SE's permission. When they feel that a particular project threatens them--such as the creation of a fully functional Chrono game--and take action to eliminate these threats, I think it's proper to give the property owner the benefit of the doubt.

Few of us, if any, would be indifferent were we to create our own wildly successful intellectual property only to see creative control or profitability wrested from us at the hands of zealous fans.

As to the broader question of the validity and future of intellectual property rights, I think that we really ought to amend the laws to designate when property rights apply and when they do not. My basic, preliminary, hole-filled suggestion:

Property rights should apply when:
1. Creative control is at risk;
2. Profitability is at risk;
3. Long-term profit potential is at risk.

I think a large Chrono project violates the first and third of those. It changes the public's perception of the Chrono name and all that it entails. It adds to and changes the look and feel of the Chronoverse. It can change people's taste for the franchise and thus potentially turn people away from buying a legitimate Chrono game in the future.

Anyhow, intellectual property laws themselves are not the issue here. We should all be on notice that Squeenix does not intend to allow the public development of signifiant Chrono series fan projects. That's their prerogative.

V_Translanka

  • Interim Global Moderator
  • Arbiter (+8000)
  • *
  • Posts: 8340
  • Destroyer of Worlds
    • View Profile
    • http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/v_translanka/
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2005, 10:11:15 am »
Next time someone wants to remake CT, they betta keep that shit on the down low, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?

ZeaLitY

  • Entity
  • End of Timer (+10000)
  • *
  • Posts: 10797
  • Spring Breeze Dancin'
    • View Profile
    • My Compendium Staff Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2005, 01:16:49 pm »
Yes, I think the cries of tyranny are blown out of proportion. SE could have done something akin to fps mods and recruited the team, but the projects were full remakes of an old game and SE simply does not have plans for the Chrono franchise right now. Or does.

I've had visions of being contacted by SE to designate the Compendium an official venue for Chrono news once it is complete, but those are delusions of grandeur. All in time.

Zizzlebop

  • Porrean (+50)
  • *
  • Posts: 66
    • View Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2005, 06:56:23 pm »
Art belongs to everyone. You can't own an idea, no matter what the law says. I strongly believe the copyright laws in this county are absolutely insane. I can sleep well knowing that nobody else will make fan projects for any of SE's new stuff, because nobody with a fully developed brain could like it.

I don't want that to look like trolling, but its what I really belive.

GrayLensman

  • Guru of Reason Emeritus
  • Dimension Crosser (+1000)
  • *
  • Posts: 1031
    • View Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2005, 01:02:02 am »
Yes, there is no such thing as intellectual property.  Copyright grants artists exclusive rights to their work for a limited time to promote the creation of new art for the betterment of society.  After this time, the art works pass into the public domain.

This life-of-the-artist-plus-seventy-years business is nonsense and means that these works may never pass into the public domain.

Lord J Esq

  • Moon Stone J
  • Hero of Time (+5000)
  • *
  • Posts: 5463
  • ^_^ "Ayla teach at college level!!"
    • View Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #11 on: May 22, 2005, 08:45:03 am »
It's definitely a controversial issue that is slowly filtering up through the courts with the onset of the Information Age and all the virtual innovations this entails. But to deny the legitimacy of intellectual property outright is going too far. With respect, I wouldn't be particularly eager to innovate and then have no right whatsoever to prevent my work from being legally stolen by people who do not value the concept of property ownership. Simply put, ownership is the basis for stability and growth in the industrialized world. I expect to still own my computer in the morning, and so I will make use of it tonight. There is nothing more to it than that.

SilentMartyr

  • Magical Dreamer (+1250)
  • *
  • Posts: 1373
    • View Profile
    • http://www.chronotrigger.info
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #12 on: May 23, 2005, 03:19:33 pm »
It is a shame, but I agree with LJe. If we didn't have these laws then it would be a hodgepodge of crap to sort through to find anything worth looking at. Hopefully this will lead to SE doing a fourth installment, seeing another project go down raises my hopes a little more.

TheBrain

  • Iokan (+1)
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2005, 09:01:39 pm »
Copyright laws aside I still think they are in their own rights to protect their past work.

I just thought we weren't a threat for them.
As matter of fact I wouldn't even posted our work in the internet if I had local help or could remake the entire game myself, but alas i still have a lot to learn about modeling, texturing, scripting, etc...

Let's just hope they decide in the future to pick the CT series again, and hope that even without the Dream Team they can achieve something CT worthy.
The problem is that seems that won't happen in the near future... or the future at all...

SilentMartyr

  • Magical Dreamer (+1250)
  • *
  • Posts: 1373
    • View Profile
    • http://www.chronotrigger.info
CTRP gets C&D letter; Compendium status
« Reply #14 on: May 27, 2005, 01:32:07 pm »
Who says there isn't going to be a dream team if the next installment is made?