Oh my god, I just finished reading your link... those people are - best put - the devil himself.
Righthaven is indisputably heinous, yes. Evil, even. But at least they will be humbled in time, due to their abuses. They've already lost a case that has caused them to rein in some of their worst excesses.
Rather, the thing that is
more disturbing to me than malicious copyright trolling is the fact that many people choose to submit in confrontations like these, where the act of submission has a chilling effect on free speech. And their reason? Why would people choose such a terrible surrender? Because of their personal cowardice, and nothing else.
I've seen this many times over the years. People talk a good game about the value of free speech to them, but, when faced with a true crisis, most are cowards about it. They'd give up free speech in a heartbeat if they think resistance would cost them money or cause them inconvenience. This is how tyranny prevails in human civilization. Even when one's physical safety is not at risk, such as in the case of intellectual property disputes in America, people will still choose to submit in the face of injustice if they stand to lose social status, property, or mere comfort. Some will submit even when there is no credible threat at all.
Most people are not worthy of the great gift of free speech. Most people have nothing to say, nor any desire to promote justice. Most people want nothing more than to preserve and advance themselves.
I saw a lot of that in the aftermath of Square Enix's C&D demand on Crimson Echoes. Some of the people commenting in the public threads were saying that we should disregard SE entirely and continue to distribute the game, thereby demonstrating their obliviousness to the legal ramifications of such a course of action. That kind of attitude is run-of-the-mill stupidity. But others were saying that we should capitulate entirely. They were very upset at the worst-case scenario prospects of a Compendium shutdown, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal damages, and the complete demise of fan game projects under the Squeenix umbrella--even though the worst-case scenario was extremely unlikely, and, even if it did come to pass, would barely affect them.
I have little respect or patience for people who are that abjectly submissive. People are so quick to throw their principles out the window when confronted by even a minor threat. The educational system in this country has not done a good job of instilling into people a passion for the right to free speech. But perhaps the task is impossible. Perhaps many or most people are incapable of grasping such high passion. I hope I'm wrong.
Sometimes, you have to be willing to defend yourself. People who stand for nothing are worth nothing. I imagine that living a life of such submissiveness would be torturous. Cowardice is its own punishment.
~~~
It's safe to assume that the version I am playing was completed in secret my those allied with the Compendium (or at least the creator's vision of the game).
I don't think it's productive to speculate on who made the leak, given that we know Square Enix will view the leak unfavorably. The CE video walkthrough was complete enough that it could have inspired anybody with access to a late version of the ROM. If the leaked version is true to the artistic vision of the development team, then as an artist and a writer I'm glad for that, but I wouldn't assume for a moment that any of the team leaked it themselves. Why? Because SE has made it problematic for the development team if such a thing were to be true. SE has shut down communication with the fan community short of legal threats, and they're not going to change their position because they do not have the vision to recognize the benefit in doing so.
We, therefore, having complied with their insultingly over-the-top C&D demand in 2009, owe SE nothing further. Let them do their own dirty work of prosecuting their most devoted fans. I was just talking about the value of free speech. Well, if Crimson Echoes is the free speech at issue here, then the community can do a little bit, at no cost to ourselves, to protect that free speech by not speculating as to who finished developing it and who leaked it. It doesn't matter. CE stands by itself as a work of art, regardless of how it came to be here.
I will keep you updated.
That'd be great. I don't have time to play it for myself, so it'd be nice to learn whether the ending of the leaked version is consistent with the vision of the development team.
