Cease & Desist Letter

[Shinkinrui]

Hello. Long time reader, first-time poster. I'm very sad to see this happen, I was very much looking forward to playing this game. My heart goes out to everyone who contributed to this project over the years. I do some work with a little team on a fan project of our own, and I would be devastated if this happened to us.

Anyway, I haven't seen this mentioned in this thread yet, so I thought I'd throw this idea into the discussion bucket:

If you do decide to go forward with this "counter-offer" idea, might I suggest trying to convince SE to take the completed work and release it as a Wiiware game using the Virtual Console software? From the little research I've put into it, the Virtual Console is just an emulator and you can plug any ROM into it and you've got yourself a release. The Wii hackers out there are already doing it with great results from what I understand. It would probably be a relatively simple matter of having it go through whatever QA and ESRB processes are needed. SE gets a quick and easy Wiiware release, and we get the game we want. Of course, this all depends on a great number of things, not the least of which is if you all are willing to give SE your work and have them sell it. I wonder if they'd be willing to even consider letting you have a small percentage of the profit if this were to become reality? Heh, fun to imagine.

So there's my idea on this matter. Thoughts?

[Magus_Brokenhart]

I wonder if Japan SE has any control on America's SE. If so, all deals should be struck with the first group. SE does not seem to care enough for the fans to strike out any type of deal.

[reidman]

This is one of those rare things that makes me feel like MOTHER / EarthBound fans are lucky. We might not get re-releases (or releases, period, heh), but at least Nintendo is kind enough to look the other way when we release hacks and translations :S

As a CT fan I think this sucks, but as a proponent of fan-stuff I suspect that this will be a turning point which helps define how fans and publishers interact in the future. The effort and subsequent value created by fans is clearly lost on a lot of the companies who publish the games we love, but I genuinely believe that one day they'll have more respect for our efforts. I don't think that's an unrealistic expectation, either -- some companies, like Capcom and Atlus, already seem to be way ahead of the curve.

It's hard to do at times like this, but stay positive and keep your chins¹ up.

¹ You know, in the collective sense. Not implying the existence of double chins or anything ;D

Edit: Regarding Shinkinrui's message, not to be a wet blanket, but it's very unrealistic to expect that SE will even pause to consider a licensing scheme for the game, much less a collaborative solution like WiiWare. Things just don't work that way with IP in the gaming industry, especially not with companies like SE

[_Richter_]

I was really looking forward to having CT:CE own my free time. 

If a game based on CT:CE (with entirely new characters with the same story) would be created, I'd have it rather than the remakes! My SNES cart is still a keeper though.

[V_Translanka]

Companies should allow for ROM hacking contest where they steal the, say, top 3 and publish them as their own games. Easy money. Win win.

[satchel_dawg]

i'm kind of curious, if you were to create CE in a game making software wouldn't that be legal, i mean CE doesn't have to die completely just in rom form.

[Geiger]

If this is real (and I have doubts), Square Enix is wrong.  Nothing Temporal Flux does or the hacks it can create are illegal under the law.  SE can't even claim "copy protection" as the ROM file is on the Chrono Trigger PSX release which is just a regular old CD, nevermind that the courts have repeatedly determined media format alone to not be equivalent to "protection".

At any rate, since it looks like the Compendium won't be doing anything at all with ROM hacks in the future, and that was my sum total involvement here, I'll be signing off.  Any future posts will be at other ROM hacking sites.  Even if they shut down those too, I'll continue to work on Temporal Flux for my own personal use.

Sayonara.

[povuholo]

The team planned to release Crimson Echoes on May 31, 2009 as the first feature-length fan Chrono series game

Seriously, was it that close? I thought you were still a month or two away or something like that (not that that's much)...

Less than three weeks... Sheesh. 

[KebreI]

If this is real (and I have doubts), Square Enix is wrong.  Nothing Temporal Flux does or the hacks it can create are illegal under the law.  SE can't even claim "copy protection" as the ROM file is on the Chrono Trigger PSX release which is just a regular old CD, nevermind that the courts have repeatedly determined media format alone to not be equivalent to "protection".

At any rate, since it looks like the Compendium won't be doing anything at all with ROM hacks in the future, and that was my sum total involvement here, I'll be signing off.  Any future posts will be at other ROM hacking sites.  Even if they shut down those too, I'll continue to work on Temporal Flux for my own personal use.

Sayonara.

I've been saying this! Companies put every threat they can in a C&D letter hoping that we will stop everything, after all C&D letters aren't actual legal documents.

[sentey]

Why the fuck do u care for that letter?!?!?!?! YOU ARE THE FANS, THEY DEPEND ON YOU TO MAKE MONEY!!!!! LEARN IT ALREADY!!!!! FUCK SQUARE ENIX. U have to tell them "we will continue and if u threaten us again we'll boycot u"  (a simpley hack VS lots of money)

Anyway, you still have a way to continue with Crimson Echoes,
1) Fisrt u say "well ok we'll shut everything down, so to wash your hands (lavarse las manos por si no se entiende) and later say we don't have anything to do with it
2) MOVE THE PROYECT TO TOR (The Onion Router, www.torproject.org ) so u'll stay anonymous (they can't soe the air), put up a hidden service and there u have your project totaly protected
3) Say u don't know anything about it, or who is behind it, that apparently, someone continued from a leak or something
4) If you are going to do it, at least delet this post so they don't suspect (or delete the second paragraph)
Well, i hope u SAVE the project, and fight back. Just like TPB is fighting agains the riaa, mpaa and others.

[Metal Gear Flaccid]

Alright. I'm done. Sorry guys, I was mostly hanging around here waitng for CE. And now? Nothing for me here.
Bye.

[Magus_Brokenhart]

I don't like seeing the Compendium split apart so much. The dickish move was done by SE, not Kato or the Compendium. I will continue to be part of the forum until it dies off (Hopefully it will not). Hey, I finally leveled up to **!

[beelzebub06660]

I WAS actually looking forward to playing a professional looking Chrono Trigger ROMhack. Unfortunately I read the news yesterday morning before work, it literally pissed me off all day long, and I had to work a double shift. The whole day I debated with myself about the validity (realness) of the C7D letter. Whether this was real or just a clever way of shrugging ones' obligations in a way to make it look like it wasn't their fault. I have resigned myself to the fact that this is most likely real. What the hell has Squeenix done to further the Chrono Trigger storyline since it's original release on SNES/SFC? Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross never seemed like actual sequels to me (Gaidens at most). When you have the likes of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama creating a game like Chrono Trigger, how can you hope to put out a worth-while sequel without them? By Squeenix's use of the Chrono Trigger IP (CT:DS) I can see they agree, since all they did was rehash what those three brilliant minds created.

Why can't Squeenix be a bit more lenient with fan works? Starmen.net has had several full Earthbound hacks come come from it's members and they haven't gotten a C&D from Nintendo, to my knowledge. They even did a English fan translation of Mother 3 without getting a C&D. Of course Nintendo pretty much said it wasn't ever going to come out in the US. Although it is a somewhat different situation at Starmen.net than you guys are faced with here. Seeing as how they are dealing with a different companies IP, Nintendo as opposed to Squeenix. The established stance that Sqeenix has with fangames in general is much more negative.

In the long run I'm kinda glad I didn't get too into TF, and hacking Chrono Trigger. Squeenix will crush all hopes of a decent, complete, Chrono Trigger romhack/fangame. Since there will be no "guerilla ROMhacking" I guess I'll stick to working on my Earthbound ROMhack, at least I won't have to worry about a C&D, just how I'm going to find the time to finish it.

[sentey]

i'll answer why.....MONEY
Square Enix gives a shit about its games' fans, they made a Name that sells, so they are exploiting it.

i'll say it again MOVE TO TOR or at least if someone start a new project, host it on tor,  so no C&D letter would be of use

[Lilka]

...you do realize SE already has names, addresses, and identities of the main creators of CE, right?  So even if you "go underground", if it shows up at any time on the internet, they can be prosecuted.  It's not like you can just re-become anonymous like this was a GTA game or something.