Straight Talk Express with the Compendium...Next Stop: Truth

[RySenkari]

That's still pretty bad, considering this time is an important time in their lives, what with college and possibly buying a home. It might not completely ruin the CE guys' lives, but it would muck them up pretty badly, whereas not getting to play CE wouldn't muck up our lives all that badly.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Yeah, if someone thinks it's so easy to go ahead and release Crimson Echoes and fight any potential lawsuits that follow suit, I say, by all means, take Crimson Echoes and release it yourself.  You can shoulder that responsibility and fight it yourself (legal fees and court costs included).

[Samopoznanie]

I was just thinking, wouldn't it be great if we could just pay the $150,000 fine and tell SE to shove it... looking at the member database here, there's something like 3242 registered users here... they don't all post of course. But doing the math, that would only be something like $45 each to put in the pot and appease SE. Something to bear in mind for the future, maybe. It's been done before. The coach of the Edmonton Oilers was fined something like $12,000 for cussing at a referee in one game, over a blown call. The hockey community was so pissed, they raised the money in the course of a few days and sent it to him. He donated it charity.

Obviously, 150K is a much bigger sum, but the internet has a global reach.

[FaustWolf]

Thing is, it's $150,000 per infringement. What counts as an infringement? The patch over all, or each and every single copy of the patch that makes it into people's hands?

I honestly don't know.

[MDenham]

Thing is, it's $150,000 per infringement. What counts as an infringement? The patch over all, or each and every single copy of the patch that makes it into people's hands?

I honestly don't know.

This is so not going to reassure you, but I think it depends on the judge and, for that matter, on what SE's lawyers would decide.

[FaustWolf]

...Soooo, yeah. That probably has something to do with why we're taking leaks so seriously and banning people even for toying around and posting false leaks.

[joemomma]

found this on http://www.romhacking.net/docs/rhnewbfaq.txt

0106: Is ROM hacking legal?

 This is a gray area, but for the most part it's not. ROMs contain
 copyrighted material, thus editing it is infringing on the copyright.
 ROM hackers get around this by releasing patches instead of actual
 edited ROMs. The patches don't contain any information copyrighted by
 the game's publisher, only a set of changes made by the ROM hacker.

and I found two copyright lawyers who provide free consultation

Russ Weinzimmer
Boston, MA
(866) 880-2318

and

Jeffrey D. Hunt
(866) 959-3168
Austin, TX

more info on copyright laws here

Copyright Infringement and Remedies
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html

[FaustWolf]

Nice finds joemama! I'll pass this up the ladder.

[RySenkari]

Yeah, if someone thinks it's so easy to go ahead and release Crimson Echoes and fight any potential lawsuits that follow suit, I say, by all means, take Crimson Echoes and release it yourself.  You can shoulder that responsibility and fight it yourself (legal fees and court costs included).

The problem is that no one person can actually do that. Even if we all could get some guy who'd be willing to take all the legal burden on his shoulders, tell him to pose as a hacker and start sending the patch to all the torrents, Square would still come after Zeality and his crew even if we made it seem like it was all this "hacker"'s fault.

Thing is, it's $150,000 per infringement. What counts as an infringement? The patch over all, or each and every single copy of the patch that makes it into people's hands?

I honestly don't know.

Eh, I don't know. Say 10,000 of these patches were distributed. There's no way Square could or would sue for $1.5 billion. There's getting blood from a turnip and then there's getting an ocean of blood from a turnip. Past $150,000, it wouldn't matter. You guys don't have it and it would ruin your lives whether they got a settlement for $150,000 or $150 billion.

Hell, maybe we should hope that they would sue for $150 billion. Judge would see the lawsuit as frivolous and tell Square to go to hell.

[blarg]

wikipedia says Statutory damages are calculated per work infringed

here is the law on damages they used as a source if anybody wants to try and understand it.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/504.html#c

Think positive! if the judge likes you it could be the minimum $200

Also don't forget Square would get a loooooot more negative news about them if they did sue anybody that I'm sure they'd like to avoid.

[RySenkari]

The thing is, is $150,000 worth of damage really being done? I doubt there's any way a judge would rule for the full $150,000 in this situation.

[FalconHit]

On the the other hand, I could think of a lot better things to spend $150 000 dollars on then a ROM hack. Honestly, I wouldn't even want to put $45 into "the pot" to support "the cause". If we are speaking honestly that is.

[Chrono'99]

It's $150,000 for the infringement, not $150,000 for the game to be released. It's not like you can pay the sum and just be done with it; the game would still be deleted and forbidden any way you look at it.

[blarg]

Once it is released there is nothing square or the courts can do to delete or forbid it from the Internet. Prophet's guile is still hosted on romhacking.net and zophar and a bunch of other sites. I wonder why Square isn't C&Ding them for that and all the other romhacks on their sites. Doesn't seem fair

The romhacking.net legal opinion was posted so I guess I'll show zophar.net's they seem much more sure about it.

There is no illegal content hosted on Zophar's Domain. Files such as emulators, hacks, utilities and other programs that can be used to modify or use copyrighted content themselves are not illegal, and although it is a wet dream for the departments of some companies, they never will be illegal.

The emulation scene and this site has been alive for over a decade, and we will forever be here.

If you wish to contact us due to any concerns, please use the contact form or post in the forums.

[phelph]

Once it is released there is nothing square or the courts can do to delete or forbid it from the Internet. Prophet's guile is still hosted on romhacking.net and zophar and a bunch of other sites. I wonder why Square isn't C&Ding them for that and all the other romhacks on their sites. Doesn't seem fair

Thats a good point. Prophets guile is still on romhacking.net. Square doesnt care, and to be honest probably doesnt care about any of this.