On May 8, we received a wide-reaching cease and desist letter from Square Enix, Inc. As with Chrono Trigger: Resurrection and Chrono Trigger Remake Project's letters, we have uploaded the letter for viewing here as a matter of public interest.
We have decided to comply with Square Enix's demands. Most of the Chrono Compendium webpages and forums will be unaffected by these changes. However, our compliance has the practical effect of ending the Compendium's support for ROM modification projects of any kind, with regard to copyrighted Square Enix works such as Chrono Trigger, Radical Dreamers, and Chrono Cross. We have already destroyed all known copies of Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes and other modifications and projects. We have also shut down and made inaccessible any discussion boards used for the development of ROM-hacking fan projects on this website, including:
Affected parties may contact the administration in private if there is any personal information they wish to retrieve from the deprecated forums.
We do not accept the validity of Square Enix's claims, nor the legal rationale underpinning their position. Nonetheless, we are complying with their demands so as to avoid the expenses and burdens of litigation, because, frankly, they can afford a frivolous lawsuit more than we can.
We thank all those who have been involved in the affected projects for their spirited energy over the years, and we look forward to the day when non-profit, fan-made projects will be properly recognized as a fan-base boon and marketing opportunity tool, rather than silenced as innocent victims of prohibitively interpreted copyright law.
Sincerely,
ZeaLitY and the Chrono Compendium Staff
For those who don't know, the Chrono Compendium is probably your nr. 1 stop for anything Chrono Trigger related. It's the fansite. Be it stuff about the game in general, talking to fellow fans or looking at development history.
I've previously contributed to them with a tiny piece of alpha footage from an old V-Jump tape and I've recently been in talks with someone there about contributing with more random stuff from my own archive of stuff.
I'm actually wondering why Square-Enix is being so (in lack of a better term) anal about pretty much anything Chrono Trigger related (*cough*Resurrection*cough*)
Square shutting down Resurrection was understandable, seeing as that fan project was attempting to remake the original game entirely in 3D. It probably isn't in Square's best interest to let a free fan version of their own game that might have possibly surpassed the original floating around. (Though personally I doubt it would've. I'd be surprised if that project even got finished, if a cease and desist had never happened.)
Shutting down rom hacks does seem to be going a tad far though. I just hope this isn't something Square Enix plans on cracking down heavily on, as I wouldn't like this to affect fan translations of their games.
Also I don't know if they seriously claimed a copyright on the name of their hack, as that letter claims, but if they did that wasn't a very smart move.
Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 576 Location: confirmed
Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 7:41 am Post subject:
I'm just amazed by Square-Enix bringing out the big guns like that.
While every single game company out there seems to've been digging into the whole community thing, Square-Enix still lives in the stone age (which is certainly evident by how they still fail at having world wide releases for their big, major titles and stuff.)
Also, gotta love the part where they wrote the following in the C&D letter:
We hereby request and demand that you immediately remove, take down, delete and destroy all work product on CT:CE, as well as all other Square Enix-related ROM hacks currently on your sites (including, but not limited to, Prophet's Guile).
The official Crimson Echoes website is also updated with the following (elaborating a bit on the effort put into the game, the pre-C&D planned release date, etc...):
Quote:
Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes was a fan project modification of the Chrono Trigger ROM begun in late 2004. Development continued thanks to a dedicated group of fans through 2009. By May 2009, the game featured ~35 hours of game play, 10 multiple endings, and 23 chapters, much like the original Chrono Trigger; it was around 98% complete. The plot featured the original cast as they struggled against a new villain risen from the legacy of Zeal.
The team planned to release Crimson Echoes on May 31, 2009 as the first feature-length fan Chrono series game, and an unprecedentedly exhaustive work in the ROM modification community. On May 8, 2009, Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes received a cease & desist letter, along with all other game modification activity (even research) at the Chrono Compendium. In compliance with the letter, the development team ceased development on the game, and existing modifications (including Prophet's Guile) were taken down.
We thank those fans who followed the game's development, and also those who poured countless hours into the vision of a fun, new Chrono game, made by fans for fans without copyright claim or intent to make profit.
We understand the frustration. I sincerely hope this action is a sign that Square Enix cares about the franchise and intends to produce future titles, and not merely a shortsighted legal exercise that will further alienate a tired, neglected fan-base.
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 327 Location: Henderson, NV
Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 11:23 pm Post subject:
ArnoldRimmer83 wrote:
Shutting down rom hacks does seem to be going a tad far though. I just hope this isn't something Square Enix plans on cracking down heavily on, as I wouldn't like this to affect fan translations of their games.
What really boggles my mind is that I seem to recall one of the GBA Final Fantasy rererereleases having a NPC in a hidden room mocking one of the "retranslations" of a Final Fantasy game; I think it might've been about FF6's (awful) retranslation, even.
So it's kind of odd that they know this stuff exists, but only went after this Chrono Trigger hack.
As for my thoughts on it, this sets a very, very bad precedent, and I really hope nothing else goes on.
On a side-note, however, someone pointed out that the ROM really doesn't have any "copy protection" (as evidenced by it being dumpable by any novice with a dumper, from what I've heard) among other things.
But yeah, if the readme did include the copyright claim, that was just dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
Joined: 30 Oct 2003 Posts: 102 Location: Austin TX
Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:04 am Post subject:
Xkeeper wrote:
What really boggles my mind is that I seem to recall one of the GBA Final Fantasy rererereleases having a NPC in a hidden room mocking one of the "retranslations" of a Final Fantasy game; I think it might've been about FF6's (awful) retranslation, even.
Nintendo handled the English-language localization and publishing for the FF GBA games, though, not Square Enix.
Quite often, the lawyers are not working in the best interests of the company they represent. I'm sure the lawyers see this as black and white theft of intellectual property, something tells me that if they had gone to squeenix, they would have been told to back off for the time being.
Take a look at what happened when Epic's lawyers started going after fan art and people making one-off dolls from the Gears of War franchise. Mark Reign had to personally take control and put the lawyers back in their cage. Mark might be a giant tool, but I really do believe he was pissed off that the lawyers were attacking the fanbase.
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 327 Location: Henderson, NV
Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 5:28 pm Post subject:
ProgrammingAce wrote:
Take a look at what happened when Epic's lawyers started going after fan art and people making one-off dolls from the Gears of War franchise. Mark Reign had to personally take control and put the lawyers back in their cage. Mark might be a giant tool, but I really do believe he was pissed off that the lawyers were attacking the fanbase.
Makes me wonder what would happen if one of them sent the original developer(s) of CT this game, heh. (Probably be deleted without being read)
Interesting take on it, though. Legal teams seem to be the cause behind most problems in general.
Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 578 Location: 33.884906 | -84.053758
Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:00 am Post subject:
anarchy99 wrote:
Nintendo handled the English-language localization and publishing for the FF GBA games, though, not Square Enix.
AAAAAAAHAHAHAHHAA I'm sorry, I love this.
Weren't most of the GBA retranslations done by someone on SA (if not a goon, a SA fan? FF4 GBA had a SA reference.
To stay on topic, it does seem odd that Squeenix leaves the FF hacks/fan stuff well enough alone, but go absolutely apeshit over Chrono Trigger. Especially considering that, well, the most they've done with it was re-release CT.
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