Sega Turning Into Mr. Hyde Again

Yeah...not much else to say this time besides report the news. Well, Good Old Sega is back again, thought you should know that.

First is this copyright on gameplay mechanics. You know, stuff like "press arrow buttons to move the character" or some nonsense that you'd have to be really petty to care about. Anyway, Sega is suing Level-5 for making some innocuous video game (Inazuma Eleven, popular in Japan) that really shouldn't bother anyone. Apparently, Sega patented the ability to move characters by touching the screen. Yes, it's that broad of a patent. And it's not just for the $11 million in cash--Sega is demanding that Level-5 stop selling eight of these Inazuma Eleven games.

...Wow, they're outright trying to kill games. That's a horrible thing to imagine especially if you worked on these games yourself. And it's not even straight-up ripoffs like Zynga's The Ville (read my take) or a Chinese knockoff, this is some original series of video games that are trying to get taken down. And just for informative purposes, it seems the first Inazuma Eleven game came out EDIT: 4 years ago (thanks GameFAQs, you lie).  So it took Sega THAT long to get around to this? Oh, and didn't Nintendo do something like this before with a game called Super Mario DS?

Maybe there is something going on in the Sega war room we really don't know about (i.e. Level-5 pissed in Sega's corn flakes) but with the Japanese game industry going to crap and "scumbag" companies are starting rise like Capcom and Sony, it really helps if Sega watches its own ass since it's been in hot water for the last 10 years, dropping all its franchises, particularly Sonic, on their heads.

... Which reminds me that Sega has pulled this patent nonsense before. Our beloved Crazy Taxi has a patent on its core gameplay features. See the "invention" description:

SUMMARY OF THE "INVENTION" from the US Patent Website

One object of the present invention is to provide a game display method and an apparatus which permits people to be present in virtual space, such as a city or others, while not permitting cruel images, as of colliding with the people to be avoided. 

Another object of the present invention is to provide a moving direction indication method which can make direction indications which are easy to be understood by operators freely moved in the virtual space, such as a city or others, and a game apparatus. 

Further another object of the present invention is to provide a game display method and a game apparatus which can make displays which are easily understandable for an operator who gets, in a virtual space, such as a city or others, a specific object and carries the object to a destination. 

Further another object of the present invention is to provide a drive simulation method which can provide real driving feeling....it goes on and on. Who wants to sit through 50 pages of this monotony?

HEY HEY HEY!!  COME ON IN AND CHALLENGE OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY!!!

In other words, Sega patented the right for video game pedestrians not to be run over by reckless drivers. That and the green compass and telling people to drive to point A on the map. God forbid someone actually tries not to get run over in a video game. Well, that's what Carmageddon and GTA went for...just run 'em over.  Leave bloody tiremarks.  Mutiny averted!  Lawsuits & complaints by US Government officials, yes.  But Sega, no, you're safe from them.

Well, not for Fox Interactive...they released The Simpsons: Road Rage in 2001 which played out similar to Crazy Taxi. Sega sued in 2003 and they settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. You could challenge it if you felt like it, but all the time & money wasted just to win a macho head game vs. Sega wasn't really worth it...just settle and put it behind you.

Now I only have limited knowledge on intellectual property and the law though (I did have a run in a few times with YouTube's copyright police). I'm not a slip & fall lawyer. I respect patents but how vague can you get with these things--trying to push vague ideas as patents or "inventions." And also this, pertaining to the Crazy Taxi--was Sega just scared that someone would make a better racing game than they could? Um, no one could make a better Crazy Taxi than Sega can. Besides, people called out The Simpsons: Road Rage for being derivative so it's not like someone stole Sega's racing mojo. They are still the king.

Maybe Sega deserves props for "gaming" the system properly...hey, they got some money out of the thing. You play the "game" of game design, prepare to lose...

Also worth mentioning that our good friend Namco has a patent on "minigames in loading screens", as such:

5. A method of loading games program code means from a recording medium into a games machine and performing predetermined processing therewith, wherein a main-game program code means and an auxiliary program code means are stored in said recording medium and when said games program code means is loaded and processed, said auxiliary program code means is loaded first in response to an initialization program in said games machine and then said main-game program code means is loaded.

In other words, auxiliary program = mini-game. Wow, my head hurts trying to read this. But anyway, very creative concept you came up with there, Namco. I guess by "minigame" they mean the ROM of another older game (like Xevious in Ridge Racer 6) as opposed to some buttons to click on (the slot machine from Sega All-Stars Racing). But what do I know! (see list at bottom of page).

Patenting gameplay...Betcha EA wish they thought of this sooner!  It just dawned on me...it would FRIGGIN HILARIOUS if Call of Duty's "aim down sights" mechanic was patented/trademarked.  Or Gears of War's "cover & shoot" mechanic.  And so on and so forth.  If anything like this really happened, you'd see how imbecilic this Sega patent nonsense really is but on a much larger scale (sites like Reddit/Kotaku/GameFAQs would actually care).

I know I'm droning on with things that have been said on tens of hundreds of blogs before (omg copyright infringement??) but the point is this. You try to make a game. It's hard enough as it is trying to hire people, create great new ideas, work long hours to complete, advertise, and sell the thing. But then you got millions of legal landmines to avoid. If you aren't aware of every copyright & patent like "a green arrow floating above a car," then a big company like Sega or Namco is gonna zing ya like that.  Yeah, no excuse for ignorance but we all have too many issues on our plate these days to focus purely on potential lawsuit pitfalls...like trying to raise a family, pay the bills, express ourselves through works of art, and just trying not to die in general.

Then there's the second thing and that's some crazy guy at Sega taking down every single Shining Force video on YouTube. This is most certainly not new to me. If anyone submits a complaint to YouTube that a user is violating their copyright, YouTube's knee-jerk reaction is to remove the video right away. It's a serious uphill battle trying to prove your innocence to YouTube though...one reason why I've given up on that site.

Sadly, if it did come push to shove between Sega and some of these fans uploading these vids, Sega would probably win. The sad truth is that even with Fair Use, a lot of Internet content (videos, pictures, music, etc.) would get flagged purely for using someone else's content (went over this before). The good news is that 99.999% of the time, the copyright owners don't care. Look at this site. I got Daytona USA 2 wallpapers everywhere. Imagine if Sega actually cared about Daytona again, enough to want to stop anyone else from using any material from the game. That's sort of what's happening now to Shining Force. And it really, really sucks, particularly because it's so random and no one knows a "predator" waits in ambush of anyone posting Shining Force vids. From the TSSZ News article:

We never give explicit permission to use our intellectual property. However, in cases like this, we tend not to take action unless our products are slandered in the derivative works.

Best Regards,
Sega Customer Support

Translation: Sega doesn’t officially approve of fan art, fan fiction, fan games, or anything else that fans do with their properties, but they aren’t going to stop you from doing it unless you’re trying to make them look bad. For those of you out there worrying about the sanctity of Sonic the Hedgehog lets plays or other fan projects, this is as close as you’re going to get to an unofficial thumbs up to keep doing that stuff.

Good news! Sega isn't going to kill you for posting material they own! Unless you create a Streets of Rage remake (Sonic CD is okay, however). Or if you create a Sonic YTMND. Or you post a Shining Force video. Or you say Sega sucks, or something. YouTube Poops are okay still, I hope--PINGAS!!! EDIT: Dawned on me if some of this "mature" Sonic fanart is okay.  Let's show that to Sega and see what they think!

Oh boy it's confusing. The chances are very slim that anything you or I do draws the ire of lawyers, but things like that make me not want to contribute to the community...to make games, fan pages, etc. since you can get dumped on so quickly.

There's a few people that are trying to boycott Sega. But IMO, it's not necessary for two reasons: 1. It's a big corporation with employees in all different fields. Because one guy starts throwing around lawsuits/YouTube takedowns doesn't mean Yu Suzuki, the AM2 team, or even Sumo Digital thinks that way. 2. Sega's already flying a cargo jet on a blown engine or two. Go ahead and boycott. It'll just screw them even worse.  Other than Sega All-Stars Racing and the recent ports, there hasn't been a whole lot of anything Sega-related I've clamored about. For Christmas, there's Sega All-Stars Racing and...uh, Sonic Jump on the Android. And a Virtua Fighter port. There's not much left of Sega to boycott anyway.

That's all I have to say about the recent events. It's vastly disappointing but I still support Sega anyway. People aren't perfect and I hope everything is better in the end.

Super Sprint Copyright Woes

Before I get into the events of this weekend (NASCAR race, etc.), let's get this out of the way now.  Turns out that the Super Sprint 1.1 zip file was taken off SendSpace due to "copyright infringement."  Don't worry cause it's not THAT big of a deal.  I'll address what I know now.

For starters, I was NEVER notified by SendSpace at all that the file was taken down.  No e-mails, nothing.  Only due to curiosity did I log into my SendSpace account to see that the file had been taken down.  Had I never done this, I would've never known that the file didn't exist anymore.  What's up with this crap?  Sites like YouTube and SendSpace (both owned by Google) will send you e-mails for the most dumbass crap like "A user  subscribed to your channel" or "Here's the new file you uploaded" but they can't notify you when you break the rules?  Thanks, SendSpace, a little notification would've helped here.

But f*** that, what I really want to know is what the violation was all about.  If you click on the words "Violation of Terms" next to what was once my file, it takes you here to the copyright infringement section--I highly doubt it's anything besides copyright.  So...who instigated this?  SendSpace, Warner Bros. (the current Super Sprint IP owners), or somebody else altogether?  What I assume (and this is how YouTube works) is that some Warner Bros. folks were somehow notified of the existence of this game (either from their own Google searches or word of mouth from others) and decided to send a takedown letter to SendSpace.  Therefore SendSpace was obliged to take down the file on WB's behalf.

Strange because if a copyright takedown happened on YouTube, at least you were able to contest your video if you believe it wasn't copyright infringement (counter-notice).  But here on SendSpace--it's just gone.  No warnings, no feedback from the original copyright owners, no admonishment, nothing.  I don't know how much this instigator actually played my game--they could've just glazed their eyes at the title, saw the words "Super Sprint," and then instantly removed the thing although I believe it's Fair Use if you actually play the damn game and see what's in it for yourself.

In the meanwhile, Version 1.0 still remains on SendSpace so I see this as evidence that WB was led directly to the Version 1.1 link while completely missing the 1.0 link.  Ha, I'm going to get the 1.0 version deleted too but so what--it's super outdated as it is.

I'm looking through the Fair Use laws again for the millionth time and thinking about how they apply to my version of Super Sprint.  The main reason why I think someone would get anal over my game is because I use the same exact game title.  Okay, that must be changed and now is a great time to do so.  But the rest of the game?  I use a few edited graphics and a few concepts (i.e. get wrenches to upgrade, dodge the tornadoes, pick the track using the steering wheel, etc) but is that truly enough for copyright infringement?  That's like saying I infringed on Call of Duty & Battlefield because I made a game with soldiers shooting each other with guns.  Then again, with Sega and their vague patent on the green arrow from Crazy Taxi, I'm not surprised if anyone of Viacom's sinister nature would bully any poor fool who barely scratches the surface of one of their copyrights, no matter how irrelevant it is.  Does Warner Bros. (or anyone else) have secret patents related to Super Sprint that I just don't know about?

BTW, it just dawned on me that it's not 100% guaranteed that Warner Bros. was involved.  It could be anybody else that's only slightly relevant like MicroProse, Nintendo, or even Sega.  It's ridiculous and a little more information would most certainly help.  On top of notifying you on copyright notices (not via e-mail, mind you), YouTube also references the party that claims the copyright you used such as Viacom (they're responsible for whacking 99% of all suspended YouTube users).

Anyway, besides the title, some graphics, and a few pieces of music, the rest of Super Sprint is just trace elements of "abandonware" racing games and a bunch of idea I concocted on my own.  It's not for profit and is actually a vast expansion on the original Super Sprint game as I start to combine ideas from more games than just the 1986 arcade game.  Not to mention that the Super Sprint IP was seldom used in the last 10 years--oh hey, there's rushed ports for Gameboy Advance and Playstation Network.  Do you think for a second that my version of Super Sprint will put a dent in Warner Bros. profits?  Not to mention that my version of the game was only downloaded like--what--20 times in the last few months?

If there's any guide, it's that changing the main title should be enough.  Take a look at Victory Road--the fanmade game that emulates aspects of Daytona USA and Virtua Racing.  It still has the title but it uses music,  recreated tracks, and logos from the original Sega titles.  Problem is Fair Use is an incredibly hazy thing--Sega may be chill with Victory Road but Warner Bros. may be seething over the new Super Sprint game.

I guess part of the reason why is that my Super Sprint is debatably better than the original Super Sprint, therefore Warner Bros. can't have that.  Which also explains why the Streets of Rage remake was canned by Sega because it was superior to the original version while the Sonic CD remake was saved because it was on-par with the original copy of the game.  Newsflash to all game devs--if you don't want people recreating your games then make better versions for yourself!  Seriously, at times, these programming enthusiasts can do a better job than these million-dollar studios and it makes me sick to hear about these things.

All I would like is more information from somebody at Warner Bros. (or anyone with a legal background) to give a fair explanation on what's going on here.  Sure, there's things I could do with the Super Sprint game to deviate from the original copyright but c'mon man, this is a grad student's fan game that serves to praise the original Super Sprint as well as other ancient racing titles.  But regardless, I should address any copyright issues NOW because if I plan on working on this game for many months into the future, then it's best to be safe.

I also wonder if the Warner Bros. spy played my game and actually liked it.  Gimme some feedback on the game itself too, that would be helpful :)

Finally, if I so felt like it, I could change the filenames and reupload the game on SendSpace or any other file sharing website and possibly get away with it, but that's absurd and will probably get my SendSpace account permanently banned.  Until then, if you want Version 1.1, just send me an e-mail or leave a comment to this post and I'll get back to you on that.  Also, if you have any ideas for a new title and/or want to help design new logos/title screens, let me know about that too.  I gotta go to bed, back to school in the morning, boo........

YouTube And Game Cutscenes

I was pleasantly surprised to log into YouTube about a week ago to find out that a 4+ year old video I uploaded is now "copyright infringement" and my account has a strike on it.  Tell me what else is new.

But rather than send me an e-mail of wrongdoings or come over to my house and drag me into the town square as they scorn, whip, and spit at me, I get an stern invitation to "YouTube Copyright School."

You have to watch a Happy Tree Friends video of how horrible of a person you are.  Wait--what...??  Happy Tree Friends??  Do they show the part where you're impaled by a stake or beheaded with a guillotine???  The video talk about how you can't post videos of other peoples' content and paste the words "I DON'T OWN THIS CONTENT" or "IT'S FAIR USE, I SWEAR" as an alibi.  If you do, you get a strike.  Three strikes and your account is suspended FOREVER.  If you answer the questions (not all of them are referenced in the video), you get your strike taken away...six months from now.

...But enough about me.  I don't care about those videos anyway.  So you may be wondering why these videos are taken down.  People who own the content sift through YouTube searches and mark any video that they believe violates they copyright.  But wait, what about Fair Use?  No, nothing to do with SOPA/PIPA/etc. this is just normal old copyright law.  In brief, here are the four things that are looked at to determine if it really is Fair Use:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
2. The nature of the copyrighted work (if it's a motion picture, soundtrack, video game footage, etc.).
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole (did you copy bits and pieces or the whole thing?).
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work (how much profit do you detract from the owner?).

The funny thing about Fair Use is that there's no absolute formula to figure it out.  If your video negatively applies to two or more of these, it's probably Fair Use.  If it's one (or even zero), it's probably not Fair Use. Hence, properly.  I assume most of the evil copyright police don't take the time to think whether or not it's Fair Use--they just mark the video and move on.  If you disagree with the mark, you can reply with a counter-notice (a document that says "it's Fair Use, STFU") but it's such a mess I wouldn't bother with it unless you're absolutely certain.

Now for how it pertains to video games.  It's funny because when you think about it, there's a hough-jazz amount of video game clips out there.  And in theory, most or all of them violate copyright in some way.  And not just unedited footage but montages, guides, paradies (specifically and supposedly covered by Fair Use), YouTube Poops, and fan stuff in general. The only reason why there isn't this mass eradication of YouTube videos is because frankly, most game companies don't care or have the patience to deal with it.

I read somewhere that as video games become more cutscene-based, that you're seeing more and more of these long ass cutscenes, these "Let's Play"s, or whatever.  Stuff from games like Mass Effect, Halo, Heavy Rain, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto.  And, in some sort of a sick way, they can deter people from actually buying the game.  Part of all these massive games is the curiosity of figuring out and unlocking stuff.  And with the opportunity to just cut through all the "lousy" gameplay you don't like and see everything for yourself, spoilers and all.


Honestly, folks, you have no reason to play this game now.

Let's take Heavy Rain.  I already talked about this game before.  In terms of gameplay, it's all walking around and QTE's.  There's a couple of things you can do to change the outcome but not much else besides go from stage to stage.  What if don't feel like playing it?  Or buying it?  Or buying the PS3 required to play it?  Just look at a YouTube movie.  Problem solved...sort of.  Not the same thing as playing it but you get some "entertainment" from watching it.  Enough to divert a couple of folks like me.

PRESS X TO JASON

This whole topic may sound asinine to some cause playing the actual game is best way to go.  Hey, I'm not denying that.  Nor am I suggesting that all game cutscenes should be removed from YouTube.  It's just strange that in the face of DRM's, anti-used game policy, tons of DLC, etc., one of the most back-handed ways of "cheating" the system is right in front of you.  It's as if an avalanche is being held back by a single stone and no one's nudging it.  Some game companies have caught on and start putting ads in front of their vids which probably infers that's the farthest they're willing to go.

...doesn't really bother me anyway.  I like production value in my games but personally, I'm a "gameplay guy."   Only exception is Shenmue which is awesome.  The rest of you crappy games can go to hell.

But actually, back on the subject of game companies--it seems completely random which companies want to take down copyrighted  footage.  I knew a YouTube guy named Howard Cneal.  Basically, he had mounds of ROMs on his computer for lots of vintage consoles (Famicom, Super Famicom, 32X, GBA, X6800, Amiga) and would "review" each for two-three minutes and make ridiculous commentary about them.  Somehow, he pissed off some relatively non-descript JRPG company like Atlus and then his account was swiftly removed.  He obviously stopped uploading videos after that.  It's really funny that a few obsolete movies can tick off a few people and then the harshest of penalties are dealt.

Bear in mind, that this whole time, we're just focused on video game footage.  Same thing applies to TV, movies, music, etc. but much worse.  Watch out for Viacom!!  They will molest you the first, second, and third chance they get.  Oh, the YouTube leviathan...don't f*** with YouTube.


Evil TV footage eroding the corporate culture of the Internet.  BTW, this show is boss.

BTW, your YouTube account is also binded with Google and Blogspot.  If my YouTube account was suspended some day, does that affect my Blogspot account?  What if Google concludes that I'm a troublemaker who doesn't deserve a blog?  Why do they instill us--err...me with such paranoia?

Sadly, if SOPA passed, it would've been much worse.  Remember the "recording of little girl singing Lady Gaga" example.  Apparently, according to SOPA, that's pure evil and may result in jail time.  So throw Fair Use out the window there.  And it would've been nauseating to watch the nukes & fallout all over YouTube. I'm just glad that bill is gone...for now.  We're fans of games.  That's why we make YouTubes, fan sites, blogs, etc.  Cut us a break since we're all empty on the inside.

I won a can!

Still, Shenmue defies all the rules cause it's awesome.  I refuse to spoil the game by watching the cutscenes.  You know what, I keep hearing all this talk on Reddit and elsewhere about the overwhelming desire for a Half-Life 3.  Valve is a rich nice guy, Gabe Newell is a billionaire who replies to your e-mails, etc. so bring us Half-Life 3.  That game will inevitably come out, that's for sure.  But you know what--WE WANT SHENMUE 3!!!  DO IT, YU SUZUKI, AND BALANCE WILL BE RESTORED TO GAMING FOREVER!!!  Well, that, or Daytona USA 3.

Though I wouldn't mind a Half Life 3...wait, cardboard signs outside Valve???  We need to do something like this Sega.

------------

EDIT: NVM, I've seen the light.  Thanks Reddit cause this is 100% true.

These YT videos are so craptastic they aren't obstructing anyone's copyrights.  But I would like to see 'em taken down anyway.