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.

NASCAR Ass-Kicking

Everyone who watches NASCAR knows I'm going to cover this so here goes.

To set the stage, Jeff Gordon (#24) and Clint Bowyer (#15) had a bit of a rivalry going on for months.  Late in the race, Gordon and Bowyer rub cars and Gordon's car is subsequently damaged.  Enraged and blaming Bowyer for deliberately hitting him, Gordon slows down and waits for Bowyer before hitting him again, sending Bowyer and two innocent drivers into the wall.  Bear in mind that Bowyer was 3rd in the Chase standings and had he finished strong here, he had an outside shot at winning the Chase championship next race at Miami-Homestead.  But no--Gordon took Bowyer out of the Chase altogether.  Over the radio, Gordon said he deliberately hit Bowyer.  What happened was Gordon getting ambushed by Bowyer's team and Bowyer running to yell at Gordon.  In other words, it was like a monkey f***ing a football so you must watch the whole video.

"That was a real act of a champion."
5 Hour Energy.  When you gotta whip someone's ass.

This is not the first or last time this has happened (here's some rubbin & racin).  I don't know what to say.  I still stand by what I said before and that is race car driving is the most frustrating of all the competitive events.  Well Jeff Gordon, a four-time championship winner, had flushed his reputation down the drain, at least for the moment.  Over one stupid thing.   Could've thrown a brick through Bowyer's house window or spike his coffee (Dumb & Dumber style) but no, had to wreck cars.  And this is an interesting story but in a Jerry Springer/Maury way.  It's not good and it makes us look like a bunch of idiots.  I know I mentioned "vigilante justice" and how Bowyer supposedly had it coming to him, but this is embarassing and Gordon should get his ass parked for the last race of the season, maybe more.  Goodbye AARP Drive to End Hunger!  Now old people will starve.

EDIT: Hey look, here's Brad the Champ cursing out Gordon and Bowyer.  Brad explains the difference between racing hard and racing stupid.  Well said.  This is Brad's Chase to lose and two idiots are taking the moment away from him.  Warning: Profanity, but who cares.

Hilarious, I'm watching Speed Channel and there's a Hendrick Motorspots 200 Win Special, crowning Jeff Gordon's ass.  Yet, at the same time, Speed's airing the Kurt Busch: Outlaw Special.  So basically, according to Speed, Jeff Gordon = good, Kurt Busch = bad.  My how the tables have turned.  I can only imagine how the next episode of the Michael Waltrip Racing Special will turn out.  Also, why is everything on TV a "special" anyway?

So the race was red-flagged with a G-W-C finish (basically two laps to decide a winner).  After sitting on your ass for some amount of time watching these idiots fight, the race goes on.  Our beloved Danica Patrick hits the wall on the first lap and starts limping to the finish line.  No yellow flag!  Somehow Danica's car drops invisible oil (again) and this causes a few cars to spin out and ignite going across the finish line.  Brilliant finish.

In other words, NASCAR is now about a bunch of s*** blowing up.  I almost feel ashamed especially how everyone was cheering on Jimmie Johnson to crash and not get his 6th Chase win (which is the case as it's now Brad's chase to lose).  Eh, if Richard Petty and Dale Sr. could win 7 championships, who said Jimmie can't win 6?  I made this quote up: "Everybody loves a winner.  Everyone hates a repeat winner."  Stop hating on successful people already, sheesus.  Wait, I changed my mind, I don't care what happens to Johnson.  Also, as much as I hate Burnout, I'd much rather you take out your aggression in that game than in real-life.  Enough of the Haterade, NASCAR sucks.

... Okay, I'll leave with one video.  Watch this guys, even if you screw up and are disliked by everyone, there is hope for redemption.  The Darrell Waltrip Experience.

EDIT AGAIN: Just some stupid crap that went down.  So the first Jeff Gordon-Clint Bowyer video I embedded was taken down due to copyright.  From a YouTube user called "imJustTheGOAT."  Who then proceeded to upload the same clip again under his account.  I presume this guy doesn't own NASCAR footage so why is he taking down other NASCAR clips and re-uploading them under his account?  Just to stroke his massive ego?  Stupid YouTube, I can't believe they allow this crap.  Ruining websites with bad videos and getting accounts suspended for copyright infringement from guys who don't even own the copyright, what a piece of s***.

Congratulations, YouTube Users, You're Viewed As Criminals Now

At first, we were all jovial about the Supreme Court ruling that permits retailers to sell M-rated games to minors, but that's peanuts compared to this next bill...

I'm pretty sure everyone's heard about this US Congress bill S.978 which makes streaming or uploading various types of media (including video games) illegal and worthy of jail time.  The irony that this was discussed on July 4th, America's birthday in which we celebrate the freedoms we have.  Now I don't think this will get passed, but really, do we need more vague regulations as it is?  In a country where you can't even dig a hole or buy a toilet without getting hit in the face with some red tape?

A lot of this article talks about streaming.  I know jack about streaming--I'm mainly focused on uploading YouTube videos.  It's not as if we're already getting our asses kicked by copyright infringement (random vids getting pulled left and right).  Fun fact--I actually did get suspended from YouTube years ago by uploading three short clips from movies/TV: Home Alone 2, Office Space and...the Monster Rancher anime (as if anyone cares about an twenty-second, crappy VHS quality clip of an abandoned anime but alas...someone DOES care).  Funny fact is the Office Space clip was removed because it had the Comedy Central logo in the corner (Viacom is anal about that logo), not because of the actual feature film itself.  I got my account back though--more on that in a sec.

A brief overview if you don't know what we have today: How YouTube works is that companies (particularly Viacom) scroll through videos that they believe have copyright material that belongs to them, marking videos that don't follow Fair Use (though due to the subjective nature at hand, they hardly put thought into it and just mark anything without regard to this) so they send letters to YouTube demanding their removal.  YouTube takes the videos down and gives the uploader a "strike."  Three strikes and the account is "suspended" (a big fat lie since odds are you'll never get it back) and the user is told he can't create any future accounts (something YT rarely ever enforces...many people come back although they have to start from scratch again).

Nowadays, this process is made a bit simpler since YT can auto-detect movie, TV, and music in uploaded vids and immediately correct the situation (though people have found ways to circumvent this--i.e. mirror the media clips so the scanners don't pick it up).  Not only that, but YT doesn't even have to follow the "three strikes" rule--they have to power to kill your account for whatever reason...one strike, that's it, goodbye, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

The reason why YouTube seems to be pulling "dick" maneuvers by suspending accounts left and right is because no one wants to get sued.  YT could get sued if not pulling the cord on these videos so soon.  Consider this a blessing...would you rather lose your YT account or face the wrath of civil courts?  You can actually counter-act videos you think were unfairly removed by e-mailing YT back claiming that the videos in question were actually Fair Use.  If the original copyright owners don't reply in two weeks, you get your video back and a strike removed.  That's what I did although it may just be wiser to avoid the mess and just create a new account and get back on your feet that way.

Of course, I haven't even mentioned getting sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars...don't go around monetizing movies or music that doesn't belong to you.  Simple as that.  Obviously I admit that's bad, but I'm not even talking on that grand of scale here.  Just lame-o YouTube filler.

I'm also aware about music and video piracy (even non-profit) which has always existed...companies have gone nuts shutting down sites like Kazaa and Limewire but the fact is it's like trying to kill a horde of bugs with a fly swatter--there's too many of them.  So companies have to derive new ways to monetize copyrighted material, such as slap on ads to user-uploaded vids to at least save face.  That's how the economy works--you can try to hunt down infringers, but change with the times and find other means to get by, not just pass more bills looking to strike down the very people who you're catering to.  ESPECIALLY those who are barely doing anything illegal such as the little kid singing Lady Gaga in an embarrassingly bad YT clip...

This new bill in the legislative branch is going scorched earth--basically scaring the living daylights out of anyone attempting to upload anything barely copyrighted.  This is from the article above: According to the bill as it’s currently written, if you engage in “public performances by electronic means” 10 or more times over a 180 day period, and if either the total economic value of those performances exceeds $2500 or the cost of getting the copyright holder’s permission to perform exceeds $5000, then you can potentially get fined and put in jail for 5 years.  Jail.  FIVE YEARS.

Think about this--want to get people to stop doing something bad, such as driving over the speed limit?  Hand out tickets?  Doesn't seem to stop many people.  How about subjecting people to life in prison or the death penalty?  Does it get people to stop doing this?  Yes.  Is it ridiculous?  Obviously.

And the main problem I have with the bill is that it's just vague.  Okay, so you upload a short clip from a movie or something.  Considering the companies' habit of marking anything as copyright infringement, what's to stop them from coming up to you, claiming you broke the financial threshold, and getting your ass thrown in jail?

So no new gaming videos?  What for?  Watching video game clips on YouTube and such is not a substitute to obtaining the game and playing it for yourself.  Otherwise, I'd get my gaming fix just by watching Daytona 2 and Scud Race footage but no...I'm still overwhelmingly depressed by games today.  The only time I've seen gaming clips get removed from YT is Grand Theft Auto 4 footage around the time that game was released.  So Rockstar was being picky...okay, but for the most part, go ahead and type in any game in YT and you're bound to find some sort of gameplay footage of it.

And if this bill gets passed, then what's to stop them from punishing people who posted videos previously, such as walkthroughs, tool-assisted runs, speed runs, Let's Play's, and other miscellaneous stuff?  What about anything falling under Fair Use?  So get rid of every user-uploaded video off of YouTube (which has its own category BTW)?  Congrats, that's about a fourth of YT gone there.  Goodbye gaming community.  What's next--prosecute anyone that creates an emulator that plays copyrighted ROMs for free (talking about old stuff like NES or *cough* arcade games)?  Or even worse--come over to my blog and say it's illegal for me to use pictures from video games, particularly Sega racers?  When does this end?

The funny part about this is that some companies don't care.  For instance, Treyarch has implemented means for users to upload Black Ops clips to YouTube from their consoles...so suddenly, uploading Black Ops clips is bad?  Now things get even more dicey because you don't know what copyright material will get you busted and what won't.  But all of a sudden, you get cozy and try to share clips of great games like Daytona USA 2 and that's under fire.  Yeah, imagine that--Sega doesn't give a damn about Daytona USA anymore, but if any fans try to revitalize or enshrine the series, they get their asses kicked.  Geez...

And one more thing.  I read this here from some guy...perhaps this is a sneaky maneuver for some anti-gaming politicians to cut at the knees of video gamers everywhere.  They can't even stop retailers from selling M-rated games to minors so what do they do?  Chip away at the community.  I don't think this is entirely true but it's something to think about.  We are dealing with modern-day politicians here who think they know better than everyone else on how to run our lives...

Anyway, this is just me rambling on about copyrights.  I still don't think this bill will be passed.  Anyway, go here and sign a "petishun"--very easy to do.  The gaming blogs aren't harping on it anymore so maybe this thing's really dead--I don't know.  I'm not saying that we should be able to violate any copyright we want but this bill is just absurd...hunting people down like dogs for uploading clips of stuff that hurts nobody (and spending the taxpayers' money while they're at it).  God bless America...

I hope there is nothing factually incorrect about this post--feel free to correct me since I want to learn too...



CALL THE POLICE, WE HAVE A CRIMINAL ON THE LOOSE!!!  PEOPLE SAW A 14-SECOND CLIP OF WILL SMITH PUNCHING AN ALIEN AND THEREFORE, THE MOVIE PRODUCERS HAVE BEEN CHEATED OUT OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!!  BEAT HIS ASS!!!  WELCOME TO EARTH!!!