vivster said:
Wow, and I thought I'm a cynical bastard. I have a firm belief that the vast majority of fan works and especially the biggest projects are made because they love the IP and want to contribute. There are easier ways to seek attention. People who dedicate hours and months to create artworks or games of their favorite IPs are fans. They don't demand money for their works, they just want to share it with the community and they're certainly not hurting Nintendo in any way. People need to understand the difference between fair use and plagiarism. Of course I'm not talking about blatant ripoffs in appstores that are merely skins on existing shitty games. Then again unless they're sold for actual money, it's still legal to make them. The bigger Prjects like Pokemon Uran for example are works of love for the IP.
What are we seeing next? Nintendo cracking down on youtube videos for using their footage to review or criticize their games? Oh wait, they're already doing that. Because they're dickheads and think they're above the law and try to strongarm anyone to abide by their rules. |
Fair Use is simple but yet complicated at times. Sure I think it applies to making commentary through art and videos (though that's kinda in a gray area like showing movies and tv shows on YouTube), but creating fan made games, especially with no original assets or anything completely differentiate the identity of the project to the original source material...? I'm not sure...
Granted I've not seen Pokémon Uran, but what I've seen from AM2R, I kinda didn't like where it was going. Sure it's the Zero Mission and Fusion into Metroid 2 idea, but using those assets (or very similar assets) owned by Nintendo is kinda crossing that line. Is there such thing as Fair Use of the assets? I wish I knew and I would probably have to read a thousand page document on that. :P
And here's something they said on their website under corporate FAQs.
May I use Nintendo games/music/graphics/web site contents?
We appreciate the interest in Nintendo and in all our video game products. To us, it represents a great sign of success and recognition of the Nintendo brand.
"Nintendo" is a registered trademark of Nintendo of America Inc. Nintendo owns extensive intellectual property rights in all of its products, including video game systems, game titles, characters, game software, graphics, artwork, and screen shots. Nintendo also retains rights in content on Nintendo's web sites, including articles, artwork, screen shots and other files. Trademarks and copyrights for third-party games and characters are owned by the companies that market or license those products.
While we are grateful for all the requests for permission to use Nintendo properties, we are not able to grant such requests. We receive thousands of requests and we do not have adequate staffing to review them all. Therefore, our general policy is to decline requests for permission for the use of Nintendo properties.
Although we are not able to grant permission, use of Nintendo's properties without formal permission by Nintendo may still be allowed under the relevant laws of the particular jurisdiction involved. Thus, we encourage you to seek your own legal counsel if you have any questions about whether your particular proposed use is permitted without Nintendo's authorization. Nintendo cannot provide legal advice.
https://www.nintendo.com/corp/faq.jsp#graphics
So take that for what you will. It sounds like a simple answer for businesses with IPs such as Nintendo but I'm not sure since I haven't had a chance to compare.
