The Protomen got hit with a C&D letter

Wicked223

Link.

Copyright law: Stifling creativity for no good reason since 1710.

Addendum for threadhoppers: This was a hoax.

Myrmidon

Oh fuck.

GLORIOUSLeader

My my, Capcom sure is going out of their way to be a bunch of assholes lately. 

Counterclock

Copyright laws are like a net, you may save a ton of people from burning buildings, but most likely people just want to throw it on others in the off-chance they're committing crimes.

Wicked223

^...wut

Chagen

Oh fuck, not this again.

Copyright law is needed. If I make something, I should be the only one to profit off of it. I made that myself. Now, I personally would want to have a Touhou-like atmosphere where fanworks are liberally created, but I don't want others taking my shit and saying "fuck you" and making large amounts of money on it. 

You wanna make money off of my work? Fuck you. Go make your own work.

Wicked223

Impeccable dissertation, sibling.

Bee

Unfortunately it stopped being a legally gray area when they were selling merchandise and holding paid concerts.

It still makes Capcom tremendous assholes and idiots to go after a well-known and well-loved fan band that if anything draws more traffic their way, but it's not exactly a difficult case to make.

snowbull

 

Counterclock

Copyright laws are like a gardener, Wicked.

They slice off unwanted weeds, and sometimes, budding flowers as well.

Chagen

"Impeccable dissertation, sibling."

So you support people stealing money from artists, who, except for the top 2%, are already fucked over raw by publishers?

Wicked223

Unfortunately it stopped being a legally gray area when they were selling merchandise and holding paid concerts.

That is true, although I can't imagine what damage they could be doing to the brand.

But, eh, I'm a hip-hop fan; copyright law has historically been nothing but trouble for us.

So you support people stealing money from artists, who, except for the top 2%, are already fucked over raw by publishers?

Artists don't file copyright lawsuits; publishers do. And you can bet that any damages they claim from this won't go to anyone who actually had a hand in creating Mega Man.

Bee

The artists have in many cases already been paid by the time the work is released.  They may sometimes get a cut of the profits, but mostly it just goes straight to the higher-ups.

And like Wicked said, this is kind of a weird case of damages.  I mean, buying a CD of music derived from an NES game from the 80's that isn't even for sale anymore doesn't exactly crimp any sales.

Chagen

"The artists have in many cases already been paid by the time the work is released.  They may sometimes get a cut of the proceeds, but mostly it just goes straight to the higher-ups."

I dunno, I always heard that artists get really screwed. Their work could be making millions, and they'd get half a dollar while the publisher sucks everything away.

Bee

I said they get paid, not paid a respectable amount compared to the profits.  Unless you have a deal to get a proportional cut, the artist typically gets a flat amount for a complete work or hourly rate regardless of how well it sells -- they're getting paid for their next work, not the one they finished.

ClockworkUniverse

Bear in mind that depending on how the Protomen handled their stuff, it's entirely possible that Capcom was legally obligated to either do this or relinquish their copyright.

Chagen

That's what I meant. Artists already suffer for their art.

Bee

The way the series has been going that might have been an artistic obligation too

^ And what I meant was that any damages that are caused by infringement are almost always to people who aren't the artist, but the ones screwing them out of profits.

Wicked223

Bear in mind that depending on how the Protomen handled their stuff, it's entirely possible that Capcom was legally obligated to either do this or relinquish their copyright.

The Protomen is a very large indie progressive rock band from Nashville, TN, whose musical catalogue is based around a Rock Opera trilogy inspired by Mega Man. Very loosely based off of the mythology of the Mega Man games (the first three in particular), it shows an Orwellian Dystopia that takes the idealistic side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism and beats it to death with its own corpse.

The first album, a self-titled release also known as Act I or Hope Rides Alone, was self-published in 2005, and tells the story of how Protoman and Mega Man were created to fight against Dr. Wily's regime and the very different paths their lives took. It was followed in September 2009 by Act II: The Father of Death, a prequel which tells the story of how Drs. Light and Wily created artificial intelligence, and how it all went so very wrong. Act III takes place sometime after Act I and is to be released an an unspecified date.

It was like a musical fanfic, essentially.

Vorpy

It pisses me off that they got hit with the C&D CANNON (lol ff7 reference), even though they were just a fanband. I can see how hitting the work thieves with the letter is in good taste, but hitting the fans I guess is pretty bad. Then again I doubt the companies give a shit, thus why they felt like hitting the protomen with the C&D was perfectly fine.

Counterclock

Basically this *

Fanwork has a way of making people more interested in the work itself as well.

ClockworkUniverse

Vorpy, don't ever do that again. This is an official warning.

Wicked, I was talking more about if they were making money and whether they had some sort of rights disclaimer attached to their stuff.

inkblot

Capcom are sick.

(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

ColorPrinter

http://twitter.com/#!/sethkillian/status/94853501930311681

Hoax.

ClockworkUniverse

-facepalm-

Given the timing, I should be far less surprised than I am.

ColorPrinter

Knew about this whole thing from chuggaaconroy's twitter (shut up) before I even went into this thread. I agree with his statement here:

"The people who are doing things like this to make Capcom look bad out of
spite for Legends 3 are more annoying than Capcom's actual actions."

(Also, I believe their site is temporarily closed just in case something did go wrong, which is probably what kickstarted this rumor)

Wicked223

God, Internet hoaxes are annoying.

i feel even worse for not bothering to check on it.

Bee

Well, that's depressingly stupid and assholeish of hoaxers then.  At least the Protomen are still going.

Chagen

Okay, the sheer amount of fans trying to make capcom look bad because a shitty megaman game got cancelled is gonna make me choke a bitch.

DYRE

We don't know if it was a "shitty" Megaman game...

Well, okay, yes we do because Capcom can't make good games anymore, but still, it's a sequel to a good Megaman game...

Chagen

>Megaman

It's shitty.