Copyright != Trademark

[owsf2000]

And Vice Versa. The problem with so many people (especially corporations and others that know the difference) with using "Intellectual Property" as a catchall term for anything they own that isn't physical, is that people start to blur the lines between the different sets of laws that make up IP.

Take this typical comment from PC Gamer after Nintendo axed the 3D Zelda-in-the-browser thing. (Predictable that they would do so but that's something else entirely):

"If you don't protect your copyright you loose it, Nintendo likely had very little choice in the matter seeing as many gaming sites were talking about it."

This is -wrong-. Copyright isn't forfeit if you don't protect it. TRADEMARKS need to be defended. Patents likewise don't need to be defended - as shown by how often a company will sit on a patent until someone else makes millions off of it. And THEN they'll go after the innovator and demand hefty payments in "damages".

Now, maybe this guy knew what he was talking about and just typed the wrong type. Problem is, that's JUST as bad. Because it just propagates the stupidity.

Nintendo had all the choice in the world. Problem is, this is the choice they -choose- to make - EVERY. TIME. Personally, I think people should just stop with the free Nintendo publicity when they know full well what's going to happen.

Yeah, Nintendo has the right to protect their IP. (Whether it be trademark, copyright, or patent.) But fans have the right to become fans of a creator that appreciates them.

I'm actually a bit of a Nintendo fan. But I don't put up any illusions about what Nintendo will do if I were to do something to express that. So I don't. I don't give them free advertising. I would never do a Let's Play of any of their games. I would never link their own promotions to friends either. I just buy the occasional game (Which is actually much rarer now then it use to be.) and that's it.

Comments

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I used to see that "durr hurr it's not their fault they must defend copyright or lose it herp derp" bullshit on so many gaming websites. It's a small reason, among many other, bigger reasons, that I stopped reading gaming websites entirely, because no matter how many times people (not me, because I never bothered to) try to correct these misconceptions, idiots like this never, ever seem to learn the difference, and keep on repeating the same, tired, wrong bullshit. Sometimes even the articles themselves had it wrong, let alone the commenters under the articles.

And also, yeah, I saw Mike Matei playing that 3D Zelda thing on the Cinemassacre Extra (https://www.youtube.com/user/Cinemassacre) Youtube channel a few days ago, and as soon as he said it was some fanmade thing and not an official product, I just immediately closed the video, uninterested, because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the instant Nintendo found out about it, they were going to be C&Ding the shit out of it, if they hadn't already done so by that point in time. And, in fact, I would have directly linked to Mike's video of the stream he made playing the game, but it has itself apparently already been removed, because I don't see the video anywhere on the Cinemassacre site or either of their Youtube channels.

This is why I've always said that if you're going to make a fanmade game like this, do not advertise that fact at all, not even a little bit, until the damn thing is 100% completely finished and already released to the wild. At that point, no C&D in the world will be able to stop it, though there's nothing really to stop Nintendo or whoever from still suing the shit out of you after the fact for "damages" or whatever. Though at this point, it'd probably be better to just advise people to not waste their time making fangames in the first place and just make something original.

Thing is, Nintendo seems to go well above and beyond what most other game companies do when it comes to "protecting" their IP. It's why when Mike Matei did two swordless runs of Zelda 1 the other day (one successful (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGJSP29-WIw) and the other... not so much (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rsp8IlU8rU#t=05h30m27s)), he had the sound and music totally muted, because he was afraid that Nintendo would claim the video just because of that. And it's incredibly likely that they would have done so, too, given how poorly they've been treating other Youtubers lately, like Angry (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/747272.html) Joe. (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/764432.html) Hell, I wouldn't be too surprised if they claimed it eventually, anyway. It would suck shit, but it wouldn't be surprising.

And as for Nintendo itself, I haven't bought a Nintendo product since the Wii back in 2006 and whatever games (http://backloggery.com/games.php?user=Kane_Magus&console=Wii) I got for that later (though I don't own anything Nintendo anymore, except for a goddamn Wii Fit board that I completely forgot to bring with me when I sold everything else (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/743924.html)). And as long as they keep doing shit like this, my interest in ever buying a WiiU or a 2DS or a NX (https://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=dY16mn_duGuQoyMr2bODCGfTbINxM&q=Nintendo+NX&lr=English&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjx54zVhoLMAhUBeSYKHdftCBAQqgIIKTAA) (or whatever lame-ass name they ultimately change that to) will remain pretty much at zero.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Wait, no, I got a DS (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/192337.html) a couple of years after I got the Wii (http://kane-magus.livejournal.com/124760.html) (and then whatever games (http://backloggery.com/games.php?user=Kane_Magus&console=NDS) for it). For some reason, I was thinking that I'd gotten the DS first. So... it has been eight years since I last bought a Nintendo console, instead of ten. Whatever. It'll probably be eight or ten more before I ever buy another one, at this rate, assuming I ever do at all.