Legal Rights

[frsrblch]

"Hey, look, we took your ideas and made a game with them! Wanna buy it?"

Funi isn't going to pay for a DBZ game, that's quite the opposite to the way this whole process works. You pay them to let you make a game with their intellectual property. CS wasn't using any of Valve's intellectual property, and I think they even renamed the weapons to avoid this situation with the gun companies once they decided to start selling the game. The two situations aren't the least bit the same. The only way I see ZEQ making a release is if the team worked underground for a couple years and then have it suddenly pop up in some quiet, unfashionable corner of the internet and spreads via something like Bittorrent.

However, that seems highly unlikely. I just felt like giving you a wee speck of hope to cling to.

 

[-Nataku-]

And whats the posibilty for you guys to work underground? i mean just go on with developing the mod and suddenly release it on some kinda of a website related to wild pinguins in north tabasco islandxD You can trick funi realy easy..
i think. Just suddenly relase your mod, and it will be all over before funi would even have a chance to spot you... you were functioning online without any legal
complications for like 2 or 3 months i think. ANd show your work as a fanart , on lets s say esfroums and in reality it will be the mod original media. Zeth is there a posibility of such a thing? IDea is crazy but i think it can work out... >_>

 

[THA TYRANT]

I have a word in anything i please to have a word in.. thanks, my speculations are merely speculations(why bother following a mod i knew wouldnt make it?)... simply that ive never ever seen a dbz mod make it other than esf... and maybe dmz but they werent going anywhere anyway!! did zeq even come out with a crisp playable version for the public??if so then im probably wrong and ill shut up but if not then i proved my point, just some more eye candy for people to see and believe theres crazy modification coming out kinda like SOS

 

[~*Logan*~]

As I have asked in a couple of PMs, why don't you guys recycle your work and release it for ESF or an ESF mod after making it HL1 compatible? It would be better than just throwing away all your hard work entirely. They asked you to stop developing ZEQ. They didn't say you had to delete all of your content. So why not use it for something else?

 

[-Nataku-]

@RISKY

So your saying that zeq2 never wanted to relase a playable version?, your saying that they only wanted to be famous by showing beutifull renders??.
I f that s what your saying your real realy mistaken...

@ logan, i agree with you totaly, dont waste your hard work guys, make a use out of it ^_^

 

[MeSuVegetto]

Why would all these other mods be getting shut down and not ESF?? Was ZEQ2 gaining any profit? Why would they think ZEQ2 would have any sort of effect on DBZ sales? I don't remember ZEQ2 being a big hype, I've never heard ZEQ2 being game of the week or something like that... I think all these mods that claim to have received letters from Funimation are just using that as an excuse to shut down their mods for lack of a good CODER LOLOLOLOL thank god for harSens and PCJoe huh!!! LOLOL but who knows right?

ZEQ2's main programmer = RiO. That is all that needs to be said.
ZEQ2's graphics rivals the newer dbz games and this makes it a threat even though there is no official dbz pc market. The Funimation logic is why pay for a console game when you can get a free pc game with the same if not better quality.
ZEQ2 were publishing plans for what they had in mind. world servers, screen filters etc.
You seem totally blinded by your love for ESF. Nothing wrong with following a mod but when you become so deluded that you begin to talk outta your ass about other mods who deserve a little respect it's worrying.

I have a word in anything i please to have a word in.. thanks, my speculations are merely speculations(why bother following a mod i knew wouldnt make it?)... simply that ive never ever seen a dbz mod make it other than esf... and maybe dmz but they werent going anywhere anyway!! did zeq even come out with a crisp playable version for the public??if so then im probably wrong and ill shut up but if not then i proved my point, just some more eye candy for people to see and believe theres crazy modification coming out kinda like SOS

No no, people have a word in things they know their **** about. I cannot be taken seriously if I went to a geology conference and start arguing like I know my **** better than them.
ZEQ2 never intended to release a beta, alpha, theta, omicron, omega or whatever. They wanted to release a completed product.
If you really believe that people will spend 3 years+ releasing eye candy for the hell of it when they can be doing something else with their lives then there is no hope for you.
When you speculate and people correct you with facts you should accept them instead of throwing around more wild accusations.

 

[imported_MDave]

I have a word in anything i please to have a word in.. thanks, my speculations are merely speculations(why bother following a mod i knew wouldnt make it?)... simply that ive never ever seen a dbz mod make it other than esf... and maybe dmz but they werent going anywhere anyway!! did zeq even come out with a crisp playable version for the public??if so then im probably wrong and ill shut up but if not then i proved my point, just some more eye candy for people to see and believe theres crazy modification coming out kinda like SOS

The only way I see ZEQ making a release is if the team worked underground for a couple years and then have it suddenly pop up in some quiet, unfashionable corner of the internet and spreads via something like Bittorrent.

However, that seems highly unlikely. I just felt like giving you a wee speck of hope to cling to.

Wow. Trying to talk us down like we were just another amatuer dbz mod with only a webmaster and modeler for a team.

How can you say its highly unlikely when you don't even know the progress we made? Or even know how long we've been around? We were beyond BFP in a lot of areas, thanks to our dedicated coder RiO. I know, pointless me saying that cause the chance of you guys beliving me is next to zero

It really pisses me off when people accuse us of being lazy or have no decent coder OR we don't have any progress, when they don't even know ANYTHING about us.

 

[Ravendust]

While i'm sure your claim is genuine, I don't blame the sceptics either given the unusual sitation. It's just a shame you didn't get a chance to prove it.

Like Logan said, it would be great if you joined another DBZ mod and keep the dream alive (as well as putting those skills to use). There's plenty for Half-Life 2 (if Steam does indeed grant immunity to legal threats), and if not there's always bulletproof ESF or one of it's addons like BTL. Maybe you could even find a way of using the content you've already made too, rather than starting from scratch on another DBZ project.

 

[Super Veggeto]

I have a word in anything i please to have a word in.. thanks, my speculations are merely speculations(why bother following a mod i knew wouldnt make it?)... simply that ive never ever seen a dbz mod make it other than esf... and maybe dmz but they werent going anywhere anyway!! did zeq even come out with a crisp playable version for the public??if so then im probably wrong and ill shut up but if not then i proved my point, just some more eye candy for people to see and believe theres crazy modification coming out kinda like SOS

I'm sorry mister but you mentioned before that our coder was not skilled, and even lazy...
You DONT have a word when it comes to bashing ZEQ2.
You have no idea what so ever what we accomplished and how.
Heck, you didnt even knew who our coder is...this is pointless.

Just for your information, before you'll start talking bs again, our coder is RiO, extremly dedicated and hard worker, not to mention the awesome job he does with a short amount of time.

 

[MC]

Not to be disrespectful or out of line, but I thought this thread is about the legal rights of a mod? Not the legal position of ZEQ2?

The only way around which is probably the only way around:

1. Buy the rights to use the names, character likeness, etcetera.
2. Buy the engine that the game your moding for is using to avoid any more legal problems.

The only other way is to completely change the characters, the names used, things of that nature. That way you made a mod based on Dragon Ball Z, just that none of the copyrighted blah blah blah are being used.

The only problems with the first option is the need to pay a royalty; most likely you will also have to charge a fee for the game whether by choice or by contract, and you would have give a certain percentage of your profits to the company you bought the rights from.

 

[jp]

Why would all these other mods be getting shut down and not ESF?? Was ZEQ2 gaining any profit? Why would they think ZEQ2 would have any sort of effect on DBZ sales? I don't remember ZEQ2 being a big hype, I've never heard ZEQ2 being game of the week or something like that... I think all these mods that claim to have received letters from Funimation are just using that as an excuse to shut down their mods for lack of a good CODER LOLOLOLOL thank god for harSens and PCJoe huh!!! LOLOL but who knows right?

You, don't know what you are talking about, litterally.

For example, LOLOLOLOL would mean "laughing out loud out laughing out loud out laughing out loud etc", you have any idea how stupid that sounds?

Anyways,

I think its a real shame that Zeq2 came to an end, and I do believe they recieved a letter, the work they did was amazing, and could be a threat to the DBZ games...

... sucks, coz I love games based on anime's and so on, but they only are released on the console D:

 

[Ravendust]

Not to be disrespectful or out of line, but I thought this thread is about the legal rights of a mod? Not the legal position of ZEQ2?

It's not out of line, however it neither falls under the discussion of 'advertising' (there's nothing to advertise) or 'other mods' (now that it's stopped being developed, albeit forcefully). I think this was the route Veghetto wanted the thread to take, making it just after ZeQII was shut down for their lack of legal rights.

Besides, it's provided pretty interesting conversation so far.

 

[-Nataku-]

My question still werent anwsered <_> Is there a posibilit you guys from zeq2 can work underground, i already posted examples how it would look like...
ALl you need to do is trick that funi somehow and change the content a bit, or show your work on other forums as fanarts and let it be the mod media in the reality.. I think its realy posible to continue with the mod and avoid taking legal actions.. just dont make a official site and work underground again, so know one can spot you. You where functioning as a site for like 3 months before uni spoted you. SO what are the chances that they will catch you and accuse you doint some stuff as fanarts( which will be the mod media in the reality ) ... i think its Posibble <_<

 

[Ravendust]

There are a few flaws in that plan though. Firstly and most obviously, FUNi know of ZeQ2. They know it's unfinished. If they ever found out that it had been completed and distributed after they sent the legal notice they'd rape everyone involved (well, Zeth anyway).

There is no way of continuing work on the internet without the big corporations spotting it, if an 11-year old with Google can find warez then it's not going to be much harder for a trained IT team to track down ZeQ2.

 

[Optimus Prime]

It's not out of line, however it neither falls under the discussion of 'advertising' (there's nothing to advertise) or 'other mods' (now that it's stopped being developed, albeit forcefully). I think this was the route Veghetto wanted the thread to take, making it just after ZeQII was shut down for their lack of legal rights.

Besides, it's provided pretty interesting conversation so far.

I believe the original topic was still, does funimation have the legal right to shut mods down. Not, "ZeqII should come make everyone believe that they did in fact receive a C&D to shutup the skeptics."

This conversation has basically deviated to people attacking ZeqII, and then a ZeqII member defending their former mod.

I doubt it was Veghetto's intention to turn this into a ZeqII inquisition.

 

[L]

So...
Someone(Funi) complained to your webhost about IMAGES posted on your website.
In reply, you shut down the entire project.
Why?...

 

[Barney's_Soul]

Free DBZ mods bring buisness and attention to the DBZ genre. As long as the developers don't sell the mod, then it's bascicly free buisness for Funination, sorta like a Dell logo on a t-shirt....free buisness.

 

[L]

Free DBZ mods bring buisness and attention to the DBZ genre. As long as the developers don't sell the mod, then it's bascicly free buisness for Funination, sorta like a Dell logo on a t-shirt....free buisness.

Then you would choose to play a free product based on your favorite anime series that happens to be better then an official release, in which you must purchase to play.
Right?

 

[MC]

Free DBZ mods bring buisness and attention to the DBZ genre. As long as the developers don't sell the mod, then it's bascicly free buisness for Funination, sorta like a Dell logo on a t-shirt....free buisness.

I do not think it works like that. FUNimation wants to control the profits, they want complete control of the merchandise. The only way they have this control is that companies buy the rights to make a game that uses the name Dragon Ball Z, in which FUNimation profits from this. FUNimation cannot control this mod, and they cannot make a profit from it.

Rights of a copyright holder

-to produce copies or reproductions of the work and to sell those copies (including, typically, electronic copies)
-to import or export the work
-to create derivative works (works that adapt the original work)
-to perform or display the work publicly
-to sell or assign these rights to others

Since FUNimation owns the rights to Dragon Ball/Z/GT they have control over it. Mods such as ESF does not have an official copyright, not to mention that it would be impossible for them to obtain one without first buying the rights from FUNimation.

Here's a little information I found in Wikipedia that I found on FUNimation:

In 2005, FUNimation's legal department began to pursue a more aggressive approach toward protecting their licensed properties, and started sending "cease and desist" (C&D) letters to sites offering links to fansub torrents of anime they distributed. This move was similar to that taken by ADV Films several years before with several of the major torrent sites.

FUNimation's legal department served C&D letters for series that had not yet been advertised or announced as licensed, including Tsubasa Chronicle, Black Cat, and Solty Rei, with a few known series also mentioned in the letter. Since fansubbers tend to voluntarily cease distribution once a series has been announced, this move was seen as "impolite and intrusive" and has upset some in the fansub community (even by some who supported FUNimation's intellectual property rights). This is the second time in the history of US anime distribution that a license has been announced first through a C&D letter rather than through a press release or convention announcement, after ADV Films' C&D letter for Gantz in 2004.

Even though it does not explain FUNimations stance on mods, it gives you an idea of their stance on copyright infringement.

 

[imported_MDave]

Our host got contacted by Funimation, then our host had started removing copyright material from the site. We tried to resolve the issue with our host but they said ask Funimation for permission. Chance of permission is as low as them replying back to us. If we got a new host, Funimation would ask that host to remove content as well, would basically be a cat and mouse game. So we're throwing around some ideas with what to do.

Do you think contacting Funimation would work?