Shining Force III Videos Suddenly Removed on Copyright Infringement Claims
But was it SEGA that made the call?
Shining Force III is a pretty rare SEGA Saturn game. Hell, you might not even know that it came in three parts, with only the first localised and released in the West. Now a bunch of fan-translated videos are being removed from YouTube due to a string of copyright infringement claims.
It's not entirely clear who is behind it all. While all signs point to SEGA (obviously), affected YouTube user MarauderEx believes that it could be someone pretending to act on behalf of the company. When his videos were removed for alleged copyright infringement, he contacted SEGA and got this response:
"Hello. We never give explicit permission to use our intellectual property. However, in cases like this we tend not to take action unless we or our products are slandered in the derivative works. Best Regards, SEGA Customer Support." With no slanderous content in his videos, MarauderEx is suspicious that the copyright claims could be the work of an impostor.
Another YouTube user, TotalBiscuit, was also affected by the claims, brandishing them "weird" and "out of the blue." While not naming any names, the videomaker revealed that the claimant was someone with a "legit" SEGA email address and had appeared in "some" game credits in a Special Thanks capacity. He clarified that such titles did not include any of the Shining Force III games.
SEGA has had a history of putting the kibosh on fan projects shortly before the official re-release of older games, but given the difficulty in remaking or even emulating Saturn titles it appears unlikely that the company would be protecting its interests in this manner. It's either a big misunderstanding, or there's a rogue troll floating around.
We'll let you know if SEGA provides comment on the situation.
Source: Reddit
It's not entirely clear who is behind it all. While all signs point to SEGA (obviously), affected YouTube user MarauderEx believes that it could be someone pretending to act on behalf of the company. When his videos were removed for alleged copyright infringement, he contacted SEGA and got this response:
"Hello. We never give explicit permission to use our intellectual property. However, in cases like this we tend not to take action unless we or our products are slandered in the derivative works. Best Regards, SEGA Customer Support." With no slanderous content in his videos, MarauderEx is suspicious that the copyright claims could be the work of an impostor.
Another YouTube user, TotalBiscuit, was also affected by the claims, brandishing them "weird" and "out of the blue." While not naming any names, the videomaker revealed that the claimant was someone with a "legit" SEGA email address and had appeared in "some" game credits in a Special Thanks capacity. He clarified that such titles did not include any of the Shining Force III games.
SEGA has had a history of putting the kibosh on fan projects shortly before the official re-release of older games, but given the difficulty in remaking or even emulating Saturn titles it appears unlikely that the company would be protecting its interests in this manner. It's either a big misunderstanding, or there's a rogue troll floating around.
We'll let you know if SEGA provides comment on the situation.
Source: Reddit
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Comments
Moogie 20 Nov 2012 22:01
1/1
This started back in August with the same 'Sega' user filing copyright complaints against videos on the Shining Force SOS YouTube account - which is totally ridiculous as the videos were of people (Shining Force fans, specifically) saying who they are and that they love Shining Force. I'm not sure how Sega can claim to own the rights to videos of these people. They only targetted a few videos, primarily those posted by Shining ROM hackers, myself (Shining Force Central creator) and an editor from GamesTM magazine whose opinion I guess holds some weight too.
It would seem to stem from an altercation between Japanese fans of the 'new' Shining series from 2chan who took a dislike to 'classic' series fans supporting the SF:SOS campaign. This original altercation led to a misunderstanding with Sega and consequently bad feelings (being conveyed in less than polite way, which I have been warned not to post publically) from Sega Japan's Shining producer towards myself and the SFC community.
It may well be the folks from 2chan trying to stir things up again - though how they managed to get an official Sega Japan email address on their YouTube account is unknown. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to which videos get flagged and they certainly don't all even include gameplay footage and some include little more than a logo or the mention of the words 'Shining Force'.
It would seem to stem from an altercation between Japanese fans of the 'new' Shining series from 2chan who took a dislike to 'classic' series fans supporting the SF:SOS campaign. This original altercation led to a misunderstanding with Sega and consequently bad feelings (being conveyed in less than polite way, which I have been warned not to post publically) from Sega Japan's Shining producer towards myself and the SFC community.
It may well be the folks from 2chan trying to stir things up again - though how they managed to get an official Sega Japan email address on their YouTube account is unknown. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to which videos get flagged and they certainly don't all even include gameplay footage and some include little more than a logo or the mention of the words 'Shining Force'.