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NAMCO Takes Down Student Pac-man Project
An anonymous reader writes "The core of how people first learn to do stuff — programming, music, writing, etc. — is to imitate others. It's one of the best ways to learn. Apparently a bunch of students using MIT's educational Scratch programming language understand this. But not everyone else does. NAMCO Bandai sent a takedown notice to MIT because some kids had recreated Pac-man with Scratch. The NAMCO letter is pretty condescending as well, noting that it understands the educational purpose of Scratch, but 'part of their education should include concern for the intellectual property of others.'"
We can fix this, guys.
Hi Everyone. I run an intellectual property exchange in the entertainment business. I've also been a hacker since age 11 in 1987 and cannot name a medium that I myself haven't pirated or hacked in some way. My exchange sells rights to companies like Namco and ABC and CBS for use in their productions. For example, if you wanted to use Brad Pitt's image or Wal Mart's storefront or Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" in your film, you actually have to negotiate with Pitt, Walmart or Lady Gaga's people to use their IP (song, image, brand) in your film. As far as the entertainment industry is concerned, there is no such thing as fair use because intra-industry everything is paid for. "The Deadliest Catch" has to pay Bon Jovi, for example, every time they play his music, according to a pre-negotiated arrangement with Bon Jovi. That means when "The Deadliest Catch" plays ONE SECOND of a Bon Jovi song (or less), DeadCatch and Discovery Networks owe Bon Jovi money.
I expect Bando Namcai to pay me when they use IP they buy on our exchange. I expect the same of ABC, CBS, NBC as well. These companies use IP to turn a profit.
By the same token I'm pretty sure that 90% of my gigs of MP3's and 100% of terabytes of films have been acquired by ripping. I am the pirate and the dealer. And you know what?
Everyone in Hollywood is.
That's a good thing. None of us would be able to hack nearly as well as we do were not for the Pirated Software Movement. Why does my company run on Windows that I now pay for? Because I pirated it as a kid and got hooked. (go ahead, snicker you uber geeks.) Now that I am an inventor and entrepreneur I expect businesses to pay for my own software that we write and intellectual inventions I sell them...but I expect consumers to pay for my *physical* inventions or my events. Youtube should pay royalties to Viacom....youtube is making some revenue on Viacom's IP. Should the user pay to license music or film in front of Wal Mart or wear a Brad Pitt mask in a video? I don't think so. I think that when certain ideas are introduced one cannot expect to collect on ALL usages of an idea. Many usages are simply a form of conversation and should be tolerated.
Ikea and even upscale furniture companies, for example, doesn't sue the sites that show you how to build furniture cheaply. It's a GOOD thing that those blogs exist as only the BEST and most USEFUL designs are copied. This an example of the great conversation of human ideas.
However, the entertainment industry IP is protected by a cadre of lawyers. Ironically we NEED the lawyers to protect us against one another, as Hollywood's negotiation ethic is "screw or be screwed." Unfortunately, my industry bretheren are so accustomed to ripping one another off that it is easy for the lawyers to trick us into paying for defense.
Now, I can't tell you who I am cuz I could lose a lot of business...but I do want to change the industry for the better. I do need to be sensitive myself though, as I sell to all the big media companies. Yet -- as Geeks are now a social force, we can start fixing this wrong mindset, but it will take a small swarm of us, acting regularly.
Bando Namcai is a big public company. They have offices in the USA and Japan. Figure out how to email the CEO and the board and everyone with a C-in the beginning of the title. The letter should be VERY professional and courteous, but stern. If a few people sent paper letters that would be EXTREMELY impacting. It is a social hack. When I want someone's attention I send a paper letter. It's an open port that big corporations overweight. It's one of the few ports where you can send a message to the management team and have ALL of senior management at huge companies hammering on their underlings to address your problem.
The nature of the letter should be as such. Identify yourself as a consumer of games, especially if you consume Bando Namcai Games like Soul Calibur, Tekken, etc... an
Why has couchslug not been modded up Insightful? Mods?