Fanmade Legend of Zelda movie completed uploaded

[Julius Seeker]

I recall someone posting a preview for this a couple years back.

Fanmade Zelda

Enjoy or vomit =P

Not bad for a non-professional no budget fanmade Internet vid.

[Eric]

http://kotaku.com/5438788/zelda-fan-mov ... os-request

And shut down by Nintendo. Don't they just love their fans.

[SineSwiper]

http://kotaku.com/5438788/zelda-fan-mov ... os-request

And shut down by Nintendo. Don't they just love their fans.

First comment: "Nintendo reminds me of George Lucas. Screw the fans! We know what we're doing. You just buy our stuff!"

[Julius Seeker]

Then you can probably say all companies are like George Lucas. I don't think there are many companies in the world that would allow something like this. Nintendo is actually a little more kind than most are when it comes to this sort of thing.

Infringement is not something that is typically ever allowed. The license for a feature length film is probably quite valuable, and I doubt that anyone wants to give that away for free.

[SineSwiper]

Infringement is not something that is typically ever allowed. The license for a feature length film is probably quite valuable, and I doubt that anyone wants to give that away for free.

No, it's not allowed, but there are different levels of enforcement. Just take the anime fansubbing that is out there. The companies producing them have every right to demand that they shut their sites down, and some do. But, there's enough that turn a blind eye that it's worth subbing.

Nintendo tends to have a pretty tough view on any sort of use of their properties.

[Zeus]

http://kotaku.com/5438788/zelda-fan-mov ... os-request

And shut down by Nintendo. Don't they just love their fans.

First comment: "Nintendo reminds me of George Lucas. Screw the fans! We know what we're doing. You just buy our stuff!"

Unlike, say, Sony which has been so aware of what their customer wants over the last 3+ years?

[Julius Seeker]

Infringement is not something that is typically ever allowed. The license for a feature length film is probably quite valuable, and I doubt that anyone wants to give that away for free.

No, it's not allowed, but there are different levels of enforcement. Just take the anime fansubbing that is out there. The companies producing them have every right to demand that they shut their sites down, and some do. But, there's enough that turn a blind eye that it's worth subbing.

Nintendo tends to have a pretty tough view on any sort of use of their properties.

It's not just having them being mean and exercising their right to ask that the movie be pulled down. It is also the legal standing of the trademark; in this case, a trademark worth millions of dollars. If Nintendo allowed an unauthorized production of a feature length Zelda movie to stay active, then they would have legally abandoned their trademark. They would no longer have any legal standing if Fox, Universal, or Disney comes along and makes their own Zelda movie.

[Kupek]

The fan movie was a violation of Nintendo's copyrighted work. They could easily avoid trademark infringement by not using the phrases "Legend of Zelda," "Nintendo" or any other trademarked terms. The movie, however, would still infringe Nintendo's copyright; that is the much more substantial violation.

Trademarks are "defend it or lose it" IP. Copyrights are not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark

[Zeus]

Oh, this is an infringement, no doubt. However, very much like Lucas, Nintendo's actually pretty good at allowing its fanbase a relatively large amount of leniency when it comes to works of passion, such as fan films or game knock-offs, as long as they're not directly taking money away from them. They could very, very easily have pressured the Mother 3 Fan Translation Project to pull their fan translation as it became quite well known (even had a blurb in Gamepro) and really punished them for selling Mother 3 merchandise, such as the guide book I picked up. But since they have absolutely zero intention of ever releasing that game here, they let it go.

[Zeus]

Looks like I spoke too soon. It's been taken down as per Nintendo's request

http://wii.ign.com/articles/105/1057971p1.html

They did let it stay up for a month and they and the site came to an agreement without threat of legal action so I supposed that's SOMETHING.

[Eric]

Looks like I spoke too soon. It's been taken down as per Nintendo's request

http://wii.ign.com/articles/105/1057971p1.html

They did let it stay up for a month and they and the site came to an agreement without threat of legal action so I supposed that's SOMETHING.

Seriously Zeus? Really?

[Zeus]

Looks like I spoke too soon. It's been taken down as per Nintendo's request

http://wii.ign.com/articles/105/1057971p1.html

They did let it stay up for a month and they and the site came to an agreement without threat of legal action so I supposed that's SOMETHING.

Seriously Zeus? Really?

Hey, I said it was SOMETHING, not much.....

[Eric]

Looks like I spoke too soon. It's been taken down as per Nintendo's request

http://wii.ign.com/articles/105/1057971p1.html

They did let it stay up for a month and they and the site came to an agreement without threat of legal action so I supposed that's SOMETHING.

Seriously Zeus? Really?

Hey, I said it was SOMETHING, not much.....

Swing and a miss, would you care to try again, maybe reading the thread this time. :p

[Zeus]

Swing and a miss, would you care to try again, maybe reading the thread this time. :p

No, why would I want to do that? :-)

[Julius Seeker]

This situation is cut and dry:

We understand Nintendo's right to protect their trademarks.

In the case of a trademark registration, failure to actively enforce the registration in the event of infringement, may also expose the registration itself to become liable for an application for removal..

[Kupek]

Right, but my point was that the trademark infringement is less significant than the copyright infringement. They could change everything around to avoid trademark infringement, but it would still be copyright infringement.