Romhack "Crimson Echoes" receives C&D from Square-Enix

[Carnivol]

Just gonna copy 'n' paste the stuff that I posted on Lost Levels;

Chrono Compendium - Cease & Desist Letter

On May 8, we received a wide-reaching cease and desist letter from Square Enix, Inc. As with Chrono Trigger: Resurrection and Chrono Trigger Remake Project's letters, we have uploaded the letter for viewing here as a matter of public interest.

We have decided to comply with Square Enix's demands. Most of the Chrono Compendium webpages and forums will be unaffected by these changes. However, our compliance has the practical effect of ending the Compendium's support for ROM modification projects of any kind, with regard to copyrighted Square Enix works such as Chrono Trigger, Radical Dreamers, and Chrono Cross. We have already destroyed all known copies of Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes and other modifications and projects. We have also shut down and made inaccessible any discussion boards used for the development of ROM-hacking fan projects on this website, including:

* Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes
* Chrono Trigger: Prophet's Guile
* Retranslation of Chrono Trigger
* Chrono Trigger Re-amped
* Chrono Trigger Rebirth
* Chrono Trigger Azala Style

Affected parties may contact the administration in private if there is any personal information they wish to retrieve from the deprecated forums.

We do not accept the validity of Square Enix's claims, nor the legal rationale underpinning their position. Nonetheless, we are complying with their demands so as to avoid the expenses and burdens of litigation, because, frankly, they can afford a frivolous lawsuit more than we can.

We thank all those who have been involved in the affected projects for their spirited energy over the years, and we look forward to the day when non-profit, fan-made projects will be properly recognized as a fan-base boon and marketing opportunity tool, rather than silenced as innocent victims of prohibitively interpreted copyright law.

Sincerely,

ZeaLitY and the Chrono Compendium Staff

For those who don't know, the Chrono Compendium is probably your nr. 1 stop for anything Chrono Trigger related. It's the fansite. Be it stuff about the game in general, talking to fellow fans or looking at development history.


I've previously contributed to them with a tiny piece of alpha footage from an old V-Jump tape and I've recently been in talks with someone there about contributing with more random stuff from my own archive of stuff.



I'm actually wondering why Square-Enix is being so anal (in lack of a better term) about pretty much anything Chrono Trigger related (*cough*Resurrection*cough*)

[A-J]

they did the same with the 3D Chrono Trigger remake which looked pretty well into development.

[Carnivol]

But that's a whole different case. We're talking a measly romhack here now. Basically, the content that would've been distributed would've been an IPS patch containing no actual copyright content. Anything that is property of S-E would be whatever's already present in the game you're applying the patch to.

Of course, there's always the argument of fanfics and the legal side of things there.

But it really is funny to see how anal Square-Enix are about things.