Namco Shuts Down Student's Pac-Man Project

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Namco Shuts Down Student's Pac-Man Project



Budding programmers beware: Do not recreate Pac-Man or Namco will find you.

MIT developed the Pac-Man [http://info.scratch.mit.edu/About_Scratch], asking for it to be removed.

The notice says that the user's game "infringes Namco's rights by offering visitors the unauthorized use of infringing copies of the Pac-Man game product which is protected by copyright and trademark law." It also reads: "While we appreciate the educational nature of your enterprise and look forward to the contributions of the future programmers you are training, part of their education should include concern for the intellectual property of others."

Namco has every right to protect their intellectual property, but this seems extreme and pointless. 124scratch's game has been taken down so I wasn't able to play it, but I seriously doubt that Namco had anything to worry about from a programming student's free version of Pac-Man hidden in the depths of the Scratch website. Is it possible that it was so accurate that Namco had to get a lawyer to shut it down?

Oddly enough, the same user has plenty of other projects that use art from Pac-Man, including sprites of ghosts and level layouts. Some of 124scratch's later Pac-Man-inspired projects don't seem to touch the real game, so I'm confused what made Namco go medieval on one specific project. I'm not going to say that Namco shouldn't protect itself, I'm just not sure what they were protecting themselves from here. All I see was someone trying to learn.

Via: Slashdot [http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/cvlxm/why_johny_cant_program_namco_sends_dmca_takedown/]


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Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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It is perfectly legal under fair use to use copyrighted materials as a student for educational use.

However you can't distribute it for non-educational use.
 

Infinatex

BLAM!Headshot?!
May 19, 2009
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As much as everyone is supposed to hate on big companies, if it was my company, no matter how big it got, I would do the same thing. Hell, I'd go stop the plagiarism myself!
 

.p-0-q.

New member
Jul 9, 2010
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i guess namco is pulling a page from the jacksons estate play book?


companies hate when you honor famous classic idols
 

Keava

New member
Mar 1, 2010
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Im not really much into US legal system... but wouldn't project like this fall into the Fair Use part of the copyright law?
Not really smart move from Namco PR wise really. It's not like it threatened the very core of their existence.
 

ShadowKatt

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Mar 19, 2009
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blakfayt said:
Ummm, wouldn't the copyright have ran out by now? I'm just saying most SNES games can be legally pirated because copyright only covers like twenty years or something, then it's free as long as someone has a copy of it.
Wait, wut?

So....my collection of Atari 2600 roms is....LEGAL!?

Oh god, I feel so dirty....dealing in legal software....I need to go dirty my hands in something more recent. Someone give me a cracked Starcraft II!!!!!!!!
 

Blue Horn

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May 16, 2010
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blakfayt said:
Ummm, wouldn't the copyright have ran out by now? I'm just saying most SNES games can be legally pirated because copyright only covers like twenty years or something, then it's free as long as someone has a copy of it.
Roms are actually pretty illegal.
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms
 

BlindMessiah94

The 94th Blind Messiah
Nov 12, 2009
2,654
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Considering there are ton of pac man clones out there already this hardly seems fair to pick on a non-profit educational project when they don't go after all the other clones out there.
 

Tharwen

Ep. VI: Return of the turret
May 7, 2009
9,145
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I expect they're just making it absolutely clear that they don't like IP infringement. Otherwise they might have to get down to some messy line-drawing later.
 

Not G. Ivingname

New member
Nov 18, 2009
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ShadowKatt said:
blakfayt said:
Ummm, wouldn't the copyright have ran out by now? I'm just saying most SNES games can be legally pirated because copyright only covers like twenty years or something, then it's free as long as someone has a copy of it.
Wait, wut?

So....my collection of Atari 2600 roms is....LEGAL!?

Oh god, I feel so dirty....dealing in legal software....I need to go dirty my hands in something more recent. Someone give me a cracked Starcraft II!!!!!!!!
Actually the law is either 90 years from its creation or 120 years from its publication, what ever is shorter.

Your breaking the law Blakfayt, don't worry.
 

Harshael

New member
Mar 8, 2010
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Pac-Man is one of the most often re-created games. Strange that Namco would put the kibosh on this particular project.
 

ShadowKatt

New member
Mar 19, 2009
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Not G. Ivingname said:
ShadowKatt said:
blakfayt said:
Ummm, wouldn't the copyright have ran out by now? I'm just saying most SNES games can be legally pirated because copyright only covers like twenty years or something, then it's free as long as someone has a copy of it.
Wait, wut?

So....my collection of Atari 2600 roms is....LEGAL!?

Oh god, I feel so dirty....dealing in legal software....I need to go dirty my hands in something more recent. Someone give me a cracked Starcraft II!!!!!!!!
Actually the law is either 90 years from its creation or 120 years from its publication, what ever is shorter.

Your breaking the law Blakfayt, don't worry.
Oh thank god. I wouldn't want to put a clean spot on my tarnished record. I have my pride to think of.
 

LeonLethality

New member
Mar 10, 2009
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blakfayt said:
Ummm, wouldn't the copyright have ran out by now? I'm just saying most SNES games can be legally pirated because copyright only covers like twenty years or something, then it's free as long as someone has a copy of it.
Actually I believe they last like 70 or 80 years.
 

Not G. Ivingname

New member
Nov 18, 2009
6,368
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0
ShadowKatt said:
Not G. Ivingname said:
ShadowKatt said:
blakfayt said:
Ummm, wouldn't the copyright have ran out by now? I'm just saying most SNES games can be legally pirated because copyright only covers like twenty years or something, then it's free as long as someone has a copy of it.
Wait, wut?

So....my collection of Atari 2600 roms is....LEGAL!?

Oh god, I feel so dirty....dealing in legal software....I need to go dirty my hands in something more recent. Someone give me a cracked Starcraft II!!!!!!!!
Actually the law is either 90 years from its creation or 120 years from its publication, what ever is shorter.

Your breaking the law Blakfayt, don't worry.
Oh thank god. I wouldn't want to put a clean spot on my tarnished record. I have my pride to think of.
Don't worry, your terrible reputation has remained such :p

Of course now you have admitted your crimes in a public place.

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