Namco Shuts Down Student's Pac-Man Project

[JediMB]

Copyright law did go down the shitter when the ownership was extended from 20 years to 75ish years. It's the kind of stuff that inhibits development.

 

[Sentox6]

Roms are actually pretty illegal.
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms

The introduction of emulators created to play illegally copied Nintendo software represents the greatest threat to date to the intellectual property rights of video game developers.

Holy hyperbole, Batman!

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Two problems here:
1. Do they realise how many Pac-Man flash games there are?
2. How can they enforce a DMCA notice on an internet identity?

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

Theres about 6 or so Pac-Man games on Funny Games but they don't do anytihng about that. My avatar is relevent.

Also, is Namco REALLY still making money from Pac-Man? Really?

 

[Sebenko]

Roms are actually pretty illegal.
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms

The introduction of emulators created to play illegally copied Nintendo software represents the greatest threat to date to the intellectual property rights of video game developers.

Holy hyperbole, Batman!

And suddenly, like a fireball, one phrase is flung, screaming and on fire into my mind: "Lllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllll"

That's the most hilariously wrong thing I've seen since the trailer for Homefront.

Because we're always hearing about how emulators are destroying the videogames industry.

 

[brunothepig]

I googled Pac man and the first three results were "Play Pacman" "Flash Pacman" and "Free Pacman". So that's just really stupid. On top of that, he was just trying to learn. I think I'll go make a Pacman game myself. It seems like fun.
Also, was this non-profit? So they weren't even losing money. And I doubt anyone is going to go buy Pacman now that this particular version is lost. They could always google and find another one. So this was pointless, about sums up my comment.

 

[Lizardon]

Can you still buy Pac-Man games? I haven't seen one for years so I don't think this would be hurting sales.

 

[zidine100]

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

no ... roms are not illegal, downloading roms is.

Ripping them from your own carts, is infact legal, due to the fact that it falls under the act of backing up games you have offically purchased which is infact legal.

also Nintendo are pritty biased, not all roms are downloaded of the interne.

Are Game Copying Devices Illegal?

Yes. Game copiers enable users to illegally copy video game software onto floppy disks, writeable compact disks or the hard drive of a personal computer. They enable the user to make, play and distribute illegal copies of video game software which violates Nintendo's copyrights and trademarks. These devices also allow for the uploading and downloading of ROMs to and from the Internet. Based upon the functions of these devices, they are illegal.

this is also a load of trash. (unless ofcoruse its hosted in america, in which case it has some merit.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image#Legal_status

And yes theres a lot of messed up legal things in that which conflict which each other eula and such.

edit: mistype with quote tags.

 

[HuntrRose]

When Namco is losing money quicker than a gambling addict at the craps table of the Bellagio, I can't really say I blame them for targeting every little little piss-ant pirate. This guy's game probably takes away something like half their remaining profits.

Umm... when was Pac-Man released? And when was the last time a unit was sold? Seriously that lawyers notice must have cost them more than Pac-Man made them in the last 15-20 years!

 

[Tipsy Giant]

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!

In this case? where the dude was not making any money off of it?
I call Douchebaggery of the highest degree

 

[Riobux]

I can't help but think "...why?". Mainly because of the countless Pac-Man games that can be found on the internet as flash games. What line was crossed to make Namco think "hhhmm, we need those people to stop this at once!".

 

[ultimateownage]

Ah, scratch, we used that in school last year. Ironically one of the pre made scratch games on the school computers was Pac Man.

 

[Antari]

Another wonderful lawyer in the world .... Congrats Namco .. you may have protected your rights. But you sure as hell haven't protected your sales and public relations!

 

[Stormz]

Better start working on shutting down the millions of other Pac-man clones on every flash site ever.

 

[ishist]

Namco doesn't really have much going these days does it? Its sort of like a one hit wonder musician rabidly chasing anyone who even remotely infringes on their only source of income.

Two of the four featured game on their site are pac-man based. I'd have figured pac-man was milked for all it was worth 20 years ago.