In all fairness, these fan projects are using Sega's IP, but they are not for profit and are soley for the LOVE of these Sega games. These remakes aren't examples of theft. They are declarations of LOVE. Can't Sega see that? Who issued the cease and desist letters anyway? A number cruncher or Yuji Naka himself? There is a big difference between ripping off an idea for self serving purposes (as described earlier in this thread) and making something out of love FOR the IP holders.
I've been waiting with baited breath for Black Mesa to be finished, which is a total conversion for Half-Life 2 which remakes from the ground up the original game. It looks amazing and faithful like only a devoted fan project can be. Valve, Epic, etc know that fans remake games and use their IPs not for theft but out of love.
We are in the middle of a revolution in communication technology. The advent of the Smartphone is the beginning of what will be, for our grandchildren, constant Internet integration in our lives, augmented reality, digital duality becoming unified. Already there is fervent debate on dealing with 'protecting' IP in cases where logos are photographed or recorded in blogs, trademarks are spoken or shown without license, etc.
As we move towards this life-Internet integrated future, powered by portable devices and matured social Networking, features seen in sights like Youtube will be standard everywhere. It will open the door to mass expression of personal creativity on a global level. But it will also be a world founded on brands, consumerism and consumption, where there will be no cultural definition between owned IP and cultural iconography.
I don't know where I'm going here, but what I'm trying to describe is a future that is a nightmare for overprotective IP holders. They can either embrace this change in culture and find new ways to define IP theft, thus using the rabid creativity of the Internet community, OR they can litigate and threaten these people who only want to rejoice and celebrate the pop-culture which they love. The designation of 'art' allows the use of IP for artistic purposes, but getting the 'art' label is very difficult. Games are products. Videos are products. Etc.
I believe that we as fans should be allowed to celebrate what we love by making fan games and art, and so forth. The IP holders can't eat their cake and have it too. If they want to make their characters part of the cultural heritage of the age, they have to accept that it will be reappropriated by the culture. It will no longer soley belong to them. George Lucas gets it. He doesn't threaten legal action to the thousands of fan films being made. Valve and Epic get it. Does Sega get it - that Sonic and SOR are icons for a multiple generations?
Anyway, is this too heavy? Sorry for the flood of text. I hope I have explained what I'm talking about. IP law is to protect a profit when threatened by a theft of ideas. Copyright is to protect the physical manifestations of those ideas. I can understand legal threats about theft of code and pixels, but when the only 'stolen' thing is the IDEA, or concept, and everything else is newly generated, it is an abuse. User generated content is the new buzzword in the console world, but on PC it has been a foundation of gaming for many many years.
For inspiration, and it is a great site to read, check out Orion's Arm (http://www.orionsarm.com/). It is an encyclopedia of the next few thousand years of human evolution. It is entirely community generated and controlled. Pretty amazing. And what about Metro 2033? The novel was released for free in Russia. It became a community, multimedia project, before finally becoming a killer PC game and a newly edited, published version of the novel is now being sold. That's amazing as well.
Can you imagine when user generated gaming is not just mods and conversions, but if a community like at Orion's Arm got together and made the most ambitious and intricate space opera RPG ever attempted? If we are talking about IP, every single contributer has their own claim to their own IP, but if they all sought to 'protect' it, very little of the magnitude done already would be possible.
That's the power of community creativity, and they are the next waves of star game designers - the next Miyamotos or Syd Meads! Killing fan projects is the wrong way to go. They are part of a spectrum that includes indie, experimental, and the next hardcore blockbusters. Sega should have the confidence to nuture these fan projects, because they only exist out of love for the brand and what it stands for. But what does it stand for now?
SO yes, Sega have a right to keep their IP to themselves, but by the same token, their classic IP is now so much more than product. It is culture and part of so many people's lives. I'm sure that Sega could have found a way to support this remake and also be happy it was getting what it 'deserved'. In all, the remake says a resounding THANK YOU to Sega, so Sega should give a resounding thank you back by not treating devoted fans as criminals trying to steal a buck.
