The ViLE guys just released a tool to import the english scripts into the Japanese version using a new engine. So I need to get my hands on the NI remake - when the existence of this came up before, I considered trying to get one of the boxed copies that was floating around, but wasn’t quick enough. Is it up on like DLSite or anything?
It doesn’t appear to be available for dl sales.
Given it’s age, and the total collapse of Excellents Japan and Apricot, I don’t think anyone has the distribution rights to ??? anymore… at least as far as Japan is concerned. This new [url=http://www.t-apricot.jp]Apricot[/url] has the same name, but I’ve confirmed not the license (I wrote and asked them about it sometime ago). I’m sure some of the developers are still around and kicking, but certainly not collectively. You’d probably have as much luck figuring out who owns Cosmic Swarm for the Atari 2600, as you would NI. Unless JAST’s contract had a limited duration lease, they should still hold the distribution rights for the English version.
I’ll see if I can work out something for ya though…
yeah, i’d be surprised if they had the license, since that’s a crossnet company
Well since google settled a lawsuit on its books that allows them to publish books where finding the copyright holder is (nearly) impossible, there has been a push by the industry to allow them to the same for any copyrighted item where good faith efforts cannot find them rather than letting them languish. For titles that would be 10 years old, this might allow for better ability to legally translate and publish them under Berne convention, but it depends on how things are worded.
That settlement probably won’t be approved in its current form. The question of what to do about orphan works is a very contentious issue, and a lot of people have serious objections to the proposed settlement. And even if it DID go through, the settlement would only apply to books. It will take a long time for the principle to spread, if it ever does.
Just out of dumb curiosity… The renewal for NI had adjusted scenarios and extra (or extended) endings because of that: you could win characters that weren’t winnable in the PC98 and DOS versions. It also included more CG illustrations. How does the port patch exactly address those issues? Do they remain in the original Japanese, were translated by the fangroup, or make the game crash?
I think I can link to the ViLE project from here, because it isn’t a pirate patch - you have to have the US version of the game and the Japanese remake to install it.
http://vilevn.org/www/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=20#body
So a) no voice support for now (which kinda sucks, and I didn’t notice that bit before) and b) they’re simply excluded by the game, because I believe it takes the scripting from the US version. How hard is the Japanese to understand? Cause if I understand the ViLE engine correctly, it could be configured to play the Japanese version as well.
Not difficult at all, although you don’t really give a threshold for what you consider hard to understand. If you can read VNs you can probably read Mugen Yasoukyoku.
I can’t, really. My grasp of vocabulary is pathetic enough that I need Google Translate / a dictionary for pretty much any non-trivial word.
When there is money to be made that would otherwise go unmade, that tends to speed things up.
You would think … but the rightsholders are often very very slow to see the advantage of any new technology that screws with a profitable business model. They tried to kill the VCR, they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into just selling mp3 (the format everyone wanted), and their first instinct was to sue Google for all the scanning they were doing.
Besides, one of the big things holding up changes like this is rights hell - the rights needed to do things like D/L sales are often different than the rights needed to do packaged sales, really old contracts don’t cover this kind of thing often, and then there’s multiple layers of contracts if a property has gone thru multiple owners.
In this case, the problem is that Excellents and Apricot both disintegrated years ago, so it might not even be clear who owns the rights. Worse, whoever DOES own the rights now may not even want anything to do with the h-game business and might refuse to allow it at all.
That’s what I’m saying those companies want to streamline the process that if they cannot with a reasonable effort find and contact the rights holder, they can publish it, ie they don’t have to wait for a yes. They’d probably have to set aside a reserve of some cash incase they appeared later, but companies could invest that and make money on it.
The important thing here is that the rights holder doesn’t matter unless they have said no previously or they can show there wasn’t a “reasonable” attempt to contact them and they wanted to say no. The want to be able to publish those “in limbo” titles (not necessarily eroge, but it could extend to that) that they cannot right now because of their “in limbo” status. The argument would be, and it is a justifiable one, that copyright law here is hurting, not helping, the dissemination of information which was the original purpose of said powers. I think with this kind of congress and this kind of climate, those kind of arguments could have a good ear.
Only for the Japanese version though. As far as I can tell, Japan allows software patents for 20 years, where upon an extension must be applied to extend it further. You can read it’s awesome boredom here. Article 2 of Paragraph 3 explicitly mentions that software falls under these rules.
I think the oldest version of Mugen Yasoukyoku was released in 1995. The Windows remake is no older than 1997 (going by the OST release date). So unless the original owner steps forward and files his claim (highly doubtful), the original versions of NI would go into “open license” status (in Japan) no later than 2015… and the Windows remake is around 2017. If the person does step forward, then there will be an updated contact record in the Japanese equivalent of the US Patent Office.
I would assume, by proxy, that JAST is the English rights holder… or whomever gave JAST distribution permission. Honestly IMHO, if someone were to do a fanlation NI Remake release that was non-English, no one would stop 'em from Japan. If it was English, then JAST might poke their nose about it. Seeing how NI is so old, I don’t see why they couldn’t just write to JAST and ask for permission. Peter might just shrug his shoulders and not care, if he doesn’t see any way to legally make and/or lose profit off something like that.
Even Microsoft stopped caring about people pirating Windows 3.11 in 2008. 
I understand this argument - and I even think it’s a good idea. (It will probably happen but it will take 10-15 years at least for people to hash out the details.) However, that is not currently how the rules work. Jast’s contract was for the old version of the game only (otherwise it would have included the new graphics, updated music, etc). Probably they just acquired the contract from the previous US entity. Whatever rights they have are probably pursuant to that old contract, and if it doesn’t give them rights to the remake … then good luck getting those.
Narg is right about one thing, though: probably nobody cares about the game anymore in Japan. (I mean, the game doesn’t even have a page on the Japanese wikipedia, as far as I can tell. I looked.) However, I have no idea whether he cited patent law or copyright law; probably patent. Patents have always had a FAR shorter timespan than copyrights. Who knows how long the copyright runs for … but Japan is a Berne signatory, so NI is copyrighted for a very long time even if the current rightsholder doesn’t even know they own it.
This problem will eventually be addressed by new copyright treaties that change the rules. But that will take a VERY long time, as it involves a complex overhaul to the entire IP system.
Oh, and as for Google’s class-action settlement approach: I read the Department of Justice’s objections to the proposed settlement. Based on that document, I do not believe the judge will approve the settlement in its current form, and I don’t believe the class-action-lawsuit-settlement mechanism is the appropriate forum to make game-changing patches to the rules about orphan works.
Whether or not Google wins or loses the settlement, there has been a wakeup of the other big players like Amazon to push for these reforms. You’re right that all the details would take a decade or more to hammer out, but not everything would necessarily take that long. And with the book companies looking in, companies would want to redo the laws governing non-books with unclear copyright holders so they can cash in too.
Google Books settlement was rejected a couple weeks ago, more or less along the lines that the DoJ objected to it.
Oh, and Narg - check your PMs, mm?
Sorry. :oops:
While Google has lost a major battle in their war, I hear they aren’t giving up. I suppose they’re either going to consolidate what gains they’ve made, or just tackle the issue from another legal loophole or something.
Well, I read the ruling. It more or less mirrors the DoJ’s concerns - namely, this has the effect of making Google immune to copyright law in certain ways, and therefore a class action isn’t the way to go. Further, the settlement being opt-in means that Google, and the publishers, have a conflict of interest insofar as it is to their advantage to fail to look very hard for the owners of orphan works (they just sell the orphan works and pocket the money). The judge more or less endorsed these ideas.
So I predict that the settlement will be approved if it is opt in. But that changes the scope significantly; orphan works are out of the question (since if they can contact you to opt in, then their work isn’t orphaned) and it’s much less problematic. But then, that still leaves the question of what to do with orphan works. That will ultimately require an act of Congress.
So what I’d predict is: 1) Google and the book publishers change the deal so it’s opt-in, and the settlement is approved; 2) Google and the book publishers also start lobbying Congress for orphan work legislation.
That is not dead, which can eternal lie … And with strange aeons, even death may die. Not so sure about dead bbs threads, though …
So I’m curious - does anyone know who wrote the scenario for the game? Nasu, I’m looking at you … the Japanese is sometimes making my eyes bleed. (Yes, I know it couldn’t have been him … the game is several years too old, for one.) But it occurred to me that - IIRC - the credits for the English release were all in pseudonyms; I think that was still common then. So if the credits in the game are pseudonymous, and the developer and publisher have all been dead companies for years … would anyone even be around who could say who wrote the script?
(I’d also be curious who did the soundtrack, since whoever they are, they’re awesome.)