Shall we buy Telefang rights?

Post things about the Telefang series, and aren't about a particular Telefang game here.
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telefangfan(imported)
Posts: 61
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:30 am

Re: Shall we buy Telefang rights?

Post by telefangfan(imported) »

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/socksthecat/socks-the-cat-the-video-game-based-on-the-clintons

Long ago a fan named Tom bought the proto of Socks the cat rocks the hill.Instead of just dumping the game,he acquired the rights starting a crowdfunding on kickstarter,then teamed up with Second Dimension and in July,they are shipping the game.
I was wondering,what if one of us asked the price to acquire the rights,then,we complete the translations of both games and mangas and start a crowdfunding?I don't know who holds the rights right now,anyway.
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Imaynotbehere4long
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Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2013 12:07 pm

Re: Shall we buy Telefang rights?

Post by Imaynotbehere4long »

Funny you bring that up; this conversation was already had in the "Rocket Company IS Smilesoft" thread, with the consensus being that it would be too complex. Here's just a piece of that conversation:
kmeisthax wrote:There's also huge logistical problems with a copyright transfer to anything that isn't another hierarchical corporation. We would have to establish an organization capable of taking donations and holding copyright. We would have to create by-laws which would allow for the fair and equitable control of the holding company by all donors. We would have to agree on what to do with the copyright. (Public domain is not an option because Japanese copyright law does not recognize the right of an author to commit a work to the public domain.) We would have to hire an army of bilingual lawyers to deal with Imagineer and Rocket Company's lawyers. We would also have to disclose the price, despite the fact that most copyright related agreements don't allow either party to disclose costs to the public. Then we'd have to hire a second army of bilingual tax lawyers to handle the kinds of tax liabilities we would have to deal with in both Japan and America.

EDIT: For reference, here's the thread: http://s15.zetaboards.com/Tulunk_Village/topic/6813625/1/
kmeisthax
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Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:20 pm

Re: Shall we buy Telefang rights?

Post by kmeisthax »

Hmm. That's an interesting development if companies are willing to talk to fans and license prototype releases like that. I wrote my rant with the opinion that game companies generally don't want to talk to people without a history in the industry except to shut them down. Since then, a couple things have changed:

1. Half the game industry is perfectly willing to work with fans (e.g. SEGA and Christian Whitehead)
2. Half the game industry treats fans like the criminal felons they are (e.g. Nintendo and absolutely everyone)

Given that we're like, five people on a message board I don't really fear #2 unless we were to actually reach out to Rocket or whomever and get shot down. Licensing the rights definitely would require a completely different approach to how we run our community here and we'd have to basically shut everything down and actually work like a business. So I'd prefer staying as quiet as possible until we have a pitch or deliverable of some kind.

The logistical complications I mentioned before are the same; nothing's changed. We'd probably wind up spending more money on lawyers and translators than actually licensing the property.
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