Scratch

Wickimen wrote:

It's weird to see "Namco" now
What with people using the term "Nomco"

Yes, that's because I respect good programming companies.

TVflea wrote:

so, basicly they did the same thing Namco did.
Knil

so, yeah. post your answer.

Well, I'm not sure if it's exactly the same thing as what Namco did. To my understanding of the project, the Scratcher e-mailed the creators of the game, who told the Scratcher to take it down, and the Scratcher did it willingly. The Scratcher could have just kept it up on the site anyway and argue a case of Fair Use via educational purpose (at which point, if the creators disregarded the Fair Use clause and went ahead in sending a DCMA notice forcing the project to be taken down, then it would be exactly like the Namco case). 

On the basis that being "evil" here refers to the act of taking down a unfairly and not recognizing the Fair Use clause: Whether or not one would call Halfbrick being "evil" in this case depends on what they said to the Scratcher in the e-mail, and if they realized if they were dealing with a child and if they knew about the purpose of Scratch. A lot of times most of the companies sending notices of copyright infringement notices do not realize that it is kids who are mainly creating the programs, or realize the fact that the Scratch website is non-profit and created for educational purposes (that is, it was created to encourage people, mainly young children or those who have no prior programming background, to learn programming). There are times where the Scratch Team intervenes on the Scratcher's behalf and explains the benefits of having the program on the Scratch website to those sending the copyright infringement, and sometimes the ones sending the copyright infringement will let the issue slide, or some sort of compromise can be given (for example, the project can stay so long as there's a link to the original game in the projects notes); other times, the people sending the copyright infringement notice will be insistent (I think most of us here who harbor negative feelings over the Namco-Bandai case would call that a case of "evil", ne?)

Last edited by cheddargirl (2011-10-22 01:56:50)