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The Rage Over Streets of Rage Remake | | | Introduction | |
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< | This article explores SEGA's threats to Bombergames's Streets of Rage Remake, a fan-made freeware PC game based on SEGA's Streets of Rage franchise, and the intellectual property of videogame software. | >
> | The Copyright Act of 1790 gave exclusive control of works to their creators for 14 years with 14-year renewals. Due to corporate special interest groups, copyright extensions have culminated in The Copyright Act of 1998, with copyrights generally lasting for the life of the author plus 70 years, and up to 120 years for anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works for hire. Arguments favoring laxer copyright laws center on increasing the public good and recognizing there is no economic value to a work a few years after creation. This article supports laxer intellectual property laws by focusing on the videogame software industry and looking at SEGA’s threats to a fan-made freeware PC game based on SEGA’s Streets of Rage franchise. | | | Background | |
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< | Streets of Rage (SOR) is a videogame released in the US in 1991 that spawned sequels SOR 2 and 3 in 1992 and 1994 respectively. SEGA, a console/game manufacturer now turned software developer, developed SOR for its SEGA Genesis console. These games have since been ported to arcade machines, other game consoles, and handheld devices as late as 2011.
SOR is an action game in the "beat 'em up" genre akin to Double Dragon. Players control characters through various levels, beating up criminals, and acquiring items along the way. SOR's introduction tells of three characters who vow to combat the crime syndicate plaguing their city. With no further exposition, the loose plot is told through the gameplay images as one progresses through the game. The sequels feature slightly enhanced gameplay and new characters. SOR 2 has a similar bare-bones story, but SOR 3's plot is expanded and features cut-scenes with written dialogue between levels. Yuzo Koshiro composed the franchise's music. | >
> | Streets of Rage (SOR) is a videogame released in the US in 1991 that spawned two sequels in 1992 and 1994. The games, originally developed by SEGA for its Genesis console, have since been ported unchanged to other devices as late as 2011. SOR, an action game in the “beat ‘em up” genre, has a loose plot told mostly through gameplay images of three characters who combat the crime syndicate plaguing their city. The sequels feature slightly enhanced gameplay and new characters, with SOR 3's plot expanded to feature cut-scenes with written dialogue between levels. | | | | |
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< | Streets of Rage Remake (Remake) is an unofficial game for PC created by developer BoMbErLiNk? and was offered on www.bombergames.net. The project started March 17, 2003 and was released April 3, 2011. According to Bombergames, Remake is not reverse engineered and does not use a single line of code from the original games. It was developed from the ground up based on "visual interpretation, logic, and comparison of states." While the game is freeware for the public, the resources (the custom sprites, remixes, artwork, etc.) are not and belong to their respective artists. Remake looks and plays like a modern throwback to the original games. The character models have been updated, the stages are reconstructed bits from the original games, and Koshiro's "house" music is faithfully remixed. Remake's original story is told through cut-scenes resembling SOR 3. | >
> | Streets of Rage Remake (Remake) is a game for PC created by developer BoMbErLiNk? and was offered on www.bombergames.net. The project, which commenced in 2003 and was released in 2011, is not reverse engineered and contains no code from the original games. It was developed based on "visual interpretation, logic, and comparison of states." The game is free to the public, but its resources (the custom sprites, remixes, artwork) belong to their respective artists. Remake looks and plays like a modern throwback to the original games, with updated models and remixed music. Its original story is told through cut-scenes resembling SOR 3. | | | | |
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< | According to BoMbErLiNk, Bombergames contacted SEGA about the project in 2007 by email and sent a formal letter notifying them of the game's development. It is unclear what the response was, but Bombergames continued developing Remake. Within a week of Remake's release, SEGA contacted Bombergames and requested that it cease distribution. SEGA released the following statement to a number of videogame websites such as IGN.com:
"SEGA is committed to supporting any fans that take an interest in our games, and where possible we do so by involving them in Beta tests and other development, marketing or research opportunities… However we need to protect our intellectual property rights and this may result in us requesting that our fans remove online imagery, videos or games in some instances." | >
> | According to BoMbErLiNk, Bombergames contacted SEGA about the project in 2007 by email and sent a formal letter notifying them of the game's development. Within a week of Remake's release, SEGA issued a cease and desist letter. In [[http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-04/13/sega-shuts-down-streets-of-rage-remake][statements] to videogame websites, SEGA expressed its need to protect is IP rights. | | | Bombergames has complied, and the game is "officially" unavailable. | | | The IP at Stake | |
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< | Videogames may be covered by the traditional forms of intellectual property—copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret—but only copyright and trademark seem to apply to Remake. Copyright could protect the code, the resulting images for the characters and backgrounds as they appear on screen, the music, the sound effects, and the story. Trademark could also be employed to protect the brand name "Streets of Rage," the images and likenesses of SOR's characters and game backgrounds, and perhaps the sound effects if they could be attributable to SOR and Sega. | >
> | Videogames may be covered by the traditional forms of intellectual property—copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret—but only copyright and trademark apply to Remake. Copyright could protect the code, the resulting images for the characters and backgrounds as they appear on screen, the music, the sound effects, and the story. Trademark may also protect the "Streets of Rage" brand, the images and likenesses of SOR's characters and game backgrounds, and perhaps any attributable sound effects. | | | | |
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< | Resolving for the Consumer | >
> | SEGA has strong infringement claims against Bombergames under current law. However, is the public good served when SEGA seeks to sit on a franchise for 20 years without producing new content, and when it prevents a developer’s efforts 8 years in the making? Is there a better IP regime? | | | | |
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< | SEGA does have potentially strong infringement claims against Bombergames. However, putting aside the fact that SEGA waited until the final version was released before threatening Bombergames to pull the download links (four beta versions were released in the years prior to 2011), SEGA's actions beg these questions: is it fair for SEGA to deny a developer's efforts 8 years in the making, when SEGA itself has not developed a new Streets of Rage game in almost 20 years? Does such an IP regime benefit the consuming gamer? | >
> | The Public Good and Resolution for the Consumer | | | | |
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< | Copyright's dual nature of promoting the arts for the public good while giving the creators exclusive rights for limited times is in constant conflict with itself. However, life of the author plus 70 years weighs heavily on the "exclusive rights" side of copyright. Under such a regime, videogame characters and franchises won't see the light of day unless the original developing company allows it. Unused franchises will lose relevancy should consumers have to wait for life plus 70 years. Videogames are complicated by the fact that they can be trademarked too. Videogame companies not only trademark their company names (SEGA is a registered trademark), but also their games ("Streets of Rage" is a dead trademark), and in some cases, presumably their characters. Should no one be able to use those marks unless they pay for a license? Isn't one company's trash another's treasure? In the interest of promoting the arts for the public good and consumption, would a more flexible regime be appropriate? | >
> | Copyright's dual nature of promoting the arts for the public good while giving the creators exclusive rights for limited times is in constant conflict with itself. Current copyright law weighs heavily on the "exclusive rights" side of copyright. Under current law, videogame characters and franchises won't see the light of day unless the original developing company allows it—unused franchises will completely lose relevancy. Videogames are complicated by the fact that they can be trademarked too. Videogame companies not only trademark their company names (SEGA is a registered trademark), but also their games ("Streets of Rage" is a dead trademark), and in some cases, presumably their characters. Should no one be able to use those marks unless they pay for a license? Isn't one company's trash another's treasure? In the interest of promoting the arts for the public good and consumption, would a more flexible regime be appropriate? | | |
Perhaps a shortened trademark/copyright regime is the answer. Since videogame development cycles—the start of development until release date—are about two years, a regime that gives parent developers/companies 10 years from the release date of a game to make a new franchise-related game may be more appropriate. The cycle would reset each time the parent released a new game (not for ports of old games or downloadable content to existing games). If the parent decides to let the franchise die in those 10 years, a new developer/company could, in the interest of progress and innovation, develop their own game in the franchise. This would essentially be a free license. Should the parent want the franchise back, they need only release a new game, and the clock is reset.
The 10 year regime would allow companies to keep their franchises as long as they developed for them, and would allow new developers to step in should the parent deny their child. In this way, the nerd rage over the pulling of Streets of Rage Remake could be alleviated. | |
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< | Too much of this essay
is spent providing background facts, and too much of that time is
spent hiding the relevant facts. If someone makes a close copy of a
copyrighted work, copying not ideas or functions but expressions,
including closely copying visual designs and music, it's not
surprising that they receive a cease and desist request at the
appropriate time. It's hard to understand why the equities are
supposed to be relevant here, unless you mean to criticize the
underlying copyright regime more fundamentally. Why there should be
a 90-year term on most corporate copyrights but one only one-ninth as
long for all the graphics, music, etc. used in a videogame escapes
me, as I suspect it will escape every reader given the thinness of
the argument you are presenting. If your argument is that graphics,
music, etc. shouldn't be copyrightable, explain why there should be
copyright at all. If there should be copyright, and if other forms
of music and graphics are copyrightable, why should these particular
expressions be subject to radically different rules? How will that
differentiation be sustained in view of the overriding incentives
that everyone will have to blur them in order to obtain maximum
protection?
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