The Hero of Time - Finally released!

[limpport]

Bump!

So apparenty, Nintendo has asked them to take the video down. Nintendo let them keep it up over the holiday.

http://www.legendofzeldaseries.com/main ... movie.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hey, everyone. We just wanted to let you know that Dec. 31 was the last day that The Hero of Time was available for viewing. We came to an agreement with Nintendo earlier this month to stop distributing the film. In the spirit of the holiday season they were good enough to let us keep the movie up for you to watch and enjoy through the end of 2009, but not past 2009. We understand Nintendo’s right to protect its characters and trademarks and understand how in order to keep their property unspoiled by fan's interpretation of the franchise, Nintendo needs to protect itself — even from fan-works with good intentions.

This has been quite an adventure for us and we have a real sense of peace bringing the project to a close. Between the screenings and the online release many of you were able to see the film and we hope to not have only inspired those of you that live, breathe and dream Zelda but we also hope to have inspired all of you aspiring filmmakers out there! Thank you again for all your patience with the project and we hope you had as much fun watching our movie as we did making it. Thanks for all your wonderful messages of encouragement and support! I'm sure our next project will be right around the corner! No, it's not Majora's Mask : )

[collinE]

something seems strange about that. Is that really legit? I suppose if they were making money off the video, Nintendo could do something. College Humor has a new Mario Brothers skit every week and I'm sure Nintendo never said anything to them.

[eagle5953]

If you don't control your intellectual property, it can enter into public domain.

I think Nintendo waited as long as they could before shutting it down; that is, they allowed many people to view it while still reaffirming their ownership of their IP.

[nightwheel]

If you don't control your intellectual property, it can enter into public domain.

I think Nintendo waited as long as they could before shutting it down; that is, they allowed many people to view it while still reaffirming their ownership of their IP.

So if Nintendo doesn't do something thing related to it's IP's. And people start to do fan works and such. The Mario and Zelda franchises would enter into public domain?

Care to explain in more detail?

[eagle5953]

If you don't control your intellectual property, it can enter into public domain.

I think Nintendo waited as long as they could before shutting it down; that is, they allowed many people to view it while still reaffirming their ownership of their IP.

So if Nintendo doesn't do something thing related to it's IP's. And people start to do fan works and such. The Mario and Zelda franchises would enter into public domain?

Care to explain in more detail?

That's roughly the case, as I understand it. Basically, if someone used their IP and got sued for it, they could point to these kinds of fan works to argue that it already has entered public domain.

Copyright law has all kinds of rules like that. For example, if a brand name becomes too synonomous with the product itself, the brand name can enter into public domain. This has already happened with items like Linoleum (used to be a protected brand name) and others. That's why LEGO insists you call them "LEGO brand building blocks," rather than legos - if a court ruled that "legos" was commonly used for all building blocks, the phrase "Lego" would be public domain and companies like Mega Blocks could call their products Legos.

Such fan works are a legal gray area under Fair Use, but who wants to go up against Nintendo's suits on something that will make you no money anyway?

This is obviously simplified somewhat, but you get Nintendo's motivation for coming down on them. Objectively, you'd think they would like projects like this, and they probably do - it's free advertising. But Intellectual Property (especially the Zelda universe) is simply too valuable to risk.

This blog post discusses the issues in more detail.

[benheck]

It can't be worse than "Super Mario Brothers" (the movie), easily one of the worst bad movies I have ever seen.

And just ask Jones, we have seen A LOT.

-Ben

[Triton]

. For example, if a brand name becomes too synonomous with the product itself, the brand name can enter into public domain. This has already happened with items like Linoleum (used to be a protected brand name) and others.

the "proper" term for this is a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark]genericized trademark[url]

[Biased]

the "proper" term for this is a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark]genericized trademark[url]

So Kleenex is a genercized trademark?

[Triton]

its used as a generic term but they still own the trademark. it hasnt been legally genericized yet

[hackmodford]

I'd say the movie tried to stay truer to the "feel" of the game than the super mario bros. movie. I remember that show

I'm still glad I took the time to figure out how to download it

[Astan92]

AHH! I never saw it! I must see the movie!

[eagle5953]

the "proper" term for this is a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark]genericized trademark[url]

So Kleenex is a genercized trademark?

I almost brought up Kleenex as an example, but I liked LEGO better, and that post was already running long.

Triton is correct on this point - Kleenex is still a brand name despite general use. Q-tips are an even better example (does anyone actually refer to them as 'cotton swabs?').

[collinE]

xerox is one that everybody was using in place of "photocopy" but hardly anyone uses it now.

[smitty]

xerox is one that everybody was using in place of "photocopy" but hardly anyone uses it now.

What's a xerox?

Anyway.... I really want to see this movie... But since it's down... I can't... And for some reason my BitTorrent client broke. Anybody have the movie? That you could possibly upload somewhere?

[Metallica Man X]

You don't know what a xerox is? Those were among the very first electronic copying machines! That company had a heck of a hold on the copy machine market back in the day. As a result, he term "xerox" became synominous with photocopying machines and the process of photocopying. Of course, that has since worn off due to other companies succeeding in the market as well.