Nintendo Shuts Down Fan-Made Zelda Movie 222
Andorin writes "An independently filmed adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, called The Hero Of Time, has been taken offline by Nintendo as of the end of December. The film's producers write: 'We came to an agreement with Nintendo earlier this month to stop distributing the film... 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.' Filming for the feature-length, non-profit film began in August 2004 and the movie was completed in 2008. It premiered in various theaters worldwide, including in New York and Los Angeles, and then became available online in the middle of December, before it was targeted by Nintendo's legal team. As both an avid Zelda fan and an appreciator of independent works, I was extremely disappointed in Nintendo's strong-arming of a noncommercial adaptation to the Game of the Year for 1999."
Re:Streisand effect! (Score:2, Informative)
Easy as pie: http://thepiratebay.org/search/The%20Hero%20of%20Time/0/7/0
Re:Nintendo Needs zelda (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The Hero of Time still lives on... (Score:1, Informative)
Here [thepiratebay.org].
For those too lazy to google it. :)
That wouldn't work. (Score:3, Informative)
It seems that Desilu didn't register the copyrights properly for the first season,
At least in the US, copyright is the automatic default. Anything you do is automatically copyrighted. Registering it is useful, especially if you want to prove it's yours, but not necessary.
Now, trademarks are different, as are patents. But these are completely different bodies of law.
Re:Lessons Learned (Score:1, Informative)
Shakespeare also did a lot of derivative works, but no one complains about him.
Re:Why the surprise? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The Hero of Time still lives on... (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHLpTc6Lfhw [youtube.com]
Re:Took awhile? (Score:3, Informative)
Even the for- or not-for-profit issue aside, Nintendo has actually apparently been pretty cool about it (so I take back my own sarcastic comment in another thread). From the movie's website: "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."
Other examples of Nintendo being cool is the way they never tried to stop the fan translation of Mother 3 after they announced it wasn't going to be ported here.