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Project X: IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ!!
12 years ago
As all of you know, we are having troubles with the forum, with a 'Malware' warning and the forum down for several days, and we are having more troubles that Im going to explain here:
1.- We DONT have a virus or a Malware, we check the forum files again and again and is not a thing of virus, the problem is... more worse:
Seems that a couple of Companies reported us due the violation of the DMCA, aka Copyright, one of them SEGA itself, the other, the developers of the game Girl Vs Girl, SEGA due the obvious thing, and the others due the fact that someone uploaded a link in our forum to download the game in an illegal way.
The results of all of this, due the DMCA, Google was forced to blacklist this site, marking it as a site that can potentially damage your computer giving false warnings of malware, but this is not true, we dont have a malware, when you see the report of malware, in type of malware you will see 'Unknow', thats because, we arent sharing any virus, but... we are blacklisted like one of your usual download webpages with pirate content.
2.- We are getting very famous, and getting thousands of visits in the forum and download page, this is good, but not at all, in the host we are paying, we consumed just in one week like 70 Teras of bandwidth, and Cirtex, the host with who have the contract, warned us that if we dont reduce the bandwidth consumption, they are going to close our host because we are breaking the TOS of the contract with them, all in all, we cant get our game hosted in a private server, because the people, instead look if the new version is announced or not, seems they just download the game again, and instead helping us coming to our download page, they just made hotlinks to the download link, evitating other people know our site, participate in the forums or just know if a new version comes out or not.
So, as all you can understand, this is a very serious situation for us, a lot of things was acumulated making a big ball of troubles, and we dont have other choices than for now, close the forum, and put on hold the game indefinitely, I want to give my deep thanks to all the fans and people who supported us in all of these years, and say that the Zeta Team will try to come back to work as soon as we can.
Thank you
Zeta
1.- We DONT have a virus or a Malware, we check the forum files again and again and is not a thing of virus, the problem is... more worse:
Seems that a couple of Companies reported us due the violation of the DMCA, aka Copyright, one of them SEGA itself, the other, the developers of the game Girl Vs Girl, SEGA due the obvious thing, and the others due the fact that someone uploaded a link in our forum to download the game in an illegal way.
The results of all of this, due the DMCA, Google was forced to blacklist this site, marking it as a site that can potentially damage your computer giving false warnings of malware, but this is not true, we dont have a malware, when you see the report of malware, in type of malware you will see 'Unknow', thats because, we arent sharing any virus, but... we are blacklisted like one of your usual download webpages with pirate content.
2.- We are getting very famous, and getting thousands of visits in the forum and download page, this is good, but not at all, in the host we are paying, we consumed just in one week like 70 Teras of bandwidth, and Cirtex, the host with who have the contract, warned us that if we dont reduce the bandwidth consumption, they are going to close our host because we are breaking the TOS of the contract with them, all in all, we cant get our game hosted in a private server, because the people, instead look if the new version is announced or not, seems they just download the game again, and instead helping us coming to our download page, they just made hotlinks to the download link, evitating other people know our site, participate in the forums or just know if a new version comes out or not.
So, as all you can understand, this is a very serious situation for us, a lot of things was acumulated making a big ball of troubles, and we dont have other choices than for now, close the forum, and put on hold the game indefinitely, I want to give my deep thanks to all the fans and people who supported us in all of these years, and say that the Zeta Team will try to come back to work as soon as we can.
Thank you
Zeta
Hope the problems are solved soon.
But, since you are not charging for the game, doesn't it stand under the parody laws?
So a private company and private people sent another private company information that resulted in a private decision to list a site as being dangerous maliciously, and you assume that the government is involved?
No, he wants to whine about not getting the porn game he wants... which isn't even the government's fault.
Please find a way for us Zeta. the loss of this game would be devastating to thousands.
Consult a lawyer to learn more about what the law actually says.
The moment it's noticed, they pretty much have to act.
In each version of the game I've played, you Zeta
have ALWAYS mentioned that it is not made by SEGA
nor do ye claim Sonic Team's characters for yourself
...you've always been true & mentioned that it's a fan-made game!!
If you're using copyrighted characters without any legal permission, you're breaking copyright law.
Sure it's in a way that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, especially since Zeta isn't making a profit from it, but Sega are not a company with a history of ignoring copyright infringements.
alone...especially when working on non-profit projects
like Zeta's "Project-X"...don'tcha think?
Shining Force 3 in particular, but also any other Shining Force games from the Genesis era. They were getting Youtube to take down and warn anyone who happened to be hosting a video with footage from any of the SF games.
It's especially weird since those games are so damn old it's impossible to buy them legitimately any more. You can't buy them brand new, you can only get them second hand. So watching an LP isn't exactly cutting into their profits. There seemed to be literally no benefit to Sega for doing this.
Even Total Biscuit was in danger from this. I *think* he got a warning...possibly. I know he took down every video that even hinted at having SF footage, I'm not sure if he did that before they could warn him, or after they already had.
on Youtube. You can check more on his channel, also, he's on DA
with the same username too!
Oh...wait....
The fact Zeta doesn't charge for her game is what probably stopped Sega from issuing a C&D.
That's the worst news, Iv been supporting the project since almost day 1 (albeit under a different name), and wish I still could some how :( Gosh what a mess.
I wish you guys all the best and hope beyond hope you find answers for these issues, and if you ever need help just know you have a huge fan base who love the whole team!
Best of luck to you!
I had a feeling Sega might eventually catch wind of it, but blacklisting the entire site is pretty harsh. Still, they haven't slapped you with the old C&D yet at least.
Good luck with the legal stuff, I hope this ends up as a mere blip on the road, rather than a concrete wall =/
From the beginning this was always a threat. Still glad I got to play on the forums and enjoy the game while it lasted.
Zeta, you and your team have overcome bigger hurdles. You'll figure things out I'm sure.
And both for the same reason: copyright infringement - the use of copyrighted characters without permission. And the thing is, this is suppose to be truth for all forms of fan-art, whether it's a fan drawing or fan-made animation, etc. But they only go after the ones that are noticed the most and are extremely famous.
To me, if they're willing to ignore our other forms of fan-art, they should have left them alone as well, as we weren't profiting from them in the first place (unless you count the paid commissions we do that feature official characters like Sonic, the Mane 6, etc., although they left those alone as they're consider lower-noticed fan art and doesn't bother them like the games do). But still, it really bothers me none the less.
I'm truly sorry that this has happened to you, Zeta. If you are able to continue the game in the future if this mess is bale to be cleared up, I'm all for it. But if the game is done for good, then I hope you're able to move on and do another game with original characters, so that you won't get in trouble.
The Mane6 Team for Fighting is Magic has gotten help from Lauren Faust herself and is making their own game now with 100% original characters, to avoid copyright problems. Maybe you can try doing the same? Making original human and anthro characters, that are not sonic-like maybe? Just trying to give an idea out there.
Anyways, again I'm sorry for what happened. **hugs**
I hope things turn out better for you and your team either way in the future.
first off something like this is fan work, so it should be protected under parody and fair use.
and if this is due to ileagle links to hentais, yeah this is the internet. give me 5 seconds and I could probly find 3 copies of it.
I hope this issue can get resolved quickly.