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On the Matter of Zen's PCA "Project"
16 years ago
General
NaNo Novel: Here Falls The Thunder
So, recently I saw a nice little picture by a good friend of mine 
zenmigawa regarding an original take on the concept of the PCA, that being, the concept of a junior high/high school/college setting, replacing students with Pokemon/Pokemorphs. Now, I’ve been aware of his interest in this concept for some time. As I said, he’s a good friend of mine, and did a few pictures regarding this new look at the idea.
His reasoning was that, given what he heard about the state of the community (This was back during the Darius fiasco) that he wasn’t entirely comfortable entering into the project entirely. Hence, he created teachers, and wrote his storylines (The False Monarch, We Are The Trainers of Our Own Evolution, and Crystalline Memoir). Overall, he was fond of the idea of a “Pokemon School” but wanted to try a different interpretation. This leads us to the picture in question:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2832397/
Now, shortly after seeing this picture, some other friends of mine brought up what seemed to be something akin to a flame war, and I went to check it out. Lo and behold, a slew of people arguing, and a lot of people asking that none of their characters/storylines be included in his work. Now, before anyone jumps on me, I’ll say this: your concerns over the use of your own characters are entirely justified. You’re worried about your pictures and characters being used, and incidentally being labeled as the intellectual property of another individual. So, to alleviate your concerns, allow me to make the following points:
1) Zen is not the kind of person to use characters without asking for permission first. So, if he was ever interested in using them he would ask. And if given permission, he would likely credit you anyway. He’s not the kind of guy to just rip things off, no need to worry there.
2) Zen will likely not use any of your characters anyway. This is after all, his original and new interpretation of the School. While I have heard that many people think it’s cheesy, remember, you’ve only seen 3 pictures at best. Should wait until later to judge.
3) Unfortunately, asking that your “storylines” be left out is a bit harder to do. After all, your storylines are nothing more than archetypes of ideas which are similar to other ideas. Ironically, asking that your characters remain unused means likely your exact storylines will remain untouched, but character archetypes and basic storyline concepts are completely up for grabs. If his storylines/characters were similar to your own, the most you can claim is similarity, which is hardly grounds for legal concern. But again, he's not that kind of guy, so don't worry.
4) Again, Zen is highly unlikely to use anyone’s “storylines” without permission in the first place.
5) Also, about the intellectual property issue, remember that copyright laws are MUCH more relaxed over in Japan, than in America. All those doujin comics for popular franchises that are written over there in the east? All completely and totally legal. Reason being, that, the creators of said franchise actually encourage fanwork, because they get money (royalties) for any of this fanwork that sells, and it also attracts audiences to the source material, which only furthers there revenue. So, if anything, unless Nintendo finds his material inappropriate, they won’t be legal issues.
On that note, his picture was not the place for a flame war. Having learned this lesson myself personally, I should just say that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but really, on a picture where he’s stating a tentative idea? If you all had concerns, you should’ve noted him, or emailed him directly, rather than cover his picture with your arguments, or talked amongst yourselves privately. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have suggested he post that picture at all on FA if I’d known it would’ve started such a fight.
Also, to the person who used the
pokecombatacademy account (I know for a fact it wasn’t 
dh01 who wrote that) to try and tell Zen to change the name: If Zen wishes to use the name, that’s not something you can legally stop him from doing, even if you’re worried about what people will think of it. As the “community” is a loose group of artists and writers, who use a free website to share in your common interest of a franchise, there’s very little that you can do to claim legal ownership over the title. Even if Zen’s idea is removed enough from the original concept, he can still use the name, after all, it’s just an acronym. Also, why did you use the PCA account, instead of your own? Especially if it wasn't DH who posted that comment.
If you’re worried about “misrepresentation” again, it’s an original, an original concept. He likely won’t ever reference the “original” community, with the exception of characters that he has permission to use. And again he’s selling it over in Japan, or perhaps selling to interested individuals. (I myself wouldn’t mind a translated copy) It’s not stealing, it’s not hijacking, and he is not trying to rip anyone off. Knowing the guy personally, I can state with 100% certainty that, while you have some justified concerns, that overall, your response to his project is something of an overreaction.
And that’s all I have to say.
zenmigawa regarding an original take on the concept of the PCA, that being, the concept of a junior high/high school/college setting, replacing students with Pokemon/Pokemorphs. Now, I’ve been aware of his interest in this concept for some time. As I said, he’s a good friend of mine, and did a few pictures regarding this new look at the idea.His reasoning was that, given what he heard about the state of the community (This was back during the Darius fiasco) that he wasn’t entirely comfortable entering into the project entirely. Hence, he created teachers, and wrote his storylines (The False Monarch, We Are The Trainers of Our Own Evolution, and Crystalline Memoir). Overall, he was fond of the idea of a “Pokemon School” but wanted to try a different interpretation. This leads us to the picture in question:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2832397/
Now, shortly after seeing this picture, some other friends of mine brought up what seemed to be something akin to a flame war, and I went to check it out. Lo and behold, a slew of people arguing, and a lot of people asking that none of their characters/storylines be included in his work. Now, before anyone jumps on me, I’ll say this: your concerns over the use of your own characters are entirely justified. You’re worried about your pictures and characters being used, and incidentally being labeled as the intellectual property of another individual. So, to alleviate your concerns, allow me to make the following points:
1) Zen is not the kind of person to use characters without asking for permission first. So, if he was ever interested in using them he would ask. And if given permission, he would likely credit you anyway. He’s not the kind of guy to just rip things off, no need to worry there.
2) Zen will likely not use any of your characters anyway. This is after all, his original and new interpretation of the School. While I have heard that many people think it’s cheesy, remember, you’ve only seen 3 pictures at best. Should wait until later to judge.
3) Unfortunately, asking that your “storylines” be left out is a bit harder to do. After all, your storylines are nothing more than archetypes of ideas which are similar to other ideas. Ironically, asking that your characters remain unused means likely your exact storylines will remain untouched, but character archetypes and basic storyline concepts are completely up for grabs. If his storylines/characters were similar to your own, the most you can claim is similarity, which is hardly grounds for legal concern. But again, he's not that kind of guy, so don't worry.
4) Again, Zen is highly unlikely to use anyone’s “storylines” without permission in the first place.
5) Also, about the intellectual property issue, remember that copyright laws are MUCH more relaxed over in Japan, than in America. All those doujin comics for popular franchises that are written over there in the east? All completely and totally legal. Reason being, that, the creators of said franchise actually encourage fanwork, because they get money (royalties) for any of this fanwork that sells, and it also attracts audiences to the source material, which only furthers there revenue. So, if anything, unless Nintendo finds his material inappropriate, they won’t be legal issues.
On that note, his picture was not the place for a flame war. Having learned this lesson myself personally, I should just say that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but really, on a picture where he’s stating a tentative idea? If you all had concerns, you should’ve noted him, or emailed him directly, rather than cover his picture with your arguments, or talked amongst yourselves privately. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have suggested he post that picture at all on FA if I’d known it would’ve started such a fight.
Also, to the person who used the
pokecombatacademy account (I know for a fact it wasn’t 
dh01 who wrote that) to try and tell Zen to change the name: If Zen wishes to use the name, that’s not something you can legally stop him from doing, even if you’re worried about what people will think of it. As the “community” is a loose group of artists and writers, who use a free website to share in your common interest of a franchise, there’s very little that you can do to claim legal ownership over the title. Even if Zen’s idea is removed enough from the original concept, he can still use the name, after all, it’s just an acronym. Also, why did you use the PCA account, instead of your own? Especially if it wasn't DH who posted that comment.If you’re worried about “misrepresentation” again, it’s an original, an original concept. He likely won’t ever reference the “original” community, with the exception of characters that he has permission to use. And again he’s selling it over in Japan, or perhaps selling to interested individuals. (I myself wouldn’t mind a translated copy) It’s not stealing, it’s not hijacking, and he is not trying to rip anyone off. Knowing the guy personally, I can state with 100% certainty that, while you have some justified concerns, that overall, your response to his project is something of an overreaction.
And that’s all I have to say.
Note me. :3
And you have plenty of good points, people just don't understand things anymore. Of course, when some are immature... *shrugs* they can never truly understand things.
And also, from what I observed, things didn't really erupt until EL made the "I don't mind if you use the name PCA for your project," comment. As though he still holds sway in what the PCA does. This really enraged many of the people who are still involved with the project, and things quickly degenerated from there, right up to EL making things personal.
That's just how I saw it playing out, anyway. (I think I've made that abundantly clear, what with me using virtually the same phrase to start every paragraph of this post. XD)
However, I don't agree with having an argument like that on Zen's picture. Honestly, the community can't stop Zen if he uses the name, and the implication that any publicity this comic draws being negative or bad stinks to me of paranoia. It wasn't so much the content of their arguments, as it was the context. This could've been handed a lot better, by both sides.
So I figured I'd make a few points clear, seeing as I know Zen personally, as does Kompy. We can both vouch for Zen's integrity. I guess I'm just disappointed that people jumped to a conclusion without even asking the guy or attempting to fully understand what he was saying.
Honestly, Tamar and everyone else just needs to chill out.
And unfortunately, the community cannot copyright either the name, or the concept.
The idea of a Pokemorph high school, even if the characters look more to be Pokemon in clothing than actual Pokemorphs, is not something that any one person can really limit others on, that's true. Hence why the suggestion came, I imagine, from the account to change the name to something else. A Pokemon High School...whatever, many people, including
That's why I have an issue with all of this and feel it's not out of bounds to ask him not to use my characters and concepts, and why I feel the powers that be asking him to use a different name is not out of bounds.
1) You not allowing characters is perfectly justifiable, he likely won't do it at all anyway. After all, he's looking for a new, original take. So unless he's given explicit permission, that won't happen. As for "concepts", you'll have to define that, since that's a loose and vague term.
2) As far as who gets credit, again, if the only things in question is the name (since the issues of characters is already solved), then I'm of the belief that it's getting picky. Also, you're under the assumption that he'll give no credit to anyone, simply because he hasn't said so. I'll note that you've only seen 3 pictures of his, which hardly constitutes the whole project. This seems to be a running problem, that unless there's explicit mention of all accreditable sources, that somehow there's intent to leave something out. That's an argument from ignorance.
3) Also, you are right, you can ask that he not use the name, but as I've said, there's no legal power. The most you can do is state that his project and the group project are two different things...which he's stated as such himself. If the idea of a Pokemon Academy is inspired by the project, I'm sure he'll give credit, but you can't copyright the acronym.
4) There seems to be a huge set of assumptions or what Zen will or won't do. Did any of you think to ask him before the accusations of him 'hijacking the PCA for fun and profit' started flying, or before someone other than Shelby used the account the make that comment? Once again, there appears to be a massive lack of communication.
Thank you for your rational and logical argument though, Gabe. Probably one of the best responses next to DC's own I've gotten.
I still stand by my statement that I agree that asking him to do something even like the Pokemon Academy or Pokemon Battle School or even something mangaish like Poke Battle Stars or something else is not out of range of being not only valid but appropriate.
And I stand by my statement that you can't claim the generic acronym as being some the groups intellectual property. You want him to not use any combination of words that could make up the acronym, PCA, and I believe that's just a tad bit paranoid. I suppose we're just going to have to agree to disagree. I'd suggest that we wait for Zen's official reply first anyway, since perhaps the guy himself can address your issues.
1) I'm not going after anything legal here. He's in Japan...by Japanese Copy Right Laws...he can do this as a doujin. That's not the issue. It's not a legal issue. It's a personal feeling of betrayal that a lot of people are feeling. It's a feeling that he's doing this and the rest of us are just able to twiddle our thumbs and in the end he's going to get a lot of credit for a concept that a lot of us had a hand in. It's not about legal at all, we can't do jack crap legally, that we're in agreement on. It's where it still lays we're not seeing eye to eye and you're not quite getting via my means of explaining.
2) You're right, PCA isn't copyrightable, again, not the issue. The issue is he's using the PCA, the PokeCombat Academy Concept...I'm just asking him to name it something else. Lot of other people out there have come up with other names for a pokemorph based high school. That's all the request was, not a demand, not anything that has any real threat/promise/push/capability behind it...just a request.
And in this case it's something that while we've discussed civilly, you're right, we're not going to agree on.