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]Syntax Error[ Gets Shut Down By Nintendo C&D

JackKieserJackKieser Seattle, WARegistered User regular
edited December 2008 in Games and Technology
Story Here.

So, here's what happened. A while back, a guy on Smash Boards named Pharrox figured out where on the Brawl disc character textures were located and, being the genius he is, found a way to replace those textures with files he made in Photoshop. The first Brawl texture hack was made. Since then, numerous people have learned his techniques and expanded upon them. Three such people made up the hack team ]Syntax Error[, or ]EE[ for short.

The guys at ]EE[ spent the greater part of a year creating a custom patch for Brawl that would have been the equivalent of a total conversion mod for textures. These three guys, with help from the Stack Smash team (linked above), paved the way for hackers in Brawl, eventually being able to hack everything from textures, to stages, to character selection portraits (think what you click on when selecting one of the Pokemon, for instance)...

On the eve of the release of their patch, Nintendo shut them down.

This has outraged much of the fan community that knew about the project. Other sites are standing up to Nintendo, vowing to release what they can in honor of ]EE[.

The fans of the ]EE[ project want to get the story out there. Nintendo, instead of going after the creators of the Homebrew Channel, the Twilight Hack, or countless ROM distribution sites, chose to shut down a fanart project, one that took countless measures AGAINST piracy, attempting to do everything as by-the-book as a texture patch could have done.

In Nintendo's defense:
-- Hack required a Brawl .ISO, which could promote piracy.
-- Hack required HBC/Twilight hack/other homebrew, something Nintendo takes an active stance against.
-- Hack added textures of copyrighted characters, such as Megaman, Ridley, Fierce Deity Link, and more.
-- Patch could be considered a 'derivative work', which is protected under US copyright law.

Why You Should Be Upset:
-- There are way worse people to be going after than texture hackers.
-- This is in the same vein as the "Chrono Resurrection" C&D.
-- The ]EE[ people stated on their site (and others) their intentions (not to promote piracy, going as far as to actively ban users who talked about it, and to promote Nintendo games and products) and their wishes to be as by-the-book as possible.
-- Nintendo targeted the few people with good intentions instead of going after active (and advertised) pirates.

Let it be known that no one is suggesting that Nintendo was outside their legal authority... but legal authority is hardly a reason to target good people who put their love and hard work into such a project, as opposed to true pirates. Please help get the story out and help us voice our disappointment at Nintendo for targeting loyal and loving fans, as opposed to true pirates.


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JackKieser on
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Posts

  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Chrono Resurrection C&D was completely valid, just so's ya know.

    Also, I somewhat doubt that the entirety of Nintendo's legal team was working on this one C&D

    Fencingsax on
  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Meh, it's their property...it's their right to shut down hackers.

    It's silly for fans to be angry that a company wants to protect their properties.

    Brainiac 8 on
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  • Canada_jezusCanada_jezus Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    They should have seen this coming. I mean it sucks but eh.

    Canada_jezus on
  • PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    They want to be by-the-books, and nintendo says stop, and by-the-books they stop.

    What's the issue here?

    PikaPuff on
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  • Zombie NirvanaZombie Nirvana Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Good for Nintendo.

    Zombie Nirvana on
  • Drunk_caterpillarDrunk_caterpillar Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    al_081111_1055-150x150.jpg

    Priceless.

    Drunk_caterpillar on
  • JackKieserJackKieser Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Chrono Resurrection C&D was completely valid, just so's ya know.

    Also, I somewhat doubt that the entirety of Nintendo's legal team was working on this one C&D
    We know that both the CR and the ]EE[ C&D's were legally valid; like I said in the OP, no one has denied or challenged that. That's still a crap reason to target texture modders and not the homebrew channel, the Twilight hack, or any of the plethora of true piracy sites. It's a big kick in the pants to the people who really do care about Nintendo and who are true fans of their work. It's like, could they do anything more to alienate the hardcore? We thought not, and we were wrong. Now, a lot of people feel... betrayed that their work of tribute is apparently more 'wrong' to Nintendo than actual hardcore piracy.

    JackKieser on

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  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    It sucks, sure, but really they are changing things that are Nintendo's property. Isn't that illegal? I mean, even though they aren't charging for it, they are still changing something that's copyrighted.

    I dunno. Either way it sucks (3 guys doing all that themselves?!) but in the end that's what happens.

    urahonky on
  • PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    My assumption is that a lot of peopoe get C&D letters, and ]EE[ listened where Twilight ignored.

    PikaPuff on
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  • Drunk_caterpillarDrunk_caterpillar Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JackKieser wrote: »
    It's like, could they do anything more to alienate the hardcore?

    Is everyone still beating this horse?

    Anyway, these days everyone is guilty of infringing on IP in some way. Really, the only crime at this point is getting caught.

    Drunk_caterpillar on
  • RakaiRakai Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JackKieser wrote: »
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Chrono Resurrection C&D was completely valid, just so's ya know.

    Also, I somewhat doubt that the entirety of Nintendo's legal team was working on this one C&D
    We know that both the CR and the ]EE[ C&D's were legally valid; like I said in the OP, no one has denied or challenged that. That's still a crap reason to target texture modders and not the homebrew channel, the Twilight hack, or any of the plethora of true piracy sites. It's a big kick in the pants to the people who really do care about Nintendo and who are true fans of their work. It's like, could they do anything more to alienate the hardcore? We thought not, and we were wrong. Now, a lot of people feel... betrayed that their work of tribute is apparently more 'wrong' to Nintendo than actual hardcore piracy.

    Or that Nintendo tries constantly to fight piracy but it's a much tougher fight as they don't listen to C&D's as much.

    Rakai on
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  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JackKieser wrote: »
    It's like, could they do anything more to alienate the hardcore?

    Is everyone still beating this horse?

    Anyway, these days everyone is guilty of IP crime in some way. Really, the only crime at that point is getting caught.

    Pretty much. IP law is an outdated concept.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • Dirty DrawersDirty Drawers Lord of the undie world Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I have to side with Nintendo on this. Although it sounds like the guys doing this were doing it for the fans, it's still Nintendo's property and they can protect it as they see fit. It's possible that this could have opened an loophole for others to do possible unsavory things and Nintendo would have been held accountable since it's their software.

    Dirty Drawers on
    Fools shall not be pitied.
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Isn't this the hack that unlocked all the movesets for all the characters, and allowed you to put them on others? I remember playing and someone who was playing as Luigi did a falcon punch on me.

    At that moment I stopped going online with Brawl.

    urahonky on
  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    It's possible that this could have opened an loophole for others to do possible unsavory things and Nintendo would have been held accountable since it's their software.

    :|

    No, really. Seriously.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • Drunk_caterpillarDrunk_caterpillar Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JackKieser wrote: »
    It's like, could they do anything more to alienate the hardcore?

    Is everyone still beating this horse?

    Anyway, these days everyone is guilty of IP crime in some way. Really, the only crime at that point is getting caught.

    Pretty much. IP law is an outdated concept.

    Not really. Its application has been aggressively revised to favour creators over the public, but that doesn't mean that IP law didn't originate from an equitable concept.

    Drunk_caterpillar on
  • darren66darren66 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    So, now it's illegal to create mods?

    People who are standing with Nintendo on this one sicken me.

    darren66 on
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  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JackKieser wrote: »
    It's like, could they do anything more to alienate the hardcore?

    Is everyone still beating this horse?

    Anyway, these days everyone is guilty of IP crime in some way. Really, the only crime at that point is getting caught.

    Pretty much. IP law is an outdated concept.

    Not really. Its application has been aggressively revised to favour creators over the public, but that doesn't mean that IP law didn't originate from an equitable concept.

    You are correct. I mean more in its current form, as you say. Copyright itself is obviously a useful institution.

    DisruptorX2 on
    1208768734831.jpg
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    darren66 wrote: »
    So, now it's illegal to create mods?

    People who are standing with Nintendo on this one sicken me.

    Please tell me where I can find mods for console games. I'm really curious.

    urahonky on
  • RakaiRakai Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    This "mod" required hacking a Wii and using pirated copies. Not exactly a simple modification here.

    Rakai on
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  • Dirty DrawersDirty Drawers Lord of the undie world Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    It's possible that this could have opened an loophole for others to do possible unsavory things and Nintendo would have been held accountable since it's their software.

    :|

    No, really. Seriously.

    Yes, seriously.

    Dirty Drawers on
    Fools shall not be pitied.
  • elkataselkatas Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    darren66 wrote: »
    So, now it's illegal to create mods?

    Actually, yes. Especially when you break encryption.

    elkatas on
    Hypnotically inclined.
  • JackKieserJackKieser Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    The crazy thing is that ]EE[ wasn't even releasing anything technically belonging to Nintendo, with the exception of the concepts (for instance, FD Link belongs to them). The patch that they were going to release consisted of their own Photoshopped works (all of which made from scratch, so they weren't using Nintendo art at all) and their own custom hex hacks; users would have had to apply the patch to their own Brawl .ISO's themselves because nothing on the Brawl disc was being distributed. I can see where possible loopholes would be 'opened', but then again, wouldn't the Mother 3 retranslation, or the countless Super Metroid ROM hacks, or Temporal Flux for Chrono Trigger, be more illegal, or at least more pressing and obvious, than this? It's a very hypocritical thing for Nintendo to target these guys alone.

    JackKieser on

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  • elkataselkatas Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JackKieser wrote: »
    I can see where possible loopholes would be 'opened', but then again, wouldn't the Mother 3 retranslation, or the countless Super Metroid ROM hacks, or Temporal Flux for Chrono Trigger, be more illegal, or at least more pressing and obvious, than this?

    Not at all, because content isn't crypted. Bypassing or circumventing encryptions is illegal in US and majority of EU countries.

    elkatas on
    Hypnotically inclined.
  • Drunk_caterpillarDrunk_caterpillar Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I feel for these ]EE[ guys, I guess, but at least we're not going to be subjected to the "assless leather chaps" Samus re-skin that was almost assuredly being worked on.

    [Edit] Top of the page!

    Drunk_caterpillar on
  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    elkatas wrote: »
    darren66 wrote: »
    So, now it's illegal to create mods?

    Actually, yes. Especially when you break encryption.

    Yes it is...and it's just up to the company if they want to fight it or not...Nintendo chooses to fight it, and that is their right.

    If you mess with the property of another company, then the company has the right to make moves to protect said property.

    Brainiac 8 on
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  • DisruptorX2DisruptorX2 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    It's possible that this could have opened an loophole for others to do possible unsavory things and Nintendo would have been held accountable since it's their software.

    :|

    No, really. Seriously.

    Yes, seriously.

    I can see the headlines now.

    "Nintendo Source Code used for evil says Government investigators"

    And yes, mods are technically illegal, which is why IP law is a joke.

    DisruptorX2 on
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  • RakaiRakai Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    To be hypocritical, they would have to actively support something to the contrary. They send out lots of C&D's. Upload a Metroid ROM and you will get a C&D if they catch wind of it.

    Rakai on
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  • BlueBlueBlueBlue Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Is it illegal for me to write or draw pictures in some books I bought?

    I mean dang, you'd think they would have shut down the mother 3 thing if they were going to do something like this.

    BlueBlue on
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  • OrogogusOrogogus San DiegoRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    elkatas wrote: »
    JackKieser wrote: »
    I can see where possible loopholes would be 'opened', but then again, wouldn't the Mother 3 retranslation, or the countless Super Metroid ROM hacks, or Temporal Flux for Chrono Trigger, be more illegal, or at least more pressing and obvious, than this?

    Not at all, because content isn't crypted. Bypassing or circumventing encryptions is illegal in US and majority of EU countries.

    I thought that everyone who supported the DMCA was either paid off or paying someone off. Wasn't it a horribly unpopular law?

    Orogogus on
  • PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Oooh, where can I buy a Brawl ISO? I didn't know they were legal. When did the Wii startallowing ISOs to be run? I must be completely wrong about the legality of this ]EE[ patch.

    PikaPuff on
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  • BlueBlueBlueBlue Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    They come free with a purchase of Brawl I think.

    BlueBlue on
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  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JackKieser wrote: »
    It's a very hypocritical thing for Nintendo to target these guys alone.

    Who says they're just going after these guys? Nintendo goes after all sorts of people, all the time. In fact, the only reason we know about this particular instance is that the team is apparently made up of nice guys who actually listened to the cease and desist rather than laughing and deleting it like every other modder/pirate/etc.

    Edit: What's an ISO? I own Brawl and I don't remember getting one a' those.

    cloudeagle on
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  • JackKieserJackKieser Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    Oooh, where can I buy a Brawl ISO? I didn't know they were legal. When did the Wii startallowing ISOs to be run? I must be completely wrong about the legality of this ]EE[ patch.
    If you bought Brawl, you have the Brawl .ISO (it's just on a disc). It's illegal to possess or obtain it if you didn't buy Brawl, so anything other than getting the .ISO from your Brawl disc is illegal. Although I assume this was sarcasm... :laugh:

    JackKieser on

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  • Drunk_caterpillarDrunk_caterpillar Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    BlueBlue wrote: »
    Is it illegal for me to write or draw pictures in some books I bought?

    Technically not, because you're not altering the work, per say. That is, you're not altering the text or layout of the original volume. An argument could be made that you're adapting the work to a different medium, if the pictures were derivative works, but that doesn't seem to be what you're talking about. 'Sides, you're not communicating your drawings/book, which means that any alterations could fall under fair dealings/use exceptions.

    Drunk_caterpillar on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited December 2008
    Anyway, these days everyone is guilty of infringing on IP in some way. Really, the only crime at this point is getting caught.

    Everyone (everyone) on the internet commits at least a dozen copyright infringements a day.

    Echo on
  • PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Anyway, these days everyone is guilty of infringing on IP in some way. Really, the only crime at this point is getting caught.

    Everyone (everyone) on the internet commits at least a dozen copyright infringements a day.

    Nice avatar. Where'd you get that from? What? Where'd I get my avatar and sig from?


    OH SHI-

    PikaPuff on
    jCyyTSo.png
  • JackKieserJackKieser Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    Nice avatar. Where'd you get that from? What? Where'd I get my avatar and sig from?


    OH SHI-
    I lol'ed.

    JackKieser on

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  • Drunk_caterpillarDrunk_caterpillar Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Anyway, these days everyone is guilty of infringing on IP in some way. Really, the only crime at this point is getting caught.

    Everyone (everyone) on the internet commits at least a dozen copyright infringements a day.

    Some people might even argue that it's a good thing.

    Drunk_caterpillar on
  • BlueBlueBlueBlue Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    BlueBlue wrote: »
    Is it illegal for me to write or draw pictures in some books I bought?

    Technically not, because you're not altering the work, per say. That is, you're not altering the text or layout of the original volume. An argument could be made that you're adapting the work to a different medium, if the pictures were derivative works, but that doesn't seem to be what you're talking about. 'Sides, you're not communicating your drawings/book, which means that any alterations could fall under fair dealings/use exceptions.

    That it is only "technically not" has me worried, to be honest.

    BlueBlue on
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