Topic: earthbound off coming soon list

@SSBFan: i'm pretty sure the statute of limitations is long since up on the original release of Earthbound, so feel free to attempt to stir up all the trouble you like with The Beatles' lawyers or whatev' about that.

@suburban_sensei: That would probably end up as an Japanese exclusive. NOA doesn't hate the series, but if they can't get the game on the Virtual Console, I doubt they'll put it in a collection on another system.

Let's try to keep hope up for the game release on the Virtual Console.

@theblackdragon: So you're basically saying that trying to contact the Beatles would be worthless and wouldn't do anything?

@SSBF: What the heck are you talking about?

@Iz2009: About my response to theblackdragon, I have no idea. I couldn't understand what she was saying.

A statute of limitations gives a claimant only so long to file a claim against someone for an infringement. I have no idea how long it is for this sort of case, but I really think it would only apply to the original product. If they rereleased the game on VC, even though it would be exactly the same, legal action could then take place. Nintendo is not at risk until they rerelease it, if they do.

I think what Dragon was getting at is that right now you can tell them whatever you want, and it wouldn't matter... But given that you want to see it on VC eventually, I don't see why she'd recommend it since they'd then have that knowledge (if they don't already) ready for when the game does come out, if it does.

But either way, I would personally suggest putting the activism to rest. It's not that I think you have bad goals, but none of us here are lawyers. Nintendo and The Beatles would know better than we would what to do if anything is to be done. You can't mess anything up, but it seems like you'd be worrying yourself over something beyond your control and wasting time.

Honestly, I'm not sure what made you want to contact them in the first place. What would be the purpose of calling it to their attention? Most fans are hoping they don't know about it. And if you did contact them, I don't see what you could do to help the situation.

The video is fine. It's probably not the only one of its kind. It's interesting for fans to see. I like the game with these songs, and as one of five or six non-Beatles fans in the world, it was educational for me, though I recognized one or two before.

If there's no legal issue, then can somebody explain why the demo was only in the Japanese version of Brawl, yet the full game (almost two years later) STILL isn't available on VC, ANYWHERE?
And considering every other standard (no special chips, no special controllers) first-party SNES game has been released (Super Punch-Out!! in March was the last), why is it still neglected, even in Japan (where the series is extremely popular)?
(okay, there's maybe a few that were Satellaview or Nintendo Power-exclusive, but I think the point is clear)

@Adam: Thank you for the information. With the page torn down for the game (And prehaps rightly done so), I'm starting to lose hope. I'm still not giving up thought.

@KingMike

You know, it is strange that it's not on the Japanese VC, since Iwata did promise it was coming and, according to rumor at least, Japan wouldn't let NOA make the musical changes they wanted. I'm assuming laws in Japan are different enough that the game doesn't face legal troubles there, so it is strange that it hasn't been released. Maybe they're waiting for something else?

@Token Girl: I think we'll eventually see Earthbound in Japan. But I'm not sure about the rest of the world. Nintendo of America should ask NOJ again, this time telling them they are only changing the music for the North American region and that the Japanese version remains unchanged.

I'm no legal expert either, SSBF. I've just done a lot of research into the assumptions made on this issue. It's important to remember that we don't actually know for sure that the music is the problem in the first place! The most recent inside info on the game I heard mentioned nothing of the kind, instead concentrating on fears that it wouldn't sell (which we all know is total BS, of course...I'm amazed at how stupid NoA must be to have doubts about the game selling). The decision between a VC release and a remake was also supposedly up in the air, though I honestly believe the former would be more likely if we got anything at all.

Not even this info makes any sense in the light of other low sellers releasing and the likely low cost to release a VC game (particularly one that's already been rated, accidental or no...which, by the way, I still thing is BS as well). All we have to go on is guesswork, really. It's more or less a waste of time trying to figure it out.

I said what I said because i'm pretty sure their lawyers aren't stupid, and if there was some kind of legal action to be taken about Earthbound's original release in hindsight, they'd have taken it. They didn't act back when they had the chance, and now the moment has passed. That said, SSBFan's idea was probably the strangest thing I've ever heard considering how very vocal he's been on the forums about wanting to see an eventual VC release of Earthbound and also his 'fears' about Nintendo's fans rising up and burning down their offices/headquarters. It honestly reminded me of when he tried inviting some 'Wii/Nintendo haters' to the site in order for us to continue one of his (many?) e-wars here on NL; who in their right mind would go out of their way to invite that kind of trouble by contacting someone's lawyers to let them know about a beloved game that may infringe on their copyrights? >:/

It's highly doubtful they knew about it in 94 when the game was mostly unknown, but now the game is better known, and the music issue is online and on Youtube. It's not a stretch of the imagination to think that someone on their legal team occasionally puts in searches for things like this, came across an article or video about the similarities, and took note of it in case the game comes out again.

But yea, I don't understand the point of contacting them either.

well, now that Smash Bros. is here, that won't be in the way

@Adam: parts of that video seemed really far-fetched to mme. granted, i didn't watch through the whole thing, but some of the comparisons were a bit absurd. "The Cliff that Time Forgot = All you Need is Love"??? No. i could see the suits coming for some of the songs, but at least from what i heard, i think most judges would wave off the similarities as too insignificant. and even if not, all the Beatles would want is money. and Nintendo's not exactly struggling financially at the moment. i honestly think they'd end up with more money in the end if they would just pay the guys. then it would be out of the way, i wouldn't have to keep pretending Earthbound never existed. then they could start releasing sequels. and really, if they released it and got sued, you KNOW it would be all over the news... and that's only more publicity for the game. you realize how many more downloads it will get so people can see what the big deal is? it would DEFINITELY be one of the most popular games on the service. call me naive or whatever you want, but i honestly see Nintendo as having only to gain from all this.

Put it in a sound recording program and slow it down. It's a sample. It's not based on it, it is it. But if you're going to write it off, watch the whole video first. There are a few other samples (though the only one that probably matters is Moonside), and most of the other songs are too exact to shrug off (the song when you wake up, the drugstore, etc.). And the somewhat similar ones would be easy to make a case against based on the pattern of similarities already proven in the rest of the soundtrack.

Whether or not Nintendo would profit so much on an obscure VC title that makes $8 per copy that they could afford paying the Beatles for a ton of songs, and a bunch of other bands for other songs, that seems unrealistic, but there's certainly more room to be optimistic there since none of us know what these bands would charge, if anything, or what Nintendo's idea of profitable is.

I doubt Nintendo would get sued if they re-released Earthbound. These are songs with obvious inspirations but its not like they're copies or using the same lyrics or exact music. It just appears that intendo doesn't want to take the small risk that something might happen.

Very true, you don't hear the same song, just bits of inspirations from those songs.

But not only the music is the problem, there are the pop-culture references too.

I just don't get how people can listen to this and then say the same non-sense. There are outright samples of songs, and other songs are copied note-for-note. Vanilla Ice couldn't write off Ice Ice Baby as "inspiration" and neither can Nintendo.

Why would pop culture references matter? TV and movies get away with that kind of stuff all the time and nobody cares! The fact that this would be a problem in a game like this is just plain stupid.

They might as well have taken it down ages ago... the mistake was announced before the VC Reviews-WiiWareWorld-NintendoLife merge!