Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoWorm
Link? Pretty please.
By the way I also read that everything except music in Umineko is under Creative Common licence, so it can be reused as long as it isnt sold. I like this approach.
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From Sonozaki Futagotachi:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?bl...59242685624428
Actually, we did get an email reply from BT of 07th-Expansion, which said that he's impressed and grateful that we're translating the Higurashi PC games into English and allowing them to be enjoyed by a wider audience, similar to the message that Witch Hunt got. So we basically have their approval to continue this project, and we're happy to be able to do so.
However, it turns out that we didn't really need their permission or official recognition to do this project. We found out from chronotrig, at the Witch Hunt Umineko translation project, that they actually consider translation groups like ours to be doing 'derivative works' (二次創作). They address groups who do such works at the top of the
FAQ (よくある質問) page at the 07th-Expansion website. I suggest you check the original Japanese more carefully for the details, but in short Ryuukishi07 is allowing anyone to make derivative works based on his characters and story setting, within reason (he references an infamous Pokemon doujishi as an example of going too far). So long as you "do it with love" and take responsibility for what you produce as ultimately YOUR product and not theirs, they don't mind. Frankly, they've given a very generous gift to the rest of the doujinshi and fan-works community.
This goes beyond the usual idea of 'fanfiction' or 'fan-made manga' to also include use of the text and command script that he wrote, the character art that he drew, and the backgrounds that they devised - basically the parts that he owns the copyright on. This means that people can even make their own scenarios to use within the Higurashi game framework, like the outtakes we added ^^. Ryuukishi07 explains this in the second of these two forum posts
here.
He also explains that this does NOT include the sound effects and music used in the games, which he used either by licensing or by permission of the owner/composer. He's not the copyright holder, so it's not his place to allow other people to use those. This is why we're particularly glad that our releases consist of small patches that contain only the translated script and a few translated images, which can be applied to the original game.