Castlevania Resurrection Prototype Discovered

I think this is the most likely answer. Gosh I really hope this doesn’t disappear. I want to see how they interpreted Sonia Belmont

 

Eh, this is a pretty harsh take.

And saying this is a 'second-hand item' is a bit of a stretch - I doubt Konami authorized the release of the prototype. As is usually the case, it probably got taken home by someone who wasn't authorized to do so. So it's questionable if the current owner has the legal ground to even sell it, or if it could be considered stolen (which reminds me of the problem a few years back with that Indiana Jones prototype for the Mega Drive and Factor 5 getting involved).

So it's not that surprising that one of the developers involved with it is a bit upset that someone is trying to make a nice buck off their work. And if the composer did retain any copyright over the music, he might have legal grounds to block the sale if he thinks the work is stolen.

 

There is no god-given right that a developer gets a percentage of the revenue on each copy sold. Case in point - I develop software for a living as part of a team and the profits don't come back to me!

He'll have been paid for the work done, and even if Konami did have a profit-sharing scheme in place, I'd imagine the contracts were written in such a way that Konami had to actually publish the game*. Not sure what their policy towards music would be, but for code and art and whatever, Konami would almost certainly claim ownership over everything.


*also I'm pretty sure you get schemes in which the project has to recoup its development costs for this to kick in. Which Castlevania Ressurection almost certainly didn't.

 

Nobody's disputing that (that I can see?) - but still not sure why we should be telling developers to "get fucked" because they're upset that someone is making big bucks off of a presumably illegitimately acquired prototype featuring their work.

Edit:
I just googled Mark Lindsey and he does claim copyright for the music included in the prototype:

https://soundcloud.com/greyling/sets/castlevania-resurrection-ost/

 

I guess I just didn't find his perspective that surprising - the guy and his team spent a lot of time and effort working on the game, it never got released, and now someone has stumbled across the prototype and wants to sell it for a profit.

As a creator, I suspect to him it's the sheer gall of the person trying to profit off of someone else's work without legal right to it.

And the guy already released the music for free online, so I doubt he'd have any problem with the prototype being dumped and released. It's the prototype hoarding and high-priced selling that's aggravating.

 

Wouldn't the copyright be with Konami anyway? I think it'd be up to them to pay them beyond their work fee.

 

Not necessarily? As I said a few posts up, Mark Lindsey claims copyright on the music:

https://soundcloud.com/greyling/sets/castlevania-resurrection-ost/

He might not actually own it, but we have no way of knowing what his contract with Konami was (he might have gotten partial copyright, or had it revert to him after so many years, or he requested the copyright back since the game wasn't released, or who knows what). But it doesn't really matter since owning the copyright doesn't mean he'd get money from the sale of the prototype. It's more about the (il)legality of selling a prototype that was probably not acquired through legit means.

By the way, this talk of the legality of the sale makes me think the owner might have pulled the auction due to some C&D from Konami's lawyers (or fear of one). It wouldn't be the first time that's happened with prototypes.

 

if he dont get to sell it, there is the chance he'll leak the proto anyway. He says it right on the auction that he would release it later.

 

Well, the whole page is down. Wonder if that's good or bad.

 

So, the auction got pulled cause the music composer threatened legal action.

 

This wouldn't have happened if they had just released the fucking thing in the first place.

 

Great - now it's the same situation as that Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures prototype.

Cliffs: Someone buys the prototype with the intention of selling repros for profit, the copyright owner threatens legal action, now nobody wants to release it knowing it might bring legal action against them, and it silently disappears.

 

Why are you so against the composer but not the people trying to profit from a prototype they don't have legal rights to?

This situation would have been entirely avoided if they just released the prototype rather than try to sell it.

 

I wonder if all the publicity will force their hand? Probably not, but as these protos get more and more news, I keep wanting to see some kind of growing expectation to release these things. Like the general public going “Hey, I read about it in the news, why isn’t this available yet?” and that sentiment starting to weigh on its owner. but probably not.

 

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