Well assuming we wont get our asses sued by SE we should probably get that stuff on here?
Disclaimer: I'm not licensed to practice law, this isn't legal advise and does not create a lawyer/client relationship
They most likely won't sue (expensive/time consuming), if they responded it would be with a Cease and Desist Letter or filing a DMCA complaint, which would give us a chance to respond. While Cease and Desist Letters are meant to function as "stop or else' they can be seen as an opening for negotiation. I know one scanlation group got C and Ded and responded with a letter asking to work out an agreement. They wound up paying the company a bit in order to continue their project and were allowed to continue. Also, since we're in the U.S. we can use the Fair Use defense.
Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work
Here we will argue that this website is primarily for FFVII scholarship, containing articles which analyze the story and discuss it. In order to facility the discussions we need access to scripts. We would buy commercially available scripts and pay to have them here if they were available in English, but they are not.
The purpose and character of the use is non commercial in nature, and in order to enhance scholarly discussion.
The nature of the copyrighted work is a video game. We are not posting the game to play, but information about the game and scripts. While SE may have a market for copies of the script and information about the game, none are available in English. The only to access the information is through fan translation. So while SE does have a copyright to the script, we are not competing with them by posting it. Although that may not matter/still it's not as if we're pirating the game.
The amount/portion used is only the script, not the visuals or any of the game play experience. We need the whole script in order to analyze it detail. In order to be able to reference specific portions of the game. While people play games for the story, the difference between a game and a book is that the experience of playing a game can only be had by playing it. We're not offering the game to play, but only taking what we need in order to facilitate scholarly analysis.
The effect on the market: Again, people buy games to play the game. No one is going to choose to read the script instead of playing the game. Because the game isn't available in the English speaking market and is largely unheard of in this market, having fan translations of scripts and information about the game available in fact promotes the Before Crisis and helps it's market. Those who have come to know about the game because of the scripts and analysis of the game posted are likely to purchase related merchandize and the game itself should it become available in English. Those interested individuals, because they have become fans of the work, will further promote the title to others, increasing SE's sales.
Fair Use is decided by weighing these factors (and others) together, I think purpose and character is in our favor because we're not commercial and that effect of the market is in our favor. On the other hand, the script is copyrighted and SE might have an interest in the right to sell the script. If this did go to Court, it would be interesting to see the outcome and there are groups which might take the case pro-bono out of an interest in expanding the right to post such information. Alternatively, if we had trouble we might be able to just negotiate a license.
Then again, there are tons of video game scripts online so there's a chance SE might not do anything. It's possible a third party complained about Gun Shot Romance for no reason, we don't know, we can't respond. But if we can get the translations/content and post it here, it would nice.
Because really, the only way to know anything about the game and to properly analyze it and discuss it (and the characters who appear in it) is to have the scripts.
