32 replies to this topic

[ice trey]

BLOOD WOLF, on 08 January 2014 - 07:04 PM, said:

What could Gold possibly do with image rights to a mech that they arent gonna even do anything with.

Either keep a stranglehold on the rights so that they can continue to push their Robotech franchise, which is essentially a bastardization of one very popular and two not-so-popular anime series, or try to force any other company that wants to use the images (See: PGI, Catalyst Game labs) ludicrous amounts of royalties in order to use the designs to the point of being unprofitable.

Harmony Gold are also the reason why Macross 7 and Macross Frontier will never have a North American license.

[Black Templar]

Remnato, on 08 January 2014 - 10:40 PM, said:

well someone should find out the stock for harmony gold USA and then post it, i figure there are enough ppl here that if we buy majority stock for harmony gold usa. we can force the release of the unseens like the warhammer. Internet people unite and lets take down harmony gold.... 8)

Interesting idea since I work in the stock exchange buisness....I have to disappoint you though. IIRC Harmony Gold USA Inc. is not selling any shares on the market. Anyone interested in visiting/mailing them can look up their website with google though.

LMGTFY

[SpartanFiredog317]

Hey so is Harmony Gold based in the United States? If So, has a letter/email publicity campaign been tried before?

And what about designing mechs similar with enough minor differences that they'd be likely to lose in court... say a Mech similar to the Murauder but with a Cannon attached to the belly of the Center Torso and arms like a Jaeger... call it the 'Desolator'

[AlexEss]

Courts are expensive and it would not be worth the problem... You see Harmony Gold is not doing anything wrong per se, they are just protecting their license. That have the sole right to those designs in the US (and most likley Europe) so there is nothing to really take them to court about.

Is it ******... Yes... Is it morally corrupt... yes... Is it against the terms of their agreement.. No.

You best bet is to take a Timber Wolf and swap the missile bits for a ballistic HP and find some way to shed a few tons

[3rdworld]

AlexEss, on 09 January 2014 - 06:19 AM, said:

Is it ******... Yes... Is it morally corrupt... yes... Is it against the terms of their agreement.. No.

How is it morally corrupt? The btech founders that tried to steal another companies property are in the wrong. Does Harmony protecting what is theirs suck.... sure. But is not giving it to people that already tried to steal it morally bankrupt? Heck no.

[Le Goat]

3rdworld, on 09 January 2014 - 06:22 AM, said:

The btech founders that tried to steal another companies property are in the wrong.

This is incorrect. someone posted a nice write-up of the dispute on here. you should check it out.

edit: here it is:
[color=#A4A4A4]
Posted 13 July 2012 - 07:59 PM[/color]
[color=#959595]
FASA received permission from Studio Nue to use some 'Mech designs back in the day, but the problem was that the same designs were also used in Macross (Studio Nue's work). Tatsunoko Productions, which came in later as a financial backer for Macross and took over foreign licensing, then worked with Harmony Gold to create Robotech with the latter having all licensing rights in the United States. Harmony Gold thus laid claim to Mecha designs that they had nothing to do with, and FASA decided it was not worth the time to fight it despite having permission from the people that actually designed the Mecha in question (Studio Nue).[/color]

Edited by Le Goat, 09 January 2014 - 06:35 AM.

[AlexEss]

3rdworld, on 09 January 2014 - 06:22 AM, said:

How is it morally corrupt? The btech founders that tried to steal another companies property are in the wrong. Does Harmony protecting what is theirs suck.... sure. But is not giving it to people that already tried to steal it morally bankrupt? Heck no.

I was more aiming at the system as large being morally corrupt... But as someone pointed out FASA did not steal anything.. And this by the same note that HG is not really doing anything wrong.

Now one could argue that the company that made the deal with HG was wrong... But that does not change the current situation.

[Escef]

Victor Morson, on 08 January 2014 - 10:05 PM, said:

What he said; Harmony Gold are basically all about trolling copyright and that's all they really do these days.

Not defending what they do with the license, but copyright trolling is far from the only thing they do. Do some research.

[Firemage]

AlexEss, on 09 January 2014 - 06:46 AM, said:

I was more aiming at the system as large being morally corrupt... But as someone pointed out FASA did not steal anything.. And this by the same note that HG is not really doing anything wrong.

Now one could argue that the company that made the deal with HG was wrong... But that does not change the current situation.

Really we could say it's wrong as a Japanese court said that Studio Nue holds the license in Japan, but Tatsunoko, continues to extend HG's license here, even with the fact that the primary Macross License belongs to Studio Nue. But it would be expensive to go to court and even harder to get a US Jury to accept a Japanese ruling (even one as a cut and dry as the issue with Studio Nue).What HG does may not be illegal, but it is wrong as they claim they have license over Macross as a whole. Where they do not, they claim license over items that didn't exist at the time of issuing. Personally what i'd love is if they'd contact Shouji Kawamori, and asked him to help redesign the classic mechs. But i happen to be a fan of his work as a whole.

[Corvus Antaka]

harmony gold is a very secretive company. no contact on the website. no employees, income or revenues listed or findable.

The head of harmony gold is http://en.wikipedia....ki/Frank_Agrama

and he has been

According to the Los Angeles Times, prosecutors in Milan, Italy charged him, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and ten others in a trial over tax fraud, embezzlement and false accounting at the Mediaset media company on November 21, 2006.^[2] According to Variety, some of the charges have been dropped due to expiring statute of limitations.^[3] On October 26, 2012 he has been found guilty of tax fraud along with Berlusconi. Agrama has been sentenced to three years of jail.^[4]

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isnt the internets fun?



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Edited by Colonel Pada Vinson, 09 January 2014 - 09:11 AM.

[NextGame]

one morally bankrupt company (PGI (Yeah community warfare in 90 days, buy these packs, oh wait we still havent started working on it after 2 years and are possibly never going to)) trying to deal with another morally bankrupt company (HG) and people wonder why these mechs arent going to happen.

[Belorion]

There are still quite a few mechs they can put in the game beyond the ones we have right now.

"Classic" is a pretty broad category. One way of looking at that would NOT include the clan mechs, so obviously they are folding in mechs from at least the Clan invasion, but I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually include the fedcom area mech too.

[Trauglodyte]

I really want my Warhammer and I know that a lot of Madcat fanbois want their Marauder (even though it is WAY worse than the Hammer). The thing is, other than those two and maybe the Archer, the rest of the Macross mechs would be bad. Would anyone really want to run around in a Stinger or Wasp? Its just a Locust w/ JJs which means even less weapons and as quick of a death.