Kotaku
Earlier this week Sega of America contacted us to demand we take down our two Sonic Unleashed posts saying that the company had not authorized the use of the screenshots and trailer for the game.
Our crack legal team was quick to point out to Sega that we believe the existence of the trailer and screens are newsworthy and that we aren't actually violating Sega's rights.
So I guess you can chalk those down as officially confirmed. Thank you mister lawyer man.
Dear Mr. Crecente,
It has come to our attention that your website, Kotaku.com
http://kotaku.com/371098/leaked-sonic-unleashed-footage and http://kotaku.com/371203/more-sonic-unleashed-images-trickle-out.
As the copyright holder of the Work, Sega did not authorize the use of the Work in this manner, either via license or otherwise. Sega has a good faith belief that the use of the Work in this manner is not authorized by us (the copyright owner), any of our agents, or the law. Thus, Sega respectfully requests that you promptly remove this posting from Kotaku.com
The information in this letter is accurate, and I declare under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of Sega's exclusive copyright in the Work that is being infringed.
If you would like to discuss this matter with me, I am quite happy to do so. ... Thank you for your prompt attention.
Best regards,
Tristan Higgins-Goodell
Senior Legal Counsel
Sega of America, Inc.
Comments
SEGA SMASH!
Sega countersued saying Sonic hasn't been newsworthy for years.
9 out of 10 kids polled didn't even know he was in smash brothers.
Zing!
Sega: "LIES! LIES AND SLANDER!"
Guess the next best thing for them to do is show it off at E3.
Legal team gained some experience points.
@Grumps:
lol
@Grumps: Comment of the Week!
The "crack legal team" is a couple of interns that have beaten all the Phoenix Wright games.
Both import and domestic.
@Grumps: Oh, you kidder. Not too shabby though. :)
Glad Kotaku is standing up to the man on this.
NOOOO!!
JACK THOMPSON COME BACK!
SEGA NEEDS YOU!
Wonder how much longer until the apology letter arrives? Sony didn't have a chance at getting Bashcraft and Crencente to remove Home leaks, what're the odds of them thinking this'll work? XD
lets just say we did (Please provide me with confirmation that the posting has been removed.) but we didn't :D
@eastx: If standing up to him means flouting journalistic integrity then yeah, go them! Newsworthy? When has Sonic ever been newsworthy post-Genesis? Clicks => revenue-worthy you mean.
Now hopefully they don't blackball (Shadow) you. Or blueball (Sonic). Or redball (Knuckles). Or orangeball (Tails). Or pinkball (Amy Rose). Or auburnball (Cream the Rabbit). Or roboball (Omega). Or batball (Rouge). or purpleball (Big). Or light purpleball (Blaze). Or Ninjaball (Espio). Or beeball (Charmy). Or greenball (Vector). Or silverball (Silver, even though I don't know if he ever rolls into a ball).
Point is, the franchise gives Sega lot of choices for how to ball you, but only three or maybe four are necessary. The rest are just unnecessary.
@AnthraxJunkie: What? Are you saying the new Sonic game isn't worth posting about? Or that a rumored screen shot and clip being confirmed by Sega isn't news worthy?
I just don't get it when something is leaked it is up to the bloggers and/or news reporters to bring it to lite to the masses. Sega why bother haven't you ever heard of any news is good news even if it's something you don't want. Grow up and finish your Sonic game and stop waisting important monies and time on all this legal crap that doesn't hurt but helps your next Sonic game. It's called buzz.....!
They need to quit complaining about the leaks and PAY ATTENTION to what the fans are saying about them to get it right!
IS SEGA dumb?
@Brian Crecente: Wow Mr. Crecente, don't let some corny remark from AnthraxJunkie bother you. The real gamers here know that this news is great and I was so excited to hear that Sonic game was comming out with it's old school style and traits. So thanks for the breaking news and please oh please keep doing what your doing. It's all good brotha..peace.
@Brian Crecente: I'm saying that everyone stopped caring about Sonic following his horrible outings on the 32X, the Saturn, and the Dreamcast, as characters from the 32 bit era onward overtook him completely in popularity, and with Mario going from strength to strength (let's discount Sunshine for a mo!). He's been reduced to a bit-player in awful little spinoff games using the piecemeal Sonic title in hopes to ship a few more titles.
Maybe Sega going to any degree of effort to prevent news of it getting out is newsworthy, but it's just another Sonic game, and it shall therefor suck. It's like EA trying to stop you saying Madden '09 is going to be released!
@AnthraxJunkie: What do you mean by flouting? Kotaku is demonstrating journalistic integrity by refusing to pull a news article when threatened.
Leaks are the best bit about games.
You feel dirty just knowing about the information before you're supposed to.
@AnthraxJunkie: Actually, the new Sonic is the great hope of a decent Sonic game. Plus the Bioware DS game, of course.
And despite the many bad titles, Sonic's popularity hasn't gone anywhere: Mario & Sonic at the Olympics is one of the Wii's best-selling titles.
@AnthraxJunkie:
Sonic wasn't in any released 32X game, however, Knuckles and others were.
@Grumps: best. comment. ever.
And yeah, Sega? Blogs are typically for news and rumors. You don't have to authorize anything.
Leaks?, yeah right. hahahahaha
@eastx: Everyone said this when the Brand New Sonic Title for the PS3/360 was announced... and look how that turned out. Any title Sonic has been in since the Genesis has been nothing but massively underwhelming, I don't understand why this most recently announced (well, confirmed!) title has people in such a flutter.
I feel when a standard news article about a sub-standard game is blown out of proportion for the sake of hype generation that does flout it. Of course Sega aren't helping by demanding it be taken down. I don't see why, I can't see how generating said hype would hurt the game...
@StupidDufus: My mistake, I meant since Sega released the 32x.
april fools? ;3
I made the crippled guy do a barrel roll and now he's on fire.
@eastx:
Journalistic Integrity?
ooooooooh...
you should not have posted that guys email and phone number...
@eastx: I would argue that posting the name, phone number, and email address of a Sega employee who has politely contacted you as lacking a bit of integrity. But the transparency is nice, I suppose.
Mmm, you really did a number on them huh Kotaku. Wow.
Lets imagine that someone at Kotaku headquarters (we'll use a pseudo identity (Trian)for this example) is having a baby and planned to surprise all of his friends at a big announcement party (E3?). He's excited, extactic even about the news and can't wait to share this excitement with all of his loyal friends (fans?) and relatives (shareholders?). But wait... Somebody (Sega) has offered Trian's beloved wife a cash sum to spill the beans and provide the date, weight and fate of the new-born and in turn posted it all over their internet blog for Trian's best mates to see, ruining the surprise. "What a shame" They'll claim.. "It's newsworthy, he's a gaming celebrity".
I'm all for leaks and love reading about them but for some reason this particular article came across as arrogant and prententious to me.
I like how they want you to remove them, but instead you make another post confirming those leaks to be true.
nice touch.
That leaked trailer and images created the greatest hype Sonic has ever had since Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega should be thankful!
@AnthraxJunkie:
Actually, I know several people who have at least enjoyed some of the Sonic titles in the past decade, most particularly Sonic Rush on the Nintendo DS.
And besides, even if you were correct, and no one cared about Sonic "since the genesis" as you put it, wouldn't the apparent release of a game harkening back to the glory days be worthy of both fan admiration and being posted to a site catering to just this kind of news? If anything, it would be more important than if Sega had never released a bad Sonic game.
@AnthraxJunkie: Ah, someday you fancy internet folk are gonna have to tell me how you manage to consult "everyone".
@Grumps: LOL, good one!
Sonic didn't suck post-Genesis. He started sucking after the DreamCast. I loved Sonic Adventure 1 and I liked the sequel.
Probably should have removed the guy's email address. That was actually a pretty polite message, he didn't even threaten any legal action like most companies. He doesn't deserve the amount of spam he might now be at risk of receiving.
@Candlejack: What about Sonic Advance series?
@Horseflesh: Everyone = internet spiel for "most of the stuff I saw"
So when this game bombs and the next Sonic title is announced (then un-announced, then re-confirmed) to the same hopeful comments I've been seeing as of late, I'll say Everyone© again! At least I can cite these posts this time >.>
Who exactly is Kotaku's crack team of lawyers?
@AnthraxJunkie: Everyone = internet spiel for "most of the stuff I saw"
Oh I'm sorry, I thought it was internet spiel for "I haven't checked my facts but I sure love my opinion!"
Stickin' it to the Man. Well, I guess Sega isn't really the "Man" anymore; they haven't put out a decent game in about 10 years.
@rich8606: Oh, well, I didn't think about handhelds. Those are pretty much always good for Sonic, because of the 2D gameplay.
Come to think of it, they could actually be awesome. I gotta check them out.
@AnthraxJunkie:
I wrote a response that in the end, I decided was to long. So here's the cliff note version.
*Sonic is the Britney Spears of gaming, and you are incorrect.*
@Benjo: Yeah, they're pretty much the Underdogs. And I could imagine them wanting to make a big, proud announcement, so the leak does suck for them. But, oh well. Hide your ish better on your servers, this is the internet.
@Candlejack: Sonic's for the DS are amazing. Check those out for sure. Sonic on PSP is gimmicky racing and not so good.