Last Ninja Musicology Kickstarter project was first reported here a while back, and we were pretty excited to see it fully backed and released. Based on the samples provided by the Kickstarter campaign the music was going to be legendary!
Unfortunately, System 3 who owns ‘The Last Ninja’ intellectual property, filed a complaint based on the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) asking Kickstarter to suspend the campaign for copyright infringement.
The Kickstarted page contains the DMCA in full, but it argues that the group was using System 3’s IP without permission, starting with the name of the album that uses ‘The Last Ninja’ name. System 3 also adds that the logo is a copy on their property.
The group behind the project posted on their Facebook page that they plan to counter-DMCA explaining and clarifying System 3’s accusations.
It seems everything had started when Fastloaders contacted System 3 asking their permission to use The Last Ninja material, which was rejected because System 3 claims to be developing a new version of the game in celebration of its 30th anniversary. Fastloaders explains that they followed their best judgment about what they could or could not use and started the campaign without using System 3 material.
The campaign is suspended until the dispute is ended. If the discussion favors System 3, Fastloaders will have to find another way to release their awesome music without stepping on System 3 toes.
How about having both parts agreeing to make the music part of the upcoming game release promotion? Everybody wins, right!?
As for now, we, simple mortals, can only wait.
Link: Kickstarted DMCA Letter
Link: The Last Ninja Musicology Facebook Group
> How about having both parts agreeing to make the music part of the upcoming game release promotion?
I believe this was already suggested to Mark Cale, who rejected the offer, and certainly, I now am personally unwilling to be associated with any future System 3 releases. A great shame, I know, but unfortunately, this appears to be par for the course.
Needs a little correction. The charge was trademark infringement(“passing off” – basically pretending to be System 3 to deceive consumers). They’re also claiming that using the actual names of the tunes is both a copyright and trademark offense.
The logo wasn’t and isn’t a copy, it was a completely new graphic.
And System 3 were originally asked for permission to use the original graphics in the product and were offered the tracks for use in the Last Ninja HD game.
Even the DMCA seems to admit System 3 don’t own the music, which is registered at copyright authorities by Anthony Lees (not dead), High Technology Publishing Ltd, and Reyn Ouwehand/Prevue Productions.