Square Enix bans artist from selling 3D printed characters for Final Fantasy VII characters



    The other day, news appeared in the media about another incident with copyright infringement, which is not very similar to all other copyright situations. Usually we are talking about "pirates" who download or download something, or distribute illegal software on media, something like that. The current case is already moving beyond our usual borders. In general, to the point. There is an artist, Joaquin Baldwin, who really likes the Final Fantasy series, including Final Fantasy VII. This artist decided to combine business with pleasure, and open a store selling Final Fantasy VII action figures (he prints the figures on a 3D printer).

    For work, the artist used the Shapeways platform  . Everything went well, the figures were actively sold, but after a while, Shapeways lawyers received a notification from Square Enix, demanding to stop printing the figures, and close the sales. Of course, the notice was backed up by relevant official documents, and the company had to do everything Square Enix required.

    Of course, according to the law, Square Enix has every reason to make such demands, especially since the invoices of the main characters were obtained by Joaquin directly from the PC version of the game. Joaquin also did not apply to Square Enix for a license to print figures. But it is somehow doubtful that such an activity could damage the financial condition of the specified company, or damage its reputation.

    Perhaps nothing like this would have happened, but Square Enix is ​​very actively protecting its own rights, especially those related to the Final Fantasy series. So, this year the same publisher closed the Kickstarter campaign, the purpose of which was to raise money to create an unofficial version of FFVII. Last year, another Kickstarter campaign was closed, related to the same game.

    In general, a rather bad precedent has been created, which may affect the fan market of game / movie fans and other things in the near future.

    theverge

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