Source Yo what? Thoughts on this? I've seen pretty divided opinions so far between infringement and fair use. The manga references arcade fighting games. Kinda strange that SE let this go on and ignored SNK when they contacted them.
I'd have to see the alleged infringements to say for sure, but I think SNK is well within their rights to take the only course left to them to resolve the matter. Lord only knows why SE wasn't cooperative, but they could've avoided this. Perhaps it's a little extreme on SNK's part, but not entirely unwarranted with SE's response.
Not because something is "the law" is morally right. I mean, it is not like they ripped off the ideas of SNK and made a copy game of it, they are just "making art" and mangas often reflect the pop culture as whole, it seems cheap when they have to say "Pop Cola" or something to not use the name everyone is thinking of. If the witch hunt starts that is nothing stopping the video game companies from shutting down Twitch, and taking money from the Youtubers that do Let's play.. or even Battlefield from shutting down Call of duty (or even this forum, we could just say that we like that video game that has influence from japanese video games, and american cartoons). In "arts", and "science" there must some courtesy, some share of information, without it their development will cease.
I personally think that they should have made subtle references to characters from other franchises rather than outright use them without permission. The only thing I can't fathom is SE getting the green light from Capcom, Sega, etc but 'overlooking' SNK. I'm on the fence with this one.
This is indeed quite odd. Most likely Square was reluctant to use the SNK content no matter the situation. In other words, they had alot planned in the manga and didn't want to risk any minor changes so they didn't ask for SNK's permission and did it anyways thinking they might get away with it. Or they could just be lazy and forgot to ask (I doubt it), or they might've just done it right away and tell SNK later, thinking they were ok with. Nothings to be certain, but this doesn't look good on Square Enix's part. Chances are, they're gonna lose alot of money.
