Category: intellectual property

  • Fan-Run “Falcom Music Channel” Taken Down on YouTube

    Copyright Strikes Despite Longstanding Declaration of Free Music

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.

    The fan-run channel was formerly accessible here.

    As noted by RPGFan.com in a social media post here:

    Falcom has taken down the fan-run ‘Falcom Music Channel’ (a YouTube page they’d even link to themselves!).

     Despite once lax rules for use, Josep (who ran the page) would also try crediting individual composers who are otherwise more simply credited as ‘Falcom Sound Team JDK’.

    Image credit: RPGFan.com

    Says the channel owner on social media:

    Discussion on social media:

    It is noted that Falcom does not even appear to have an official music channel on YouTube. Instead, there is only an auto topic of auto-imported tracks here.

    Recent discussion on the Falcom subreddit:

    A forum thread on ResetEra is available here.

    Ironically, Falcom has long had what it hails as a world-first declaration of free music. The following is an English machine translation of their policy in Japanese here:

    What is Falcom’s Music Free Declaration?

    This is a declaration made with the aim of allowing you to freely use all of Nihon Falcom Corporation’s (hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) musical works.

    For over 40 years, our company has produced and sold a vast amount of game music, gaining support from many users across generations due to the diversity of our sound and the high quality of our productions. We have released over 5,000 songs, and that number continues to grow.

    With the desire to share these songs with even more people than before, beyond just game music fans, we are launching the “Falcom Music Free Declaration,” a world-first initiative.

    You can use music in situations like these.

    • I want to play Falcom music at a piano recital.
    • I want to play in a band’s live performance.
    • I want to use it as background music for my wedding.
    • I want to use it in a play for the school festival.
    • I want to use it as background music for a radio program.
    • I want to use it as a song for a TV commercial.
    • I want to use it as background music for events and presentations .

    On social media as noted above, and on YouTube, there is speculation that the channel was taken down specifically because the Kyoto Xanadu OST was ripped and uploaded before the OST release:

    Other coverage on YouTube:

    Rumors regarding a replacement channel to be started by another fan:

    Speaking exclusively with FFV Central, JRPG streamer and Falcom content creator NeoKakarot offers the following insight:

    Falcom could have very easily communicated with Josep telling him that BGM rips before the official OST is a no no now.

    I think they used the Kyoto Xanadu uploads as an excuse to just be rid of the channel.

    Falcom with their expanded western reach realized they were missing out on ad revenue of all these westerners not listening to their official YT channel or spotify.

    So, what do you think? Is Falcom finally backpedaling from their policy? Comment below, or come check us out on Discord.

    This post has been viewed 62 time(s).

  • Myrient Announces Shutdown

    Site Cost Owner $6,000+ Per Month to Run After Donations

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.

    The video game “archive” offers curated collections of games that include allegedly illegally hosted roms and even romhacks.

    According to Time Extension, which covered the story:

    The irony of blaming AI – a technology that is famously built on the widescale theft of human-made content – for the closure won’t be lost on those who take a dim view of ROM-sharing websites….

    According to Hackaday in its coverage:

    Although finances are the main reason for this hobby project to be shut down, it’s due to (paywalled) download managers that  have recently appeared, and which completely bypass the donation requests and similar on the website.

    According to Myrient:

    What is Myrient?

    Myrient is a video game archive where you can download content from our wide variety of collections to use in emulators and on real systems.

    What makes Myrient different?

    We focus on accessibility with fast download speeds, no limits on downloads, no ads shown, and no registration needed.

    Is Myrient safe?

    Yes. All content is verified before being added to Myrient by comparing the hash of every file against lists of hashes of known good copies to see if they match.

    What does “Myrient” mean?

    Myrient is a portmanteau of the words “myriad” and “entertainment”, referring to the countless amount of video game content that is difficult to access or no longer available legitimately.

    Vimms Lair broke the news on X, citing a Discord post:

    Coverage from Around the Web

    This post has been viewed 26 time(s).

  • Retro Achievements Suddenly Claims Achievement Logic is “Proprietary”

    New Language Silently Added to “Legal & Terms” Page

    Mirrored at the sole discretion of clymax for sake of transparency on Retro Achievements, which was one of the aims of Moderator BahamutVoid in leaving his farewell letter not long after Administrator televandalist’s own resignation letter dropped. If you have any concerns with this mirror, please reach out to clymax directly.

    Opinion Piece by clymax

    Original Link: https://retroachievements.org/terms

    February 23, 2026

    The following new section was added via a Pull Request here with seemingly no announcement made on the website (emphasis added):

    Achievement Data

    Achievement titles, descriptions, and related metadata may be referenced or reused by third parties (eg: for tracking sites or community tools).

    Achievement trigger logic (the code and conditions that define how achievements are evaluated) is proprietary to the RetroAchievements community and may not be reused, redistributed, or reproduced without explicit permission. The GPL-3 license covering the RetroAchievements web application source code does not extend to achievement data.

    This claim may be questionable for many reasons.

    Achievement [trigger] logic may not necessarily be protectible by copyright. But let’s set that aside from now.

    To the extent that the achievement logic is protectible by copyright, the copyright vests, at least initially, in the achievement author. Not in Retro Achievements.

    According to their Developer Code of Conduct here:

    Achievement Ownership

    When you publish your work you are giving it over to the community to be reviewed and reworked over time….

    This language, however, does not necessarily mean that achievement authors transfer copyright to Retro Achievements.

    Neither does it necessarily mean that Retro Achievements has any exclusive license to use the achievement logic.

    It could mean that Retro Achievements has at best a non-exclusive license to use the achievement logic.

    In that scenario, only the achievement authors have authority to decide whom else can “reuse[], redistribute[], or reproduce[]” the achievement logic.

    Retro Achievements would have no authority, under copyright, to tell any party that he or she cannot “reuse[], redistribute[], or reproduce[]” the achievement logic.

    So, Retro Achievements, what gives?

    This post has been viewed 26 time(s).

  • Romhacking.net Reportedly Requiring Hack Authors to Self-Dox to Request Hack Removal

    Removal Policy Allegedly Quietly Updated This Year

    What do you think?

    Will you keep using RHDN or RHDI?

    Or will you use alternatives like RHP?

    This post has been viewed 35 time(s).