Article: Sega of America now declares being aware of FSOD and character corruption issues

[LollipopLolita]

lollipoplolita writes, "I and another admin, PSOsaladwood (http://www.pso-world.com/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=psosaladwood) called two different Sega Tech Support help numbers today.
The (716)650-6701 Sega Tech Support number we called on the 27th (read Jan 27th news post titled "Sega unaware of FSOD problem?" (http://www.pso-world.com/article.php?sid=770&mode=&order=0&thold=0)) now confirms that they are aware of the problem. However, they are not sure what is wrong, nor do they know of any temporary fix for the problem or when there will be a fix for the problem. When asked why they weren't aware of this problem yesterday, and the help representative said there just wasn't enough calls coming in, but there have finally been enough today to make an official alert and confirm that this is a wide scaled problem.
The second number, (512) 231-2429, which we called today also confirmed that Sega is now aware of the problem and that they also have no idea why it is happening nor do they know of any fix for it or when the fix will come. The tech support person, Cindy, also cited that they were alerted of the problem yesterday when people began calling. This tech support number is the number that our member thewiredknight (http://www.pso-world.com/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=thewiredknight) called on the 27th. He spoke to a tech support that said that they were aware of the problem then.
Both tech support people asked for memory card and connection type. Both also noted that in their system that we're representatives of the site. We also said to both of them that a huge number of people from the site have been having problems.
Right now they're telling us to ask all users with problems to call. They will be collecting information and passing it along to Sega Corporate. So if you'd like to help and can spare calling long distance, call the number in the manual, (716) 650-6701, or (512) 231-2429 or try using the Sega Customer Service Online Form (http://www.sega.com/help/contact/contactusform.jhtml). For those of you that did call after reading our Jan 27th news post about calling ST, thanks a bunch!
Also, more information regarding the recently released news about having to stamp the Sega copyright inscription statement on screenshots and images. We were so alarmed about the recent news release on Sonic Team's JP website that we asked both American Sega Tech support people about it. Apparantly, Sega of America has no official stance on it. So it looks like we at America/American players can do whatever we want! Hell yeaaaah! That saves us a whole lot of work on the site and PSOW T-shirts and products will still be on the way! For players playing on JP Ver 1 or Ver 1.1 however, you're still not allowed to crop out the copyright message that appears in the screenshots."

[Eden]

Cool.

About the copyright : What are they gonna do, arrest you?

[LollipopLolita]

forcefully make your website provider take your site down for copyright infringement

[PrinceBrightstar]

what about video capture cards? are we forced to add the logo? and just how? does sonic team have a place to download this from? *prays for his videos*

[LollipopLolita]

you still have to put the copyright notice if it's a cap card according to the sega jp site. but nothing from soa!

[Webapprentice]

Just because SOA tech support has not been given an official stance, there could be one, good or bad, later.

Move forward cautiously.

[Ruby-chan]

Copyright infringement? What is this "copyright infringement" you speak of? :p Unless you run anothing major the chances of Sega busting you for this is next to nil. And since it seems like Sega can't even bust people breaking their agreements in the game they have complete control over, I somehow doubt they'll be real good about tracking down people about the pictures.

[Angarwaen]

um, but don't you think it's wrong to make money off of somthing you don't own? People think that just because somthing is from Japan they can do whatever they want with it and no one will find out. Well, maybe no one will ever find out, but it's still wrong. Also, since the web is protected by international copyright law, the rules still apply to you. If you want to make some money, make your own game.

Everyone should resepect the wishes of the creators! We are lucky we even got pso over here...

and about sega of america having no official stance on it, they didn't make the game, they didn't set the rules.

So if you want to create tshirts and make money off of somthing that you do not own and other people worked hard to create, ask Sonic Team first. Do you think they would let you?

[LollipopLolita]

hi, but we're making tshirts based off our on fanart, not st images.

"All fan related works, including fan art and fan fiction are allowed if it's for non profit purposes. This would mean that PSOW will not be able to sell PSOW related goods such a t-shirts and stickers as planned in the future. Sorry guys!"

they have taken down japanese sites for copyright infringement

yes but that's in japan, not america, read her news post carefully.

Yahoo almost no warning nemore when sega finds out about big probs beware probs segas hea.:)

this was borrowed with permission from www.copyrightinfringment.com

"The Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention provide subjects of signatory countries (among them Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom) with automatic copyright protection. Any work in a fixed material form, published or unpublished, is ruled to be the property of the author, who has the sole right to produce or reproduce the work or a substantial part of that work. In the case of recordings made on "mechanical contrivances," the work itself and the individual recording are different items, copyrighted separately".

Japan is also a member, anything with '©' on it from japan is protected by international copyright law. If the company says that they do not want fanart of their work used for profit, then that action would be an infringement of copyright law

[DJ_Monkey]

He's right, but some people don't recognize copyright law(me, for example ;D).

[Tellah]

Considering the fact that most of the US players are now on GC PSO... we can't even get to our screenshots, unless you have a BBA or use a Capture card instead.

And I have neither. =[

[LollipopLolita]

simple, then we'll just have our logos. ta dah. no big fuss.

and we weren't going to sell the products at a profit. so no problem to begin with.

[Eden]

That brings up a good point. They fuck us over in the screenshot department, by not even adding a Screenshot option in the US Version, and then they have the nerve to say we have to put a copyright on the images we actually get to our pc? HAHA How about no?

it's their game, they can do whatever they want with it :P

It is a lot of work to make a game, and even more work to get it translated and edited to be relesed in another country. If you spent years on a project spending late nights typing code or 3d modeling, would you want people to rip off somthing you worked so hard to be a part of?

this post is not an opinion, it's common sense people!

[SnAPPUrU-nyan-ko]

"Thanks for bringing this to our attention, we are currently looking into this issue. To help us speed up the process, please provide the following information:

Your Name:

Phone Number:

Date problem first occurred:

PSO serial number:

Brand/type of memory card you are using:

Type of connection (BB/dial up modem):"

My entire memory card was corrupted on 8/20/03 its not the first time. my characters where 80 and 146. I am using dial up connection for the game cube . serial number is 23-3247-4828