VN Ren'Py Harem Hotel [v0.18.1] [Runey]

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

I never really looked into it, the only reason I know is because I took revenge on a guy doing repacks of Koikatu for striking me for linking a download here on my MEGA account. I made a complaint to both Fakku and Illusion because his repacks were behind a pay wall on Patreon. Now that I think about it, Fakku might have outed themselves here as doing something illegal. I'm starting to get the feeling there is no agreement at all and their own distribution is under a fake pretense of authorization by Illusion, but that is pure speculation unless I find evidence.

Fakku is the authorised distributor for the English speaking world. If you try to buy HS from Illusion and you aren't in Japan, that's where you get redirected to.

 

[alex2011]

Does anyone know anyone from news sites like Motherboard, Polygon, Game Informer, etc?? Shoot them an email explaining this and say that Fakku is trying to intimidate money from developers who hold a fair use license of games featuring Honey Select. And even those who use the Illusion version are being threatened.

I wouldn't say we hold a fair use license, it's more like we are within the provisions for fair use listed in the copyright act itself, but absolutely. Bring this to the media and Illusion will catch wind and respond, hopefully in a positive way for us.

 

[alex2011]

Illusion's website says Fakku sells HSU.

You must be registered to see the links

That's all in the skill of the modeler.
There are a lot of really nicely done games, like Depraved Awakening or Milfy City. See this thread for some nice work by fellow F95zone members: https://f95zone.to/threads/daz3d-art-show-us-your-dazskill.4764/ , like this: https://f95zone.to/threads/daz3d-art-show-us-your-dazskill.4764/post-2269550

That confirms my suspicion of a ruse is unfounded, still, no authorization beyond distribution rights from Illusion means they may still be treading thin ice as far as what they are authorized to do. An actual statement from Illusion, the sole copyright holder, would clear that up.

 

[Runey]

Not true, the issue is to use those that look good, unless you make your own characters, in a game, you have to pay. That means development cost up front is pretty high. I looked into it myself. Basically about 40k to 50k by the time I looked at everything I wanted to use.

One can just go for it, but then you are libel for law suits. I would rather play it safe.

fssntuff

P.S. This might give an idea

Mate, you mind removing that shit? Looks like a child.

 

[alex2011]

There is another thing to consider, Fakku's own past. Jacob himself has been in on some pretty shady deals, such as the Hentai Haven thing. That walked right on the line that is legality, so he cannot really be trusted not to be trying a scam without Illusion saying something. I mean, come on, he's willing to permit use 'for a price?' That screams fishy to me.

 

[TheDevian]

Anything one makes can be enforced by copyright law. If I make a shitty drawing in paint.net and someone uses it without my permission, and there's proof I made it, I can make them stop using it. There's absolutely no reason why anyone would though, unless that person is making a ton of money, then you could get some of that.

To a degree, there are exceptions for fair use, parody, and so on.

Exactly, they hold no power over anything not related to the main game for HS on top of the lack of statement from the people who do. Without that statement, authorization to continue by the devs themselves still stands. If Fakku tries something, make a complaint to Illusion.

Well, if they can only sell the HS Unlimited, then them asking people to not use any Illusion material is wrong. And if that is the case, then you always use one of their others, such as Play Home, which seems to be about the same in a lot of ways, I don't see 'fakku' anywhere on it, and I assume it uses the same assets/character cards.

 

[Stronkboi]

Well, if they can only sell the HS Unlimited, then them asking people to not use any Illusion material is wrong. And if that is the case, then you always use one of their others, such as Play Home, which seems to be about the same in a lot of ways, I don't see 'fakku' anywhere on it, and I assume it uses the same assets/character cards.

As I said they seem to point out different Illusion assets, the thing is they don't even own Koikatsu, Koikatsu Part! is even on steam.

Which makes the whole point of this "threat" null.

 

[fssntuff]

Mate, you mind removing that shit? Looks like a child.

Runey,

I changed it to a different image to not offend.

 

[alex2011]

As I said they seem to point out different Illusion assets, the thing is they don't even own Koikatsu, Koikatsu Part! is even on steam.

Which makes the whole point of this "threat" null.

Exactly, this is a "scare people into paying" scam and nothing else until there is word from the copyright holder, which is nobody else but Illusion. Hell, the threatened devs could even get Fakku in trouble by contacting Illusion. I'm half tempted to do it myself.

 

[WtfwinPC]

Is Harem Hotel still in development with all the law suit stuff flying around surrounding the games assets?

 

[Stronkboi]

As I told you Runey, I've been here since V0.1 and no matter the outcome i'll follow you you gave me the passion to become a Dev and do what I like.

Beyond Supporting HH I support you as a person and your projects.
And I hope most of your followers will feel the same.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

Is Harem Hotel still in development with all the law suit stuff flying around surrounding the games assets?

Nothing is happening, if anything does happen, Runey will be the first to say something.

 

[alex2011]

Is Harem Hotel still in development with all the law suit stuff flying around surrounding the games assets?

Read the discussion above. To sum it up, Fakku is using a scare tactic under the guise of their partnership with Illusion, which is only for distribution in the west for Honey Select. No other program or version not distributed by Fakku is within their jurisdiction to control because they were only given the rights for the English version of Honey Select and only to distribute it. As it stands, there has been no word and therefore no change in the policy authorizing devs like Runey to use Honey Select as said devs have been from Illusion, the people with actual permission to change that policy. Without actual authorization from Illusion, Fakku is only trying to scare people into paying, which is by definition a scam like those Windows pop ups that lock your browser up and tell you to call a number. Further evidence is the owner of Fakku, Jacob's, willingness to let people continue if they pay him what I can only assume is a huge sum of money, which is, as far as I can tell since he doesn't seem to be authorized to do this by Illusion, extortion and a textbook case of it on top of that.

 

[alex2011]

Nothing is happening, if anything does happen, Runey will be the first to say something.

Either him or one of the other dozens of HS users developing a game on here.

 

[hofuldig]

this is all fucking funny considering its coming from FAKKU, how much fucking stolen hentai is on there website that was translated from people not related to fakku? did they ask the original authors if they could upload their fucking doujins on there and make money by ad revenue on every page? you bet there fucking ass they didnt.

Ive only kinda studied copyrignt law in the past on my own time, but runy i would ask them for some form of proof that they have the right to demand money from you, perhaps a copy of their contract from illusion. then go online and find a local lawyer and pay the man to look it over. it could very well be that they only have the rights to distribute the game in america but they were not given any copyright powers. meaning they could stop you from providing the whole game for free, but they cant do shit for you providing a completely separate game using its assets (in another engine no less).

money says they are on very weak ground here and wouldnt stand a chance in actual court.

EDIT: and by fucking gods sake stop showing what you make monthly on patreon, hide that shit till this is over then re enable it later. that fakku asshole is probably going WOH HE IS MAKING 15K A MONTH AND WE DONT MAKE SHIT, LETS MAKE HIM PAY A LICENCING FEE (that they dont actually have power to charge for)

 

[rickZhedgehog]

This all seems pretty shady to me. As long as the dev bought the original product, anything they create themselves within the framework should rightfully belong to them. Kind of like how anything created in Adobe Premier belongs to those that use that for videos and animations. If they bought the original product Adobe doesn't own what they make, or the profits from their sale. So the only way this could really be a legitimate issue is if the original software was pirated, or they outright stole the assets being used. Unless copyright law has changed in regards to creator ownership since I got my criminal justice degree.

 

[hofuldig]

This all seems pretty shady to me. As long as the dev bought the original product, anything they create themselves within the framework should rightfully belong to them. Kind of like how anything created in Adobe Premier belongs to those that use that for videos and animations. If they bought the original product Adobe doesn't own what they make, or the profits from their sale. So the only way this could really be a legitimate issue is if the original software was pirated, or they outright stole the assets being used. Unless copyright law has changed in regards to creator ownership since I got my criminal justice degree.

thats not quite how it works for games. like in grand theft auto for example. when you buy the game and use the in game recorder rockstar has a limited use dealie set up so if you upload that video and its playing a copyrighted song in the game then it wont be taken down as long as its paired with GTA itself. one of the devs explained it like 3 or 4 years ago.

most likely as ive stated in that other thread, Fakku does indeed have a license to distribute one very specific version of the game, but they most likely hold no actual copyright powers since "duh" they dont actually own the game.

Runey been making good money for a while and should have more than enough saved up to have a consultation with a lawyer (not that expensive) and quite frankly i would start shooting emails to illusion and asking if fakku has any copyright powers over this game, i would even go so far as to contact a translator in japan who could actually contact them and speak the language to communicate easier.

 

[rickZhedgehog]

Ah, fair enough. I hadn't thought about it from that point of view. Still I hope Fakku realizes their rather tenuous legal situation and decides not to try anything, since most devs simply don't have the monetary means to mount a serious legal challenge and would likely just give up before it could be resovled.

 

[hofuldig]

Ah, fair enough. I hadn't thought about it from that point of view. Still I hope Fakku realizes their rather tenuous legal situation and decides not to try anything, since most devs simply don't have the monetary means to mount a serious legal challenge and would likely just give up before it could be resovled.

quite frankly i did the one thing i dont think anyone has done yet, i went to the illusion website. there is little information and its all sort of vague with how meh google translates. the way its read only the images on the website are subject to the sort of copyright fakku is describing. and the page that re-directs to fakku calls them "representatives" of illusion

so at this point im like 100% sure that fakku has no copyright grounds what so ever and only has distribution rights of the one game itself "HS:Unlimited" and thats it. only illusion themselvs will be able to initiate any sort of copyright DMCA and (again) from the way this reads on their website they literally dont care about the western market.

 

[rickZhedgehog]

That would make sense given that nearly all of their profit comes from the Japanese market.