Jump to content

Seto Kaiba

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13279

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Seto Kaiba

  1. Seto Kaiba
    To dispute the trademarks in the US would require Big West to have a pre-existing presence distributing Macross shows and goods in the US. They don't have that, so no... Big West would not be able to challenge those trademarks. They would have to wait for the trademarks to expire and register their own. Trademarks are not copyrights. Copyrights are ownership of a work, trademarks are an exclusive right to use a symbol, logo, term, etc. for commercial purposes. US trademark law is stupid like that, since it gives preferential treatment to the party that first used the mark commercially in the US, rather than the actual creator of the thing.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Yes, they could... because Harmony Gold has trademarked the UN Forces roundel from the original Macross series. They've also trademarked the word "Macross", which would theoretically let them go after anything that used it... even fanworks based on shows they don't have rights to. No, trademarks apply to pretty much any form of use... their are protected uses under fair use doctrines like parody and informative purposes, but projects like fan art and fan films are a much greyer area that frequently is dependent on the goodwill of the owner or licensee of the IP. If Harmony Gold's claim is true, what motivated the decision to shutdown Robotech: Valkyrie Project was likely that HG itself had endorsed the fan film project... Big West presumably not being about to let HG do an end run around their copyrights by saying it was only a fan film they were supporing.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Well, as far as derivative works go, 17 U.S.C. § 103(b) and foreign equivalents are in full force. Like Harmony Gold was so efficiently reminded in their arbitration with Tatsunoko, the copyright on a derivative work only extends to new material contributed by the author(s) of that derivative work. It doesn't confer any rights to the original work. Harmony Gold seems to have been operating under a bizarre belief that having used MOSPEADA designs in several derivative works constituted permission to use those designs indefinitely even after the license lapsed. Once the license lapses, those works simply become unsellable... HG can't commercially exploit works that contain intellectual property it doesn't hold the rights to. Since they don't own the IP of Macross, Tatsunoko can authorize some forms of derivative work (e.g. translation/dubbing of the existing footage) but it couldn't create new animation based on that IP or authorize anyone else to. Fanfics and fanfilms... well... that's down to the individual discretion of the owner(s) of the IP and any relevant licensees. Creators in the anime and manga industry seem to be pretty OK with it on average, or at least resigned to the inevitability of it if they aren't. Western IP owners/holders are noticeably more strict and inclined to shut down fan projects if they feel the integrity of their work was threatened, like the famous Star Trek: Axanar fan film case. Harmony Gold has alleged in the lawsuit with PGI and CGL that at least some of their efforts to shut down fan projects were on the orders/insistence of Big West [and/via] Tatsunoko (specifically, Robotech: Valkyrie Project, which made extensive use of Macross designs). Other instances of them shutting down fanworks were reportedly motivated solely by HG's individual discretion (e.g. Robotech: Genesis, a fanfilm based on the HG-created backstory of Zor using Southern Cross and MOSPEADA designs.)
  4. Seto Kaiba
    Since the only VF-31A Kairos units we see in Macross Delta are the OPEVAL/trial production units operated by the other three flights in Χάος Ragna branch's 3rd Fighter Wing, I'm not sure that I'd say the multidrone chargers are necessarily deadweight. The 3rd Fighter Wing operates from the carrier Macross Elysion - Walkure's mobile HQ - and are only ever seen sortieing in support of the Tactical Sound Unit and its protection detail (Delta Flight). It wouldn't be entirely unreasonable to outfit them with multidrone chargers so they can recharge Walkure's Cygnus multidrone plates in the event Delta Flight is drawn out of position or one of its members is lost in combat. Those multidrone plates don't seem to have much battery life, esp. in pinpoint barrier mode, so having extra chargers on hand feels more like hedging one's bets to me. It wasn't Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31 Siegfried that showed that one. IIRC it was a VF-31A Kairos model kit featured in Hobby Japan's Macross Modeling: Macross Delta Special Edition mook. (CD Japan has this book marked "in stock at supplier" for a reasonable price if you're interested.) The ordnance container for that custom kit showed a sensor pod with micro-missile launchers built into it instead. The DX Chogokin VF-31A came with a regular multidrone charger, IIRC. (I still haven't unboxed mine.) Seems like a sound argument to me. I'd originally written the missiles off as potentially having come from somewhere else like a Cheyenne II with a surface defense loadout like the Cheyennes that appeared in Macross Zero but have never been properly documented in artbooks. That does appear to be an isolated incident, however. The rest of the time the VF-25s aren't shown using anything like medium or long-range ordnance in their combat with the Vajra. It's all close-in dogfighting... possibly something to do with the Vajra's strong ECM abilities.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    Nope, it's some other (smaller) New UN Spacy Special Forces unit with a Your-Name-Here protagonist who has no dialog.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    Probably should've phonetically spelled it "Yahn"... but yeah, I figured most folks who weren't from America would be familiar enough with the Czech/Dutch/Finnish/German/Polish/Scandinavian name "Jan" that it'd get a pass.
  7. Seto Kaiba
    On 23 July 2047 at 1920 hours Earth standard time, the idol group Milky Dolls were kidnapped from a performance at an Earth UN Forces memorial event and taken as hostages to the abandoned New UN Government colony world of Elysium by a Zentradi anti-government group whose leader seeks a return to a life of pure warfare. The New UN Forces brass dispatch the NUNS Special Forces stealth carrier VCV-551 Valhalla III on a mission to rescue the Milky Dolls. ("Operation Orpheus") All told, the rescue mission spans eight events (after the tutorial)... destroying the enemy's ground-based radar, wiping out a power generation satellite, destroying the enemy's ground base, a brief spot of mopping up enemy air forces, intercepting an enemy attack on the Valhalla III, downing an enemy transport and destroying their weapons plant, mopping up enemy forces left inside the old colony city, and finally taking out the enemy's HQ in an old mobile fortress. EDIT: Names are a bit of a sticky wicket, since the protagonist's name is whatever the player decides to enter...
  8. Seto Kaiba
    Really, I have no idea. It's one of several background designs in Macross Plus that have not been conclusively identified in any official publication that I am aware of. It's commonly thought/suspected that the black fighter to Jan's left (our right) is the version of the VF-14 Vampire that appeared in Macross 7 PLUS. But for that VF-22-esque canopy, I would say it looks like an old Advanced Valkyrie design (this one) that Macross Chronicle adopted as the VF-X-11 Advanced Fighter Technology Integration prototype.1 I can't think of a reason New Edwards Test Flight Center would've held onto a fifteen year old initial prototype for the previous generation main fighter though, so maybe it's an earlier experimental aircraft in the YF-21's design chain? (Also, very slight pet peeve... there's no "g" sound in his first name. It's Jan - pronounced "Yon".) 1. Which is not to be confused with the VF-X-11 No.1 and No.2 prototypes from Macross M3, which should probably have been YF-11 No.1 & 2 as they're recognizably the Shinsei Industry VF-11 Thunderbolt... just No.1 lacks canards and No.2 has them.
  9. Seto Kaiba
    Well well well... happy birthday to me, it seems. Seems like everything ends up marked "Limited Edition" these days... but yeah, this'll be the one to get with the decently informative liner notes and all.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Something that shows up a fair bit in model kits for the Super Dimension Fortress Macross series version of the VF-1. The series animation budget being what it was, they didn't show the pylons holding the three RMS-1 thermonuclear reaction missiles to the wings in Ep27, so it looked like a three pylon configuration to the viewer. Macross: Do You Remember Love? later showed that there was a double mount pylon for those RMS-1s. Variable Fighter Master File also picked up on the three pylon configuration and cited it as being an alternate wing configuration for the VF-1 Valkyrie.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    Not as such, no. Big West and Tatsunoko's copyright confirmation filings in the Japanese courts in the early 2000s ended with essentially zero changes in the disposition of rights to the original Macross series. To keep things simple: Big West and Studio Nue own the intellectual property of the original Macross TV series, and as such are the only ones who can use or authorize the use of that intellectual property in new works (e.g. sequels). Tatsunoko Production owns the production materials from the animation production which they bankrolled, and the rights that were given to them under contract as payment for bankrolling that production process. In short, Tatsunoko owns the copyright on the actual footage itself (but NOT the IP it contains), and the international distribution and merchandising rights to the series which were given to them as compensation for funding the animation production. Those rights are the ones Tatsunoko licensed to Harmony Gold USA in 1984. Put simply, Tatsunoko does not OWN the mechanical designs of the original Macross series, and they're not able to authorize anyone to use the designs in new film works... but they DO own the exclusive right to use those designs in merchandise outside of Japan. Along with their exclusive right to distribute the series outside Japan, what they have is essentially a proper subset of the copyright rights to the series. That's the basis on which Harmony Gold is bringing this lawsuit against Catalyst and Piranha. It's alleging that the designs named in the lawsuit are derivative of those in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, and that as such those designs violate their exclusive right (under license) to exploit the mechanical designs of Super Dimension Fortress Macross in merchandise in the west.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Giving them props would be premature. That motion to dismiss was a Hail Mary that not only didn't pan out, but actually backfired rather badly by putting HG in a position to request and provide more documentation from Big West and Tatsunoko proving their rights under license. (Amusingly, from the statement from Tatsunoko, both they and Big West are in HG's corner on this one, since HG is essentially compelled to defend the Macross IP in court on their behalf under their license.) I don't believe so. Tatsunoko owns the international distribution and merchandising rights for the original SDF Macross series, and the trademark is filed in a region where Tatsunoko's rights make them the sole entity able to commercially exploit the series.
  13. Seto Kaiba
    Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur's Caution Signs and MODEX section would probably be the most complete version.
  14. Seto Kaiba
    SMS and LAI did. The reason it's a 改 is the base frame was an actual VF-0A before Katori got her mitts on it, and it's a kludge of parts provided by LAI and General Galaxy. By that point in the story, Hakuna Aoba's past as a NUNS Special Forces pilot had come out and he was eyebrow-deep in the whole conflict with Fasces. After getting royally REKT in his VF-1X++, presumably they felt compelled to give him something that he'd be able to not die in when the enemy was using 4th Gen equivalent or better fighters.
  15. Seto Kaiba
    I can only assume it was either a drunken bar bet or a dare... or Katori Brown Robbins wanted to see how much gear she could guilt LAI and the General Galaxy Guld Works into giving her. Considering part of the race takes place in a vacuum, it's a safe bet an unmodified VF-0 wouldn't be entered... a VF-0+ might be. Just throwing a YF-25 into the race probably wouldn't have gone over well. There was enough grumbling over the way corporate teams like Team Shinsei were fielding custom 4th Generation VFs that no civilian could possibly afford, leading to an accusation that the corporate teams were trying to dominate the league through sheer financial power.
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Anything derived from the YF-24 Evolution uses EX-Gear natively... that's the YF-24 Evolution, VF-24, YF/VF-25, YF/VF-27, YF-29, YF-29B, YF-30, VF-31, and VF-31 Siegfried. If they canonically exist, the YF-26 and YF-31 would have as well. As for non-5th Gen VFs... the VF-171EX was the first time a 4th Gen (now technically 4.5 Gen) adopted EX-Gear in-series. In events dated before that in Macross the Ride, the VF-19EF Caliburn and VF-19ACTIVE "Nothung" had it. As a Caliburn derivative, it's very likely Isamu's VF-19EF/A Excalibur Advance has it as well, as well as the VF-0 Kai "Zeak" (which is built mainly from YF-25 parts). There is also the VF-1EX in Macross Delta to consider, which was an EX-Gear-retrofitted VF-1 for training purposes.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    I have absolutely no idea. I'd love to know, since all my notes say is that it was selected by a fan contest. There are some amusing potential linguistic answers. "Feios" is Portuguese for "Ugly", and there's no denying it's certainly that. Must be... Timothy Daldhanton was the leader of Black Rainbow, and the one who clued the VF-X Ravens into the fact that Gilliam was still alive and that Latence was a thing. Advanced Control Technology for Integrated ValkyriEs. It's a nod to the F-15 STOL/MTD and F-15 ACTIVE. The VF-19ACTIVE "Nothung" was a technology demonstrator Shinsei Industry and L.A.I. built in the Macross Frontier fleet to prove out certain technologies intended to go into the YF-25 Prophecy and VF-25 Messiah.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    As far as I know, it's a reference to the sanskrit word for the Sun which is also the name of the Hindu sun god. This may have something to do with one of the partners being "Bharat", which is the Hindi name of the country/region the west calls India.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    That was probably me... from the Bandai B-Club Magazine #79 feature on Macross's influence on the mecha genre. Zeta Gundam was probably the biggest title listed. Macross II itself, of course, was a new Macross OVA with more than a few Gundam veterans working on it at the time. As far as a Gundam show that's like Macross... we kinda had that too. It was exactly as terrible and forced-feeling as you'd expect an attempt to port Macross's sunny disposition into a franchise which runs on dark and depressing like Gundam. Mobile Suit Gundam: A Wakening of the Trailblazer was just a frigging train wreck start-to-finish, as Gundam's first foray into the subject of actual alien life and first contact. (Sentient life, mind. I don't count the dead space whale in SEED or that bacteria from the Crossbone Gundam: Ghost manga.) These days I certainly find the new AU stories more enjoyable than the Universal Century... barring messes like Build Fighters, Build Divers, and Age. Gundam Unicorn and the Re:0096 series really didn't make much of an impression on me. I've seen both, and neither was engaging enough for me to get invested in the story or so dull that I couldn't stand to watch another minute. Universal Century Gundam show plots are pretty much a foregone conclusion as a rule since the Gundam's side always wins, but because it was set between a pair of older Gundam shows all the fuss and noise about the world-altering implications of Laplace's box in the series fell completely flat because the audience already knew nothing was going to change. If they're determined to keep doing Universal Century stories they need to move to a date beyond what's already been done for the timeline. Side stories like Unicorn and Thunderbolt don't make a meaningful contribution to the setting, because we know going into it that any drama on their part has literally zero impact on the setting. Any consequences the characters incur have no weight to them, because the shape of the future is predetermined. It's like watching a recording of a recent sporting event after you've seen the final score. You can appreciate the technical perspective, but there's little excitement when you already know the outcome.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    We had one of those... Well, more like two... Maybe three if you count the original concept for the SDF-1, which was a White Base knockoff that turned into a giant Gundam...
  21. Seto Kaiba
    I feel like we can get some indecent exposure jokes out of that... Still, that story was kind of a downer even by Universal Century standards, what with Bright having to execute his own son...
  22. Seto Kaiba
    Did Gundam Unicorn really need a sequel? I mean, its plot was pretty self-contained and all and didn't really impact the greater Universal Century any...
  23. Seto Kaiba
    Until @ManhattanProject972 pointed out the A6M Zero connection, I would've said "I have no idea"... since they romanized it "Zeak" in the Visual Book, it just sort of slipped by. That would make it the second VF in that story to have a World War II name reference, the other being the VF-22HG Schwalbe Zwei. That one is a double reference to the Me 262 fighter version (Sturmvogel having been the fighter-bomber configuration) and Messerschmitt's Me 262 V9 Hochgeschwindigkeit (abbreviated HG, lit "high speed") series of test aircraft. The usage of the kanji "改" (kai, lit. "revision") in a context like a vehicle's official designation/model number indicates what might commonly be called an aftermarket modification. For example, Basara's VF-19改 "Fire Valkyrie" started out as a VF-19F1 Excalibur before undergoing extensive modifications to be outfitted with Sound Force equipment. Same as Ray's VF-17T改 and Mylene's VF-11MAXL改, which started out as stock VF-17T and VF-11MAXL units. The VF-0改 Zeak that Hakuna Aoba received in Macross R was a VF-0 airframe that was extensively retrofitted using modern materials and parts from the YF-25 series. 改 wouldn't be used for a one-off or limited production VF that was built to different specs than the mass production model, because it was designed and built that way by the manufacturer. Shinsei's VF-11MAXL Thunderbolt is an ace variant that's built to order for a particular pilot, but because it's delivered that way by the manufacturer it doesn't merit a 改. The same goes for Chelsea Scarlett's VF-19ACTIVE Nothung. It's a one-of-a-kind technology demonstrator, but because it was designed and built to that spec rather than being a VF-19 that was modified after the fact, it isn't a 改. There are a few cases of inconsistent usage. Macross 2036 flipflops on referring to the upgraded VF-1 Valkyries the characters use as VF-1改 or VF-1R. The 改 usage in that case is inappropriate, given that the VF-1R series (VF-1AR/JR/SR) is a production aircraft in its own right that's like the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to the VF-1's F/A-18C/D. Macross Delta's Siegfried units should properly have been designated VF-31改, since their backstory indicates Surya Aerospace delivered them as trial production VF-31As and they were subsequently modified by Xaos into their present forms. 1. Per Macross Chronicle Mechanic Sheet ALL 01B. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur takes a different view, and asserts that it was a less heavily modified VF-19E Excalibur instead.
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, the Robotech fan film group from (IIRC) Serbia that got hit with a cease and desist before they did went the same route... ditch the Robotech IP and repurpose the original aspects of their existing work as the starting point for an original science fiction series. Mind you, those two groups got their projects nuked for very different reasons. UEG Productions' fan film Robotech Genesis got slapped with a cease and desist when they refused to surrender all rights to their work to HG in exchange for the fan film being exhibited on robotech.com. HG has asserted, in documents provided for the lawsuit between them and CGL/PGI that they shut down that Valkyrie Project fan series under orders from Big West (via Tatsunoko)... though, if true, the decision was probably motivated by HG having publicly endorsed the fan film. Hiring the Valkyrie Project guys was a desperate face-saving move, since HG had previously given that fan film their blessing and then shut it down. Doubly so since the rumor at the time was that Harmony Gold was shutting down these fan film projects because they were angry that those fans were creating higher quality material than they were.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Back when the book was written, that was a bank-breakingly massive, downright unreasonable sum for a development program... almost double what was projected for the first 5th Gen fighters, in the same way the individual unit cost of the VF-1 was a good 4-5 times what a modern fighter jet at the time was.
×
×
  • Create New...