Notice to ZU Owners/Webmasters - Zelda ALttP Copyright Infringement

[Ultimist]

I see that you are still using my graphics for the bosses in your "Bosses" section for A Link to the Past. My name is Rod Jones, creator of "Top Secret Zelda" way back in 1997, as a part of the now retired Zelda Headquarters. I am the one who discovered the "Death Mountan Descent" trick for the game, as well as many other secrets. My "Top Secret Zelda section increased ZHQ's daily traffic from 1000 visitors a day to over 5000 a day, in just a few short weeks.

The graphics you are using in your bosses section for ALttP are original works created by me, and I did not give you permission to use them.

I will be relaunching Top Secret Zelda in 2008, and I will be posting information on the site, declaring that Zelda Universe is infringing upon my rights by using my graphics without authorization. It will clearly state on the new site that if my graphics are seen on any other site, they are STOLEN PROPERTY.

I would advise you to remove them. I have threatened legal action before, but all of that fell on deaf ears. This time, I mean business. If you continue to claim ownership of my property and fail to remove the items in question from your site, I might just end up owning (and dismantling) Zelda Universe by the end of 2008.

You have been warned.

Sincerely,

Rod Jones

~Creator of the boss graphics on your ALttP "Bosses" page, with the exception of the Ball and Chain Trooper image at the top of that page, and the Agahnim image which is second from the bottom on that page. Here's hoping that this message reaches the eyes of a reasonable person. Zelda Universe's future depends on it.

[TheManInTheMoon]

lol, its funny that you think you own Nintendo-made sprites because you slightly altered them.

[Ultimist]

I didn't 'slightly alter' them... I recreated them from scratch, pixel by pixel, to be 4x the resolution of the ones in the game, and added much more detail to them. They are indeed my work. ZU could solve this easily by replacing them with screenshots from the actual game.

[TheManInTheMoon]

doesn't change the fact that you claim to have legal ownership over images originally created by Nintendo. No one will take legal threats involving what is essentially fan art seriously.

[Ultimist]

If this is truly how ZU intends to treat someone such as myself, one of the early pioneers of the Zelda "presence" on the web...

And I'm not boasting. It's just a fact. TSZ quickly became the most popular Zelda-related website when it launched in 1997, and remained so until I removed my secret tricks from the site in '99.

[TheManInTheMoon]

I'm not one to side with ZU, and if you had just asked for credit that would be fine. Instead you come in here and throw around ridiculous legal claims. You should have been a little more intelligent about this and just contacted the people in charge.

[Administrator Breen]

Ummm... you should contact the web-master/wizard/genius, not post HERE.

And what makes you think YOU own the right to what is basicly FAN-ART?

[Ultimist]

I sent the same message to the site staff, before I posted this message. I also posted it here to make others aware of it, so that they cannot simply ignore it as they have in the past. You see, this is not my first time trying to get them to do the right thing. I have contacted them several times over the past two years.

In the beginning, I simply asked them to remove my work from the site. The response was basically "You're not the real Rod Jones, former co-webmaster of ZHQ and TSZ."

But I am.

They've ignored polite requests in the past. Who are you to assume that this is my first attempt to get them to remove the art in question? You don't have all the facts, and are jumping to conclusions in a haphazard fashion. This has been going on now for a while, only not in front of you.

[Ultimist]

Master Jaken, I own it because I created it. My work is "based" on Nintendo's artists' work, but I fleshed the images out, making them much more vivid and detailed. I did it pixel by pixel in paint shop pro back in '97.

I have my whole TSZ website archived, with the exact same work done for a lot of the items in the game, statues, keys, characters, etc... stuff that does not appear on ZU.

I don't claim to be the creator of the original work, but the creator of the new images "based" on the original work. They're still mine. I did the work. It was a painstaking process that took weeks.

I deserve some credit or something from them, or at least an apology to either remove the work from the site or give me proper credit on the bosses page.

If you had done the painstaking work I had, only to see it somewhere on the net without your permission, you might feel as I do. I simply want justice, something we are all entitled to.

[humulos]

Firsty, that is retarded. Proove that those are your images.

Secondly, recreating sprites is not "painstaking work" as many people can tell you here. Heck, I used to do it in paint. It takes a while, but it is not that hard. Heck, you where only doing tri-toned colors even, if that is indeed your work.

Thirdly, why on earth did you make this a topic. You want the world to know who you are, to make you seem more credible?

Lastly,

I changed the color of that sprite. It's mine now. You owe me a nickel for looking at it.

[Jason]

Ultimist, please take this up in private with me, PM-style. I didn't know anything about this, and I've been here since 2004.

Thread closed.