orlouge82

For all the rest of you legalists out there, I just came across a great piece by Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard. Some of Tribe's more notable students include Barack Obama and two sitting Supreme Court Justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan. The 23-page paper explains that SOPA is unconstitutional and why. http://www.scribd.com/doc/75153093/Tribe-Legis-Memo-on-SOPA-12-6-11-1

Ah, I forgot about that old NES game. I should remember since I've seen that screen countless times because that game was SO FRICKEN' HARD

After browsing through Urban Dictionary, the only possible definition that could be applicable here is... 2. A Complete state of beyond failure. Recognizable by a person that is bent over on his/her knees and covering their face with their arm.

A Swarm of Voxels – Just awesome. The chiptunes and the arrangement here make you visualize a swarm of voxels. Terrifying. Anyhow, this is probably one of my favorites that you’ve submitted in this and the GRMRB 2011 (“Save a Horse (Ride a Transformer)” is up there, too). This one is a serious contender for the top 3, and it easily would have made it if not for how awesome the rest of the songs are. The only possible complaint I have about it is the length. I wish there was more to it. Still, just awesome. Totally Tubular Fortress – Nice take on Blizzard Man’s theme. I almost didn’t recognize it. And it’s a little slower than some of your other remixes. Although it’s not one of my favorites from you (Cold Dreams is probably that one for me) I really like it. Again, the competition this round is pretty strong. WHICH ONE DO I SHOOT?! – If I remember correctly, I think the Search Snake on either makes the real one take damage. Anyhow, great mix. Really clever take on Gemini Man’s theme. Just like with Hylian Lemon’s, this one is probably one my favorites that you’ve submitted for this compo or the GRMRB 2011, and definitely a contender for my top 3. Again, just so many awesome songs this round, otherwise it would have been a shoo-in. Megaman Awesome – I really liked the arrangement here and I liked the song overall. I think the production could have been fattened up some. The samples didn’t really seem that full, and the sound wasn’t that robust. Not a bad song by any measure, though, it just seemed to strike me as unfinished. Call the Fire Department – We finally get to hear from Zach72. Man, this song was going so well. I wish you could finish it. I really want to hear the rest! Wily's Ruin – More power guitar leads from AMT, with the addition this time of lyrics. As I’ve said many, many times before, I’m not a big fan of lyrics in VG music, but these are actually pretty well done, and the song sounds like my taste in music outside of VG music. A definite contender for my top three, which says a lot for a remix with lyrics. Nicely done. When The Moon Cries – You just pulled out all of the stops with this one. See above in re: lyrics, but just like AMT’s song, they were well done here. You really did a great job putting together a very cohesive blend of a song. I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but this one’s another contender for my top 3. It didn’t make the cut, but I have no doubt that this song will be one of the top vote-collectors this round, based on how popular yours and your team’s mixes have been so far and how well done this one is. That says a lot since there are so many good songs in this round. Black Alleycat – Like I PM’ed you earlier, you are reeeeeally good at the smooth and chill stuff. One of my favorites of the round, and probably the entire compo so far. Ever since I first listened to your EP, I’ve been waiting for you to come up with something like this. Love it. I haven’t decided yet if this gets #1 or #2, but it’s up there. Great work, and sad that this is (or at least may be) the last mix we hear from you in the compo. Hopefully we’ll see you in the Maverick one. Float – While your ability to vary between styles so easily and fluidly impresses, even more impressive is your ability to do so while still producing excellent remixes. This is your, what, sixth Bubble Man remix, and it’s unlike any other one you’ve done. The closest one is Bubbling Adrenaline, but that isn’t that similar to this one. And as much as I liked that one, I like this one much better. One of the best of the round. It’s four and a half minutes long, but it always seems to breeze right by when I listen to it that it feels really short. I listened to the songs in order, so I got through most of the songs before yours. I thought that this was going to be an incredibly difficult round to pick my top three because there were sooo many good ones. After hearing yours and Amphibious’s, though, it was easy to pick my top two. That still left the decision of picking one to be my third, which I thought was going to be incredibly difficult, until I heard… Halite – Loved this one as soon as I heard it, and it saved me the trouble of having to pick between the other awesome songs this round. I also loved that the entire team collaborated on it, and I would love to know who did what. Very nice transitions between the two sources, great production. Just a great song overall. Skull Shield – Wow, this one had the unexpected effect of making me second guess my third place vote. I guess I’ve never heard any of your stuff, so I didn’t know what to expect. This is just great, though. The theme blending is just so-so, but it totally rocked my socks off. I also wish it were a bit longer. This is still pretty damn awesome, and, although a bit of a non sequitur, the sound bite at the end of the song made be chuckle. Looking forward to hearing another mix out of you in Round 9!!

No Block Rockmen Beats this week, huh?

Well, Michele Bachmann is totally against SOPA...and she's not exactly a radical leftist.

Is Darke out getting pizza again...?

Awesome source

Math was never my subject. And I was a pretty big slacker, so I always hoped for no homework. Just tryin' to help some teams out, here.

k....but you do realize it's within your grasp to win this round if all three of you vote, right? EDIT: Jakesnke17 just voted

This is shaping up to be a really close five-way contest. Blue Bomber Brotherhood and the Skull Men need to actually vote, though.

Yes, but that doesn't mean that they have other ways to get money to OCR outside of financial institutions. All money transfers go through intermediary financial institutions, and all would be barred from making transfers to accounts owned by allegedly infringing websites. Same story with donations.

Actually, all of OCR's financial connections can be choked off with the flick of a switch under SOPA. Financial institutions are liable for any infringement for sites that they make financial transfers to. SOPA allows those financial institutions to completely block off all transactions to those sites without any legal liability to the alleged infringer site. In addition, the alleged infringer website will be removed from search engines and all sites linking to the alleged infringer are also liable for infringement if they continue to link after notice. So yeah, the 12 or so people who know OCR's IP address could continue to access it, but OCR won't have any money and any connection to the web outside of those 12 people. It'll be just fine.

I wanted to come back to this because you are absolutely right and no one seems to believe that SOPA is really that bad. It is. You aren't just imagining a worst case scenario, either. All it would take is someone filing a complaint or worse - your ISP deciding that OCR isn't worth the risk anymore, and then the site disappears forever. It's absolutely ridiculous, and the ironic part is that it is so ridiculous that no one seems to be taking this as seriously as they should be.

I actually just read this article, and it basically says the same thing about digging in for some kind of revolt. Like the powers that be are scared of something similar to the Arab Spring happening here. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/268080/20111215/sopa-signals-end-free-information-age-won.htm

Nice reference

Very constructive. Thanks for the input.

Elitism came up for me because when the slots available for participation are limited, that tends to weed out those who aren't as experienced or comfortable in the community as others. Instead of being encouraged to participate (as was the case in this year's compo), community outliers would be discouraged from doing so. With limited seating, only those who are serious and confident in their skills need apply, and that smacks of elitism. The intent of the rule may not be elitist, but the effect surely will be. Anyhow, I know next year's is a ways off yet, and I (and everyone else, I'm sure) appreciate the time and effort you put into managing these competitions. They have been great at bringing in new talent to the community because they are so open to everyone. All I was saying is that I want this trend to continue, and that it could be threatened by a participant cap. EDIT: I forgot to mention SuperiorX as an artist who has improved a lot since competing, and Amphibious as one who I only became aware of through this compo. I'm sure that I'm forgetting others. The point stands that more participation is better for everyone.

Didn't expect quite this level of participation? I have to agree that it's a little overwhelming to have so many participants (thus making it much harder to vote in many rounds), but I have loved how many mixes come out every week. Instead of setting a cap on the number of teams and outright rejecting would-be participants, might there be a way to break up the compo into multiple brackets? I suggest this because some of the mixers who were reluctant to join have shown fantastic improvement ([cough] Zerothemaster and Mr. L [cough]), and some teams that have been inconsistent with their submissions have still produced phenomenal mixes ([cough] Jakesnke17 [cough]). I think that if participants were capped, it would dissuade all but the most serious and committed of mixers to join, which would be a disservice to listeners, newer and up-and-coming remixers, and the community at large. It would also strike me as a bit elitist, which, considering the flack that OCR sometimes gets on this note, is something that should be avoided. I mean, this isn't the judges panel. I thought these compos were meant to encourage as much participation as possible and bring in more people from outside the existing OCR community, which it has done splendidly thus far. Anyhow, just my two cents. I wouldn't have heard of several remixers if it weren't for these Mega Man compos (Gario, Pixelwave, TheGuitahHeroe, Jakesnke17, Neblix + many more), and we've seen some awesome improvement in other mixers. My first serious exposure to some remixers (WillRock, prophetik, etc) came from these compos.

Aside from Mutherpluckin' B's "Godzilla's Head Soup", I really haven't come across any remixes from Godzilla for the NES. Pretty much like the entire sountrack Godzilla NES OST channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Klax0r#grid/user/B6388BA613F17BDF But I really like... Jupiter Theme Saturn Theme Pluto Theme Gigan Boss theme This will probably end up at the bottom of the requests bin, but I just thought that I'd try...

Seriously, are you just trying to be an ass? Nintendo's going to respond the way any content owner would - MINE MINE MINE!! You can't get a factual or fair answer on the issue from them or any other major content owner.

Gotcha. I was operating under the assumption that straight up covers were generally frowned upon here, but now that you mention it, there are some very conservative mixes that would probably not qualify as derivatives. True enough, especially with how unpredictable judges are. However, the non-profit aspect of the website should all but convince 99% of judges that this is fair use. That last factor is typically considered the strongest in determining whether something is fair use (although the other three are certainly necessary). Considering that OCR is a non-profit organization that seeks to transform and expand upon copyrighted material, not compete with it, I would say that it embodies the spirit of what fair use was designed to protect and encourage. EDIT: Ditto. I don't have an undergraduate degree in a hard science (engineering, chemistry, etc), so I can't get admitted to the patent bar, but I've taken several courses in IP law, and I find it very interesting. I don't practice in it (I'd apparently rather deal in the most toxic and soul-crushing of all areas of law -- family law), but I do enjoy academic discussions and studies of it.

True story.

He's jealous of America's "fair use" when he's stuck with Canada's "fair dealing" laws

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, but I don't really understand your opposition to remixes on OCR being labelled as "derivative works," since that actually affords them copyright protection. Here's the definition of "derivative work" in U.S. Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 101 if you're curious): A "derivative work" is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement , dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a "derivative work." [Emphasis added] I wasn't saying that OCR remixes are derivative works because they use samples from games or anything like that (although that is true for some of them). I was saying that they are derivative works because they are not 100% original creations. They use musical arrangements from copyrighted video games. And OCR/remixers don't have to go through the compulsory license process because compulsory licenses forbid remixing of musical arrangements. Here's the Copyright Act section on it (17 U.S.C. §115(a)(2)): A compulsory license includes the privilege of making a musical arrangement of the work to the extent necessary to conform it to the style or manner of interpretation of the performance involved, but the arrangement shall not change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work , and shall not be subject to protection as a derivative work under this title, except with the express consent of the copyright owner. [Emphasis added] The reason for this is because derivative works are independently copyrightable, and that would create some major complications in compulsory license law. In any case, OCR remixes are indeed derivative works, meaning that the original aspects of their arrangements are copyrightable, but they are non-infringing because (as mentioned earlier), they fall well within fair use protections. EDIT: As far as the sound effects go, I have to re-check some of these older cases I've read, but I'm pretty sure that jingles such as the Mario 1up sound are only copyrightable insofar as they are "musical arrangements", not the sound effects themselves. The cases I've read were more related to commercials/marketing, so I don't know how they'd apply to video games necessarily.