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Nicalis issue DMCA takedowns against Cave Story fangameLost in the dark.
Lost in the dark.
In aDMCA noticeposted last week, a representative for Nicalis called for the entire Cave Story Engine 2 repository (which included various editions of the fan-made edition) to be stricken from the site. From the looks of things, they’ve been successful.
The takedown notice alleges that CSE2’s source includes code based on the original Cave Story, which Nicalis own as part of their deal to distribute their own Cave Story + and Cave Story 3D on Steam and Nintendo Consoles. However, several developers - including one behind a “major fork” of CSE2 - claim that the repo includes nothing of the kind, insisting that the game instead works from its own decompiled version of Cave Story. Effectively, they’re writing their own code with the aim of the end result feeling as close as possible to the original.
“The DMCA claims Nicalis owns the code to CS+ and believes said code exists in the repos, but that’s not the case to our knowledge.” the developer wrote in a now-hidden Tweet (viaPC Gamer) “Several major participants in the CSE2 project (myself included) are currently planning to approach Nicalis to settle on the matter.”
To the best of our knowledge, Nicalis in fact owns the Cave Story IP. We have no reason to believe that this DMCA takedown is illegitimate in any way. While there can be fair use exceptions for decompilations like CSE2, the burden of proof rests on the project, not on the copyright holder.
Nicalis has a history of being very supportive to the modding community. At this point, we don’t suspect any ill will. We are approaching Nicalis in an attempt to clear up this misunderstanding.
That comes in spite of the game’scommunity wikiclaiming Nicalis have merely licensed Cave Story, while Amaya retains ownership. It’s an extremely messy situation to be sure. But regardless of how it plays out, it seems to have only brought more ill-will to a publisher that’s already gained plenty, after several developers came forwards last yearaccusing CEO Tyrone Rodriguez of racism, abuse, and exploitation. While early rumours of the publisher trying to wipe free versions of the game off the internet entirely may have been overstated - Cave Story itself is still free to download over on sites likeCavestory.org- prominent indies likeRami Ismailurged folks to steer clear of Nicalis-produced versions of the game.
“Cave Story is one of the most important games every made and I will 100% recommend you do not buy it. Download the freeware original, then buyKero Blasterto support the actual developer of the game, instead of these ugly shenanigans.”
