Proposal to commercialize English Clannad

[Mystes]

Kind of like, "Thank you for all of your support over the years...by the way, we are going after all of our fans who helped us along the way," right?

You understood my message.

[ainsoph9]

Umm...yeah, I did not go through college for no reason at all, only to land myself in enough debt to challenge a certain butler.

[b0mb3r]

Umm...yeah, I did not go through college for no reason at all, only to land myself in enough debt to challenge a certain butler.

I went to college to take all the fun classes it offer. what did it teach you!

[ainsoph9]

Many things.

[b0mb3r]

Many things.

examples?

[ainsoph9]

I will tell you when you get older, young grasshopper. You need to train more.

[b0mb3r]

I will tell you when you get older, young grasshopper. You need to train more.

This is what i learn so far in college:

psychology in abnormality
philosophy on love and friendship
roots of american education
melville
george orwell
history of romanticism
history of animation
art in america
contact improv
metal workshop
intro to sculpture
intermediate sculpture
marble sculpting
fundamental architecture
animation
intermediate animation
intro to video
experimental film
markmaking
silkscreen
monograph
watercolour
tempera

Now tell me what part of training do i need?

[ainsoph9]

That is a journey that you must take. I cannot tell you.

Back on topic, any news from TLG?

[Mystes]

That is a journey that you must take. I cannot tell you.

Back on topic, any news from TLG?

I don't think anyone contacted him yet. Maybe Polarem?

[spriggan10]

Hi all,

I’m the guy that Polarem referred to (he can vouch for me on that) – pleased to meet you & I'm pleased to be part of this discussion.

To clarify, I just enquired to see if BT would be interested in working on an official English release of the Clannad VN. There is nothing in motion and no proposal out to the rights owner, but I do think that an English version of Clannad VN is long overdue and I genuinely see this as an opportunity to bridge the gap between community and content producers like Key. Moreover, given the sheer size of the Clannad VN, it makes sense to leverage the work that has been done to date by the community by involving it in an official English release. Conversely, if an official English version was announced that didn’t involve the BT project, then the status of the project & all the effort that has gone into it would fall into question – not a great outcome.

My inquiry about involving the BT community was with the above points in mind. My suggestion of providing credit for the translators / group rather than payment, was with a mind to make an official release financially viable. We all know how much text / translation work is involved & it becomes unfeasible when translation and editing costs become excessive.
While this would be a commercial project, it certainly would not make anyone rich and any profits would be used to cover costs such as development, design, marketing, overheads, etc. and provide a return to the people who provided the money to pay those costs in the first place. Having said that, in light of the feedback on this thread, a donation to BT from the profits seems like a reasonable solution to me as it works to the benefit of the community. Let me know what you think.

As I mentioned above, all we’re doing right now is talking to see if there is any scope for such a collaboration to work as far as the BT community is concerned. For all we know, & for obvious reasons, the Japanese rights holder could be dead-set against this, but it’s a healthy discussion to have and who knows where it might lead.

I'm open to answering questions & have a few of my own for the group, but in the interests of limiting potential competition and my own privacy (I’m the only one with his full name on his thread & I hope that can be revised), can we get a private thread going?

Cheers!

[larethian]

firstly, I think it will not change the following 2 things:
1. you should get the contributors' approval to use their work, (seems like a no-brainer but I could be wrong)
2. the project will need to be taken down from baka-tsuki. (this is definite)

more importantly, I strongly suggest getting in touch with an expert in this area and check the viability and on how to proceed. I suggest to try to get in touch with Kouryuu of mangagamer. While I do not know him personally, to my knowledge (which is extremely reliable due to certain past involvement in Fortune Arterial ), he is open to providing advice to people like you. The current lead of Fortune Arterial, Frank Casey, managed to contact and get his time to advise on the same thing, ie. commercializing fan translations.

[Mystes]

Should we make an intern discussion on it (PM flooding?)

[Polarem]

I haven't heard back from TLG yet. The forum stats say that his last activity was on 6 May, while I PM'ed him on the 10th.

Spriggan10, apologies for posting excessive information. I've removed the easily-identifiable parts.
That got me thinking... in the event that the project gets the green light, and we manage to get in touch with all contributors, would crediting them by their online names be sufficient from a legal point of view? I imagine some contributors wouldn't want their real names attached.

[spriggan10]

firstly, I think it will not change the following 2 things:
1. you should get the contributors' approval to use their work, (seems like a no-brainer but I could be wrong)
2. the project will need to be taken down from baka-tsuki. (this is definite)

Agreed on both points, provided that i) the active group agrees to go ahead with a collaboration and ii) if the rights holder agrees to license the IP & agrees to the community collaboration.

more importantly, I strongly suggest getting in touch with an expert in this area and check the viability and on how to proceed.

Thank you for the tip. I’ll look into that at the appropriate timing.

Should we make an intern discussion on it (PM flooding?)

I’m a lot more comfortable now that my personal details aren’t on the thread, but as this is a commercial project, I would prefer that we discussed in private to keep the conversation among relevant people for now. There’s a good chance it may be too late for that, but could we possibly do that?

...would crediting them by their online names be sufficient from a legal point of view? I imagine some contributors wouldn't want their real names attached.

IANAL, but I can certainly check with one. Having said that, based on my experience and given the nature of the project (i.e. legal status and the amount of editing that would need to be done), if we make best efforts to reach out to the contributors and get their consent, that should be sufficient. I would have thought that using nicks would be the most appropriate approach, unless someone specifically requested to be named.

[Mystes]

@spriggan10 Is it possible that I've seen you posting in another forum, or another topic? This username sounds familiar.