Disclaimer: All of this information is public now, that is why I wish to speak about it. As many of you are probably aware, preserving prototypes comes with a lot of things such as handling prototypes, sdk, design documents, press releases, sample roms, source code, development systems and many more developer-only things is by no means an easy set of tasks or items to handle. With these things there also comes trouble should you not be careful; which is why I’m making this post. Many of these are by no means new to us as this is generally what we see every day. That was the case with Dead Rising 4 back in May 2016. And as of January 2017 I finally finished with court and wanted to speak up about what happened, why and how things went. In May, a user had contacted me saying they had some prototypes on hand they wanted me to mirror. This is by no means abnormal to me as it was at the time a regular thing I did. Eventually this user had wanted to speak over IRC for security reasons – something I wrote off as fine as I talk on IRC and some people don’t like more public eyes on their discussions. We chatted for a bit, talked about general stuff, and then we got down to what he wanted me to mirror. He named Grid 2, Mighty Number 9, Thief 4 and a few other lesser titles. Eventually he had named Dead Rising 4. When I heard this I contacted someone that may be more interested about it than me (you know who you are). They joined the conversation and links were shared for it. Was a PC build in particular. Eventually they dropped out of the conversation and we chatted later about it and he seemed very opposed to touching it in any way. I had spent 1.5 days downloading it because I figured I’d give the game a try since it seemed harmless enough (though 50gb is a lot of data). Asked for some help to figure out how to handle the file format for it as it was for Windows 10 which isn’t something I had dealt with yet, so learning was part of that experience. Eventually it comes around to June. E3 began and shows were going… Bad. Maybe the worst E3 to date but I digress. Microsoft’s presentation went on and they played a trailer for Dead Rising 4. At the same time I had also heard there was a playable demo on the show floor. My initial thought was this was the PC counterpart of that Xbox One floor demo with debugging enabled because you know it’s PC, it has the ease of being setup however one wishes. I had uploaded some footage and images to YouTube and 4chan of the game in action. After about 1 day of being up I woke up to emails about a DMCA takedown that was filed for these 3 videos. In a rather panicked state I read through the details to figure out what I had done wrong. Well it was the fact I had played and uploaded footage of these build of Dead Rising 4. The strike on my channel lasted through September 2016, I felt no reason to argue with it as I realized I had fucked up, and wanted to wait it out instead of getting it removed. Come July. Anime Expo went very well, no Dead Rising 4 at the Capcom Booth which surprised me a little bit. On July 29 2016, California Department of Justice had shown up to my home with a search warrant at 7am. About a dozen officers, forensics specialists, photographer, and more. My family was to sit and wait for everything to be done in the search. They did their routine of searching, asking questions, just the usual. They then proceeded to have an “interview” with me regarding the matter. Asked various questions about who what when why was money involved and much more. After that had concluded they took some of my devices, cloned my phone, and left with various contact information on a business card for the special agent on the case (per my request). Some time passed and I had not heard back from them. So come November, I had gotten an email from Google that they send when asked for personal information for legal reasons, stating they shared some (but not specifics) to CA Dept of Justice, and were now authorized to inform me about it. Late November another email had been sent to me regarding an arrest warrant pending for 2 felony charges, and that I should get a lawyer immediately. Thankfully I did, and I’m glad it was that quick as the arrest warrant was processed and dispatched to officers the following 3 days. They had informed my family back in July that my cooperation was enough for them to not need to seek me out, but instead allowed me to turn myself in if needed. Unfortunately this was the case. I had turned myself in for a booking, now in their records (fingerprints, pictures, reason: felony). The officers wondered what exactly I did and I do believe it was a genuine desire to know. I didn’t say anything other than it being a complicated thing and they respected it. They showed me to a cell, gave me dinner (which I’ll be honest was surprising in quality. Those carrots were fucking tasty). The same night 6 hours later the bail bondsman we worked with showed up and bailed me out (was 20,000 USD for the minimum of the charges). I returned home, and prepared for court the following December. On December 22 I arrived at the couthouse for my case. Everyone except me and the family were late. We were told a deal was worked out to lessen the sentence to a mutually agreeable severity. No jail time, but take the felony charge with a no contest plea, have community service, have probation for 3 years and if I have been doing well it will be lowered to a misdemeanor. We were done in an hour and had a new court date on January 19 2017 where the sentence would take place. And that brings us to today, January 19 2017. I had pleaded no contest to the felony charge (499c for those wanting to know), and was given my sentence: 200 hours of volunteer work/community service (there is a difference), probation, and a new court date in December 2019 to deal with the felony being lowered to a misdemeanor. ==== This has been a really long post but let’s cover some important things about it. First off – I’m still going to be active but I will be more careful about what I do and who I deal with. I’m not leaving ASSEMBLER Games, so don’t worry. The whole time, at the sheriff station for the booking, in the courthouse, during the interview with district attorney and special agent, with the probation officer, and basically everyone else – nobody really understands the specifics of what the issue was except for having something I shouldn’t have. They understood when I replied “computer stuff” and just moved on for the most part, but it was clear that had a trial taken place, half of the Jury at best would not understand what the problem was and would likely need a very lengthy explanation of everything. Technology has come a long way, and it’s clear many don’t understand the specifics of events like this, and I do expect this to at some point be more clear (I hope because by now people should know basic stuff about computers). Handling development data is risky, whether as a hobby or as a real occupation with approval of parties involved. I do what I do as a hobby at my own monetary expense normally. I give what I can back to the community because I care for what I do in it, and want to let others have fun with it. However, this has also allowed me to see that even though it has its fun side, it’s still not legal for what is done. Releasing prototypes for others is still illegal as it has not been authorized by the owners of the data. Possessing it is still not legal unless you’ve been authorized to be handling it. As such, that’s what happened here with Dead Rising 4. I had obtained a dev build before announcement of it even existing, played it, posted images and video of it without authorization of the parties that own it, and they took action. I openly allow anyone to contact me if they are not approving of what I do/say/post/handle because I am willing to cooperate if there is a problem, but it’s clear they chose to take legal action over an email to tell me to remove any and all data related to it. I also wish to say that it truly did not have to go this far at all – for both Capcom and myself. I get it’s a job to protect an IP, or something owned by the company, but not everyone needs to be taken to court for it, but in the end I take what I’m given even if I don’t like it. A DMCA takedown was enough for me to stop everything with it. I can honestly say without a doubt that this has been a very clear lesson, not just for myself but for others. Be careful who you talk to, what you handle, and how you handle it. I am extremely lucky I ONLY have the sentence of community service, and cannot be more relieved about it.
@PixelButts I'm really happy for you, and wish you all the best. I'm sorry if I give you a hard time or you don't care for me very much. I guess it's a difference of opinion or whatever. It's probably me. Just know I'm genuinely happy for you and your family and I'm glad this went much better than it could have. I rarely read posts this long but this is worth reading. Thank you.
If I remember correctly it did make its way online later (pb didn't upload it of course) but it obviously doesn't meet the 4 year rule here so...
@PixelButts. Sorry for you troubles, but I'm glad you are not in more troubles than that I the end. Don't touch current gen with a 12' pole anymore! Let's all hop on the train leading to court!
Interesting read for sure, glad you're free in these streets for now! A misdemeanor isn't horrible, there's also more companies out there not requiring you to disclose if you have a felony or not but at least that's temporary. Community service isn't bad at all, I know of some people that had to do community service and they knocked it all out at a local Salvation Army. I'd totally recommend that - Good cause, counts towards your hours, seemed fun enough, and you can purchase any goodies you might see come into the shop.
You put up something for collateral im guessing a car in this case then you pay back the loan over a set time or all at once if you have the cash, at least afaik.
Play with fire and you get burned my dude. Everyone who is fucking around with builds thinking they are invisible to the law should read this carefully...
I can very much agree with this. You do not want to be shafted by any of these companies, because they have the money and power to absolutely fuck you over if they want to.
What the heck is Dead Rising 4? Does it have Preston Garvey? If not, it's not a real post-apocalyptic anything! But on a more serious note, glad you are alright PB. Even if you enjoy carrots. I couldn't stay mad at you for that!
