Cease & Desist

If you managed to snag a Collectors Guide, you'll be pleased to know that it itself is now a collectable. That's because Sega's legal department has asked The Dreamcast Junkyard to cease sale of the guide as it isn't an official product, and naturally we will honour the request. For transparency, here's the email:

Dear Sirs,

We are pleased that you support the SEGA video game console Dreamcast and we note your creation of the Dreamcast Junkyard Ultimate Collectors Guide Book. This is however an unofficial title which is not authorised nor endorsed by SEGA and for that reason, we ask that you kindly cease sale of this book on your website and/or any other online channels as soon as possible. 

Please can you confirm that you have removed the book by emailing the Legal Dept.

As you will understand, in order to protect the brands within our group companies, we are only able to allow the creation of and promotion of authorised products and platforms.
We thank you for your understanding.

Yours faithfully

Legal Department
SEGA Europe Ltd.

For and on behalf of SEGA Holdings Co., Ltd.

Fair enough. It's not an official product and Sega have every right to request this. After all, they own the Dreamcast copyright and all that jazz. I have replied asking if there's anything we can do to make the book available again, so we'll see what they say. In truth, the upcoming Pix'N Love Dreamcast publication has probably had something to do with this...but c'est la vie! Once again, there is no love lost here (from our side anyway!).
Thanks to everyone who bought one and keep dreaming!

16 comments:

Animated AF said...

What? After Sega of Europe shared it on their YouTube channel too. This sounds like a similar issue that Hardcore Gaming 101 had with Konami over their essential guide to Castlevania book. In that case I believe they had to make it obvious on the front cover that it was an unofficial and unauthorised book and after that re-print were allowed to sell it I think as it is still on Amazon. Also I think using official artwork and fonts is also a no no with these things.

Caleb said...

Yeah most people do the "Unoffical" thing on their books.

Honestly though I didn't think anyone would give a crap.

Barry the Nomad said...

Never assume with these sorts of things. TBH, probably should have consulted a lawyer or something. Maybe reach out to SEGA and ask what specifically made them respond. Likely it was the lack of unofficial and the use of fonts (even though those fonts are unofficial, which in turn the fan who made them said not to use them for profit - something SEGA Nerds did which I called out and it turned into a whole thing).

Tom Charnock said...

As I say in the post, I don't begrudge Sega for this. They are totally within their rights I guess. It never occurred to me that the guide would be popular enough to attract Sega's attention. Hindsight is always 20/20, as they say.

SkillJim said...

Damn, I really regret the greasy mark that a grain of korma covered rice caused to the cover of the book now then :( - don't read and eat folks!

noiseredux said...

I was thinking the same thing that others have already mentioned. Sega seems like they're being pretty open here - they're not being pushy or mean or anything. So might be possible for you guys to reach out to the legal dept and ask what you could do to change it and have them be Ok with it such as adding "Unofficial" to the title, and ditching any Sega-owned images or fonts for a reprint.

Glad I nabbed a copy when I did, though!

Robert Jones said...

That is unfortunate. Let's hope there is a way to get it back on sale.

Lorfarius said...

Wouldn't sticking the word "Unofficial" on the cover do the trick?

Unknown said...

I think they are watching Adam's channel.. haha

Unknown said...

So will the people who won the guess the 25 VMU pictures competition still get the book ?

Tom Charnock said...

Yes, they've already been packaged up and are ready to ship. Just need to find the time to get to the post office!

Unknown said...

This sucks, I didn't get to grab one haha

NightHydra said...

Hope you guys can get away with adding a sticker. Try "HOT! NEW!". See if that goes over.

Bongo said...

Pretty certain that SEGA is just miffed over the Dreamcast fascia. The font I am sure is a replica of their logo and I doubt they copyrighted the typeface.

I can redesign the cover for you if needs be to evade the legal issue. The contents are not copyrighted by SEGA.

Hope I can help, otherwise RIP.

Marcone Antelius said...

What if you could change the front cover and everything else to say "Unofficial," would that circumvent their claims?

Unknown said...

To be fair, Barry, you didn't just "call us out." You made sure to tag SEGA's Twitter account in the tweet, which is the equivalent of tattle telling to mom and dad. Real classy.

In truth, both ours and SEGAbits' Redbubble accounts featured trademarked content owned by SEGA, so if you want to get into technicalities, we were both in the wrong. Any time any SEGA fansite sells any merchandise with the "SEGA" name, characters, systems, peripherals or anything else, they run the risk of getting copyright/trademark notices from SEGA.

You guys still have plenty of trademarked merchandise you're selling right now on your store, namely this one - http://www.redbubble.com/people/segabits/works/15324950-sonic-2015-segabits-design?p=t-shirt&style=mens. Unless, of course, SEGAbits licensed Sonic the Hedgehog from SEGA or otherwise received permission to do so.