In an entirely unsuprising development, the Jazz Jackrabbit Revival Kickstarter campaign has been hit with a copyright violation claim, which is as close to a death blow as you can get before getting forcibly cancelled. The claim, as submitted by Epic Games, reads:
[divider]Jazz Jackrabbit Revival [Submitted by Epic Games, Inc.]
[Private] Epic Games, Inc.
620 Crossroads Blvd.
Cary, North Carolina 27518
United States
Sent via online form
Recipient
Kickstarter, Inc.
58 Kent Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
USA
Description of copyrighted material: Jazz Jackrabbit is a series of video games developed by Epic Games (then known as Epic MegaGames) for PC and other platforms in the mid-1990s.
Description of infringing material: This project purports to revive the Jazz Jackrabbit series (including the copyrighted content as well as series trademarks), but does so without Epic’s consent.
[divider]
The campaign page itself is not accessable during the claim review period, but you can read our previous coverage of the game if you’d like to learn about it. As Marcus mentioned in that same piece, a big alarm bell with the campaign is that at no point do developers mention their intention to obtain the Jazz Jackrabbit rights. Their budget chart doesn’t mention liscensing, nor do their updates. Plenty of people have started Kickstarter campaigns with IP they don’t own; but the difference is that in those cases the developers have been able to show that they were working with the rights holders in order to clear a legal pathway.
Backers of Jazz Jackrabbit Revival can rest easy, while they won’t be getting the promised game, they also won’t be charged for their donations.
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[…] : That didn’t take long, did it? We just posted an update on the Jazz Jackrabbit campaign. You can find it right […]