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I’ve been re-listening to The Protomen the last couple of days, they continue to be perfect. But there’s something I don’t get… how come their music is legal? Like, I would have expected bullshit copyright laws to keep them from making or at least profiting off of MegaMan concept albums. They don’t use the looks, but they do use the names of lots of major characters.
I’m not complaining at all, copyright is beyond fucked, I’m just confused.
Number one: i fucking love the protomen; they are amazing. Saw them live in 2019 and would do it again in a heartbeat.
Their music falls under fair use in terms of transformative works for a few reasons.
First off, it’s not in competition with the original. No one could reasonably be assumed to be a customer for the Mega Man games who might chose to buy a Protomen album instead of a video game. (This is very important in terms of the legality of works, trademarks etc.)
Second of all, despite being obviously the same/a similar story most of their work with few exceptions doesn’t actually directly reference any of the Mega Man intellectual property.
I hope I get to see them someday, I hear they’re wild in concert 🤖
Thanks for explaining! I don’t really understand the second point, because they sort of do reference the IP? They use the names ‘Protoman’, ‘Dr. Wily’, and ‘Dr. Light’, in the songs. I assume I’m just not understanding something, here. Is it about not saying ‘MegaMan’ specifically?
I hope you get to see them to! 😀
Like I said there are a few exceptions where they reference the original material, but it’s actually not that thick on the ground. But genuinely what’s more important is the fair use/transformative nature and the fact that they’re not competitors.
If the Protomen made a video game about their albums then there would be a potential problem! 😂
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