RBN outside US

[Ten0101]

I mean, I feel bad for Harmonix getting all this negativity because I'm sure there are plenty of legal implications involved, but it feels like they could have put a bit more effort to at least give us some answers on why/when/etc. Or, you know, hire a few more lawyers to get it sorted out, surely international acts are going to be a huge part of the bands making up the Rock Band Network.

[ACertainSound]

The least they could do is communicate with us clearly about why there's no submissions being accepted from outside the US, and either reassure us that they're working on it, or let us know it will never change.

Just let us know one way or the other, since many people are left hanging on this 'cottage industry'. And artists being messed around isn't really the best way forward for the RBN and Rock Band platform in general.

[Grattier]

Exactly! I'm happy to see RBN in beta but now, I just want to know when it'll be available here, in Canada (and in other countries)

There are so many good bands everywhere in the world!

Harmonix??

Thanks!

[R-ViD666]

I wrote them yesterday and got this answer:


"We’re launching in the United States to begin with and haven’t made any announcements for a timeline to come outside of the United States. Please stay tuned for more information!"

From this I gather that the international launch is not in the near future at all. If they haven't even got a plan for how long they want the US version to run first, it may be quite long. I guess it also depends on the reasons for making the US restriction - if it is to test it on one country before going global, they can do it at any time. If it's because of legal problems in accepting uploads from everywhere, then we are worse of. But yes: A few well-placed words from HMX describing the reasons behind the restriction would be nice :-)

[MartijnTP]

Oh great. Once again, Europeans get screwed....

[Baanu_Rass]

It makes me sad that I can't even be a member on the creators site so I could at least check out the forums there and such. I hope they open the site to Canadians soon.

They don't do an IP check you know. Just use an America address. Heck, the main site doesn't even recognize us.

[R-ViD666]

Yeah well - if you read the terms of use and the other legal docs you'll see it's clearly stipulated that only legal residents of the US can do it, and if you break these rules HMX can remove your song and things that are worse to you. It kind of defeats the purpose of entering it you cannot be paid and is banned when they find out. That's not for me and my label anyway. It would just be easier to accept if one had a reason to the restriction...

[Baanu_Rass]

Yeah well - if you read the terms of use and the other legal docs you'll see it's clearly stipulated that only legal residents of the US can do it, and if you break these rules HMX can remove your song and things that are worse to you. It kind of defeats the purpose of entering it you cannot be paid and is banned when they find out. That's not for me and my label anyway. It would just be easier to accept if one had a reason to the restriction...

He wanted on the forums. I too would like to be able to do something but since HMX has never treated other countries like they exist I'm not holding my breath.

[badhack0x13]

I'm pretty sure it has to do with copyright law, the differences in copyright law from country to country, and a lot of CYA.

And to be honest, it might be a pain that non-US residents have to submit via third party, but there are charters and groups set up to do just that for you - I'm sure you can find one, if not several, willing to work with you if you want to do *all* of the legwork in terms of charting, fixing, etc, while they only upload/reload/manage the process.

Yes, it's annoying, but if you look at the songs ready for RBN launch you'll see they're already international, so it's not as if HMX is *truly* excluding the rest of the world. I'm pretty sure they just don't want to be slapped with several lawsuits, cease and desist orders, and have RBN halted before it can even launch!!!

Now, that being said, I still don't understand why we can't *playtest* if international (since there's no uploading involved). They've got songs clogged in the pipes, a rabid fanbase worldwide, people who would give an eyetooth to at least get a look at all the docs and start charting their own stuff pre-emptively... Really, we're known for being very polite visitors, HMX. I promise we won't mess up the place while looking around!

[destruction3402]

I'm happy as long as I can purchase songs in the RBN store.
I really hope that at least the store will be available in Europe together with the US release.