This is the revenge of my Phoenix Wright Joke. Up until recently, it was the single most popular deviation in my gallery.
And then, all of a sudden, someone reported it as a copyright violation, the deviantart mods agreed, and it was deleted from my page. Now, granted, it was a sprite comic, but it was ALSO a parody comic, making it fair use. But, apparently some people out there don't understand parody or fair use or copyright law, and this is my way of fighting back. As Brian Clevinger of 8-bit Theater put it:
"As for the accusation that we are “ripping off” something, that too is wrong. The most important piece of legislation in this case is the Fair Use clause of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. The Fair Use clause is so central because it allows for works of parody that are based on other, copyrighted, materials. There are four criteria brought up the clause....
1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. " (from 8-bit Theater.)
The previous comic- which was exactly the same as this one, but with sprites- was clearly within its rights, being:
1) A parody
2) Not for proft
3) Pertaining to a very small portion of the copyrighted work
and 4) Not affecting the market for Phoenix Wright whatsoever.
If what I did was illegal... well, let's just say fanfiction.net is a den of intellectual property theft and corruption, if that's true.
In short: if I had stolen and posted the entirety of the Phoenix Wright storyline and claimed it was my own, it'd be a serious copyright violation. Except I didn't.
And whoever reported it last time can kiss my sprite-comic-making, copyright-law-understanding ass. Phoenix Wright and related characters are, naturally, copyright of Capcom, because anyone with a brainstem could tell I don't work for them and it's not my stuff.