I suppose that means we won’t see Shinzo Abe on the campaign trail for the upcoming elections to the House of Councillors in an official LDP Lain bear suit, then.įinally, the Serial Experiments Lain property cannot be used to promote adult goods or services. The guidelines quite clearly state that other companies cannot use Serial Experiments Lain for profit, nor religious or political organizations. Secondly, only fans are being given permission to create derivative works. Selling a screencap of Lain printed on a t-shirt, then, isn’t allowed.

That means that, while creating official art and selling it, or perhaps making your own t-shirts and selling them might be okay, these must be your own creations and not taken directly from the show. This does not mean, however, that the company is giving fans full control over the series and it’s contents. I’ve translated the guidelines into English at the bottom of this page, but for those who don’t have time to read the whole thing, here are some important points to note.įirstly, what Serial Experiments Lain going ‘open source’ actually means is that NBC Universal is giving full permission to fans to create derivative works, that is to say, works based on the original Serial Experiments Lain anime, PS2 game, manga, etc. These guidelines are taken from the full terms and conditions on the website. ‘After consulting with the company, I’d like to do the following,’ he finished, referring the Serial Experiments Lain open source guidelines provided below. Such a decision comes, more concretely, from the massive success of various events held to celebrate the series’ 20th anniversary, such as the Club Cyberia fan event as well as the CHAOS MARKET pop-up.Īs NBC Universal Serial Experiments Lain producer Yasuyuki Ueda put it on the official website, ‘When I met fans who’d worked themselves to the bone to create products, I thought “isn’t there something I can do, as a company employee?”.’ Faced with such fan support, NBC Universal has taken the unprecedented decision to hand over their intellectual property almost entirely to fans – making Social Experiments Lain, as they describe it, ‘open source’ under the moniker Time To Live.

20 years may have passed since the premiere of the seminal Serial Experiments Lain, but fans haven’t stopped loving Lain – not one bit, especially as the series only gets more and more relevant in today’s world.

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