Sol Press Discussion Thread
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Hello,
We seem to be going further down the same rabbit hole.
There really is nothing that can be said until a new statement comes from the company themselves.
So for now let us wait and see what the future holds for Sol Press.
Thank you
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It seems that Sol Press business status is now "FTB FORFEITED" in the State of California, rather than "ACTIVE", as it was previously. This new status can be verified on https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/ (Search Type: LP/LLC Name, Search Criteria: Sol Press, Search Filter: Keyword).
The definition for "FTB FORFEITED" is on https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/cbs-field-status-definitions, which states: "FTB Suspended or FTB Forfeited: The business entity was suspended or forfeited by the Franchise Tax Board for failure to meet tax requirements (e.g., failure to file a return, pay taxes, penalties, interest)."
The definitions site also seems to draw a distinction between "FTB FORFEITED" and "SOS FORFEITED", with the former about taxes, and the latter about the SOI form.
Best I can tell (please correct me if I got this wrong, IANAL), the distinction between "FORFEITED" and "SUSPENDED" is simply whether the business is foreign to California or not. Sol Press is marked Jurisdiction: DELAWARE, Entity Type: FOREIGN.
More information on what it means for a business to have been forfeited: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/help/business/my-business-is-suspended.html
Screenshot (I edited a few together):
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A 'slight' update on Sol
https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/ no longer returns 'ACTIVE' status, instead it gives 'FTB SUSPENDED' for Sol Press.
In business jargon it's described as (from https://www.sos.ca.gov);
Suspended (domestic entities) or Forfeited (foreign entities):
The business entity's powers, rights and privileges, which include the right to use the entity's name in California, were suspended or forfeited in California as described below:FTB Suspended or FTB Forfeited:
The business entity was suspended or forfeited by the Franchise Tax Board for failure to meet tax requirements (e.g., failure to file a return, pay taxes, penalties, interest).So, those in the know, how bad is it?
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@korppi That's the same thing that's in the post right above yours.
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@myskaros Oh, didn't see that. Thanks for heads-up.
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Sol Press just had one of their games removed from the Steam store, and KiriyaAoi on Twitter is claiming Sol hasn't paid a ton of important people they owe money to for the past two years. So... safe to say Sol is dead.
Please rescue their licenses from them J Novel Club! <3
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Yeah, between non-payments of taxes/staff/contractors, the legal status of their business, having lost their domains and items actively being pulled from stores... The situation looks pretty FUBAR.
I've got my fingers crossed that JNC can save some of these titles. Specifically 80,000 gold.
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@killerrin said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
I've got my fingers crossed that JNC can save some of these titles. Specifically 80,000 gold.
I promise to re-buy volume 1 and 2 as soon as JNC offers them.
(2 sales! Woo! Reason enough to rescue the license :) )
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Sigh. This gives me really motivation to read books 2-3 of Meta at VRMMO Academy. Where can I get the rest if it also ends with open questions.
And damn I like 80K gold. Even tough I must admit that the quality in my eyes go down the more volumes it has (kinda like many Funa written books.....).
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@harmlessdave said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@killerrin said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
I've got my fingers crossed that JNC can save some of these titles. Specifically 80,000 gold.
I promise to re-buy volume 1 and 2 as soon as JNC offers them.
(2 sales! Woo! Reason enough to rescue the license :) )
Seriously though, if JNC, YP, or 7S rescue 80,000 Gold I'd immediately pre-order all the digital volumes that they'll allow me to do so. I'm a big fan of the WN and it's been frustrating to no end how badly SOLPress treated it. Of course, I'd prefer if JNC got it, but at this point I'd take any reputable publisher.
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I am not a Lawyer: but, from what I understand, SOL would have to officially either declare bankruptcy (chapter 11 or 13) in the USA before someone could negotiate for the licenses to be rescued (unless the original license holders in Japan had a clause in the contract for this contingency) --those licenses are some of the few assets that Sol owns, and they have creditors (some of which are governments) it seems to me that JNC or anyone else can't get their hands on 80K or anything else until some debts are settled and/or Japanese IP owners get the licenses reverted to them (which can take years) Bottom line- it's a mess, don't get your hopes up, write off anything that SOL has touched and move on. Sometime in 2024 +/- if it seems that it might be profitable- someone will rescue ...
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If there are SOL hardcopy editions you are interested in owning, and you can locate copies available for purchase where fulfillment doesn't involve interfacing with SOL's fulfillment folks... grab them prior to the scalpers raising the prices.
Just a thought, anyway.
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@jon-mitchell said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
I am not a Lawyer: but, from what I understand, SOL would have to officially either declare bankruptcy (chapter 11 or 13) in the USA before someone could negotiate for the licenses to be rescued (unless the original license holders in Japan had a clause in the contract for this contingency) --those licenses are some of the few assets that Sol owns, and they have creditors (some of which are governments) it seems to me that JNC or anyone else can't get their hands on 80K or anything else until some debts are settled and/or Japanese IP owners get the licenses reverted to them (which can take years) Bottom line- it's a mess, don't get your hopes up, write off anything that SOL has touched and move on. Sometime in 2024 +/- if it seems that it might be profitable- someone will rescue ...
If Sol hasn't been paying the agreed-on royalties then they've already broken the license agreement, but I'm no lawyer either and we have no idea if the agreement terminates for non-payment. It might require the publishers to take Sol to civil court which might not be worth their while.
Sadly, we know nothing unless some Sol insider spills the beans.
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@harmlessdave
I don't see mentioned anywhere that they failed to pay royalties, (it is possible, after all they they stiffed on paying taxes/contractors/staff) but not paid royalties? I'm guessing (if they paid anything at all) they paid royalties-then they could keep the grift going- get a license, sell, not pay workforce, repeat...but if they couldn't get material to translate it would fall apartI read banned books
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@jon-mitchell said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
I don't see mentioned anywhere that they failed to pay royalties
It was heavily implied in this tweet: https://twitter.com/Kiriya_Aoi9/status/1454870920322076674
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@jon-mitchell
Newton and the Apple Tree game got pulled from stores.
When asked "why", admin of JAST (VN distributor and publisher) discord server answered "Be good and pay your royalties, folks".
There's also this tweet from NekoNyan employee from few days before game got removed. -
there you go then- not paying royalties either.
well, then looks like they didn't pay anyone? (something tells me that someone at Sol's upper management got some $$, embezzled or otherwise) - so Sol is dead - maybe the Japanese IP owners can avoid probate etc. and relicense sooner this way? (as there was breach of contract, not just bankruptcy) -
@wellwisher said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@jon-mitchell
Newton and the Apple Tree game got pulled from stores.
When asked "why", admin of JAST (VN distributor and publisher) discord server answered "Be good and pay your royalties, folks".
There's also this tweet from NekoNyan employee from few days before game got removed.I'm glad I managed to catch news of NewRin being removed from steam, before they did the same at JAST. I bought it and I've been playing it for a while now and I really enjoy it so far. It is a real shame that it has been removed from stores...
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@amakaze said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@wellwisher said in Sol Press Discussion Thread:
@jon-mitchell
Newton and the Apple Tree game got pulled from stores.
When asked "why", admin of JAST (VN distributor and publisher) discord server answered "Be good and pay your royalties, folks".
There's also this tweet from NekoNyan employee from few days before game got removed.I'm glad I managed to catch news of NewRin being removed from steam, before they did the same at JAST. I bought it and I've been playing it for a while now and I really enjoy it so far. It is a real shame that it has been removed from stores...
If the allegation about non-payment is true, then sadly it is a pirate release :(
If true, it's a shame Sol didn't do something like a GoFundMe to at least pay their royalties and the translation teams.
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And the first thing I have heard on the company recently was an article about Rakudai entering its final arc.
But a recent update defined it's ambiguous status with a change from "is publishing" to "was publishing"
Still makes me a sad panda, I guess I will be back to struggling to translate the series in slow time.
