(Note: I probably should've been saying "ripoff" instead of "bootleg")

1. I think I get what you mean about not harming the canon, but what does that say about being able to recruit clones? The clone may technically be its own universe, yes, but because of copyright, it technically also shouldn't exist. Technically, the "canons" are still "canons", but canons from good universes have been recruited in rare cases, and the fact that the original universe is a copy and is also hopefully doomed to be destroyed by the creators of the ripoff-ee makes recruiting seem a lot more justifiable.

2. I get what you mean about rom-hacks, but it feels really uncomfortable that you're grouping awesome rom-hacks and mods together with terrible ripoffs like "Cup Haed Adventure." In particular, you seem to have severely downplayed the motives of all such games. The game is not trying to "become part of" the source material; that, from my perspective, would mean it's legitimately trying to add to the canon, which includes both good and bad rom-hacks. What the "developers" of said games, and thus the games, are trying to do is make a quick buck by pretending to be the canon universe so they can take advantage of both the canon universe's perceived popularity and the multitude of gullible children and their equally gullible parents who download freely on the App Store and Android Market. It's just money. Nothing but money.

However, if I were to use something similar to how you describe the motives of other games, I could say it was trying to pretend to be part of the source material. Not become part of, not copy, but pretend to be part of.

How do I know that the game shares the "developer's" motive? Well, most of these ripoff games are filled to the brim with ads. Sometimes the "developers" use even shadier techniques to get your money, such as asking you to let the game have access to your personal info (IE: CREDIT CARD INFO. Now is your mind changed?) If the game itself doesn't also want to make money, why does it have these things in it?

TL;DR: I guess I do see your point, but it just doesn't feel right to be treating unholy ripoffs and legitimate original universes the same way because of little technicalities. As I said, the name of the game for the "developers" is making a quick buck from people's lack of ability to discern what's official or a genuine fangame and what's not, so from my perspective, they don't fit into the categories that you gave. As for recruiting, I don't see why any of this prevents the "canons" of a ripoff game from being recruited. Heck, they might even flock to the PPC, assuming that they know they could be made to cease to exist at any time. Or something.

-Twistey

I'm talking about bootlegs that still try to be in the game world they're ripping off.

Again- if the bootleg says it's Pokemon, in the Pokemon world, and there's canon Pokemon in it, it's not an unoriginal canon, it's trying to 'add onto' an existing canon the same way a fanfic would.