Licensing an Abandonware Game? 148
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the rolling-the-dice dept.
from the rolling-the-dice dept.
WolverineOfLove writes "I'm recreating a 1980s abandonware game with copyrights that have been seemingly unused for the past 18 years. The situation is detailed further in a Slashdot journal entry I just wrote, but in short: Is it worth dealing with all the copyrights and paying money if I want to recreate an abandonware title as an open source game? I know there are legal implications to certain decisions I might make, but there is a real possibility that this game's copyright holder will do nothing with the rights, and I'd much prefer preserving it for others than letting it fade away."
Re:Talk to people who have done it before (Score:3, Informative)
UQM is different in that it was an actual open-sourcing of the code to Star Control 2.
The code is open source, the assets are free-as-in-beer (as in free to distribute with the game but not free to modify)
Only things they cant use are some music tracks and cinematics they dont own the rights to plus the actual "Star Control" name (which the publisher owns)
Re:Patents (Score:3, Informative)
What about copyright? You might rapidly discover that `abandonware` is a meaningless term legally; not only that, but that a company owns the rights to the game and will come after you for a lot of money should your game before profitable for them to do so.
Re:Patents (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Patents (Score:3, Informative)
Not necessarily. It depends on the issue date of the patent.
In particular, if issuance of the patent was delayed, it may be issued for longer than 20 years.
For instance, if the patent was filed for in 1994 and issued in 2000, it could be 7 more years before it will expire, PLUS a number of additional years, according to the issuance delay.
Also, some special types of patents (as in gov' patents) can get terms much longer than 20 years.
Assuming is not good here, unless you have looked up the patents in question, you cannot really be sure they would have expired by now.
Re:SDINAL (Score:5, Informative)
I know there are legal implications to certain decisions I might make, but...
But nothing. You're asking a legal question, you need to go to a legal expert. Slashdotters are not legal experts, they just think they are, and their advice is worse than useless.
As a supposed legal expert (yes, IAAL), I can advise that if it cannot be positively determined that copyright is not in force (and after only 18 years it seems impossible that it would not be) then yes, without permission you could be sued, very likely successfully-- but then, the copyright holder may not wish to sue, and as another post noted, even be supportive. Be sure to get that expression of support in writing. (And be sure the author and copyright holder are one and the same.)
Re:SDINAL (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Make use of the Original (Score:3, Informative)
As someone pointed out, Quake opensourced the engine, not the content. More importantly, if the new game relied on the old game to load textures, etc., then you would have to be distributing the OLD game. This would likely violate the copyright, and open you up for even more lawsuits. Direct distribution of copyright content is worse than making your own version of it (which is often perfectly legal).
Re:Start a company - limit your personal liability (Score:2, Informative)
IANAL, but this is a subject I've looked into. Limited liability can help greatly when you have acted in good faith, but it is unlikely to shield you if you have shown malice or willful blindness. This is especially true for very small companies that are effectively a vehicle for the acts of one person.
Re:How does one find the copyright owner? (Score:4, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_registration [wikipedia.org]
Re:Make use of the Original (Score:2, Informative)
You don't get it. The people who make games based on the Quake engine don't distribute the pak files with their release. Getting the pak file is left entirely up to the user, if they want to pirate it, buy it or whatever. The person distributing the game is not responsible for the choice of the end user, and is not liable.
Re:Contact the Owners (Score:2, Informative)
It's really annoying when they moderate something as insightful, when really it's informative. I really question Slashdot mods these days.