Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Pegasus V on February 27, 2005, 10:55:32 pm
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Does anyone have any idea how much it would cost to buy the rights for the story of Freespace and Freespace2?
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*points to search*
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*looks for the dead horse beating smilie*
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(http://www.penguinbomb.com/phreak/deadhorse.gif)
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*snickers*
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Several hundred thousand (US) dollars IIRC. I think it may have been half a million, but I believe the figure was edited out of the post.
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daveb:
Best guesses at this point put the FS license at $100k - $300k.
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If everyone pools their piggy banks together, we might have enough for an officially liscenced Freespace burger.
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How many times has this been discussed? And how many times has it been rejected?
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Fifty four point pi!
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if you guys can wait, ill be 22 in 6 years
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Why, have you got a big-money trust fund?
:nervous:
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Originally posted by aldo_14
Why, have you got a big-money trust fund?
Indeed. That price wouldn't just be for the story alone would it?
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Originally posted by Pegasus V
Indeed. That price wouldn't just be for the story alone would it?
It'd be for the rights to use the copyrighted names and make media matching the original designs, I think.... I don't think it would actually include the detailed storyline, original media, etc, because that stuff is owned by Volition. My impression was that it's a bit of a convuluted situation - Interplay own the names and likenesses, but the storyline is Volitions alone (because technically it doesn't exist after FS2).
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Hmm, I see. Thanks.
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People say they dont 100%ly know who has the rights so why dont [V] or have the 'we own this ****' webpage avalible on their sites for the public?
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aldo: it would include that
when you "Buy the rights to a game" you buy all the copyrights and that includes the content and game engine
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I think what Aldo is on about is that [V]'s storyline is theirs. You couldn't make them give it to you. You'd have to write your own.
Same with any high poly models, art or anything else they had lying about.
All the licence means is that they can't use it. It doesn't mean you can take it off of them. You want it. You make your own.
They'd probably be entitled to sue you if you used a plotline that was too similar to anything they had submitted to Interplay too. (They'd win if they could prove that Interplay gave it to you and you used it).
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Basic answer: If you want to release a full game based on the FS2 engine, you either
A) Get the coders to replace everything. Use the engine, and pay royalties.
B) Get the coders to replace everything. Use the engine and pray to whatever God you worship that they don't make you pay said royalties.
or
C) Use Ferrium and pray to the previously mentioned God(s) that Kazan doesn't throw a **** fit, and you that the coders still don't make you pay royalties.
And that's just the engine, mateys ;)
:p
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Wow, do people still play this game? I found this site by accident and happened to stumble across my old login :)
Is the old lobby defunct now? I guess this is probably old news to you lot, but I haven't played this game in about 3 years!
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Originally posted by Kazan
aldo: it would include that
when you "Buy the rights to a game" you buy all the copyrights and that includes the content and game engine
I think the FS3 storyline would be considered outside the license scope as I don't believe it would have been given to Interplay in the first place. Whilst the conceptual stuff is trademarked, I don't belief the specific use of it is (at least in this sense).
Of course, possible evidence in this is that Derek Smart (*cough********cough*) was blabbering on about getting in someone to write a 'freespace-accurate' storyline or similar rubbish. Which either implies he couldn't get access to the proper Volition storyline, or that he has such a monsterous ego he'd feel obliged to (re)write his own hackneyed plot.
Anyways, I believe the copyright would only extend to the existing storylines of FS1 and 2, and the rights to create new storylines based upon those. I don't believe it could enclose any 3rd party storylines which may -or may not- exist.
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Not to mention the fact that if someone tried to compel [V] to give up their plot they'd probably just write down any old rubbish on a piece of paper and say that that is as fas as they got ;)
JBX-Blitzwing : PXO is dead but FS2 Multi player certainly isn't. Game Warden (http://www.game-warden.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=42) has a nice guide on how to get online with FS2_open and also seems to serve as something of a meeting place for people looking for a game :)
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If there is no hope for Freespace 3 (I said it, sue me) then why are :v: registering www.freespace3.com and why don't they tell the community the storyline?
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Resale value. Or simply to block other commercial use of it; perhaps they thought someone would use it to associate another space sim with the FS series, for example.
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um why would i object to someone using my open source programs so long as their usage doesn't violate the GPL