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IP Question

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:43 pm
by mindscout
I am also member of the community of ADVA (http://www.adva.com) a group of game developers from Argentina and once in a while in the adva forums some guy show up and ask for people to team up and develop a remake or the <last + 1> version of some famous adventure, like monkey island 6, loom 2, etc.
And always a bunch of people start to tell them that they can't do that because the Intellectual Property belongs to Lucasarts, Sierra or whatever. I'd like to know how you guys manage this subject with the remakes, did you get some legal advisor or it was more like a let's jump and see what happen ?

Re: IP Question

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:02 pm
by Erpy
We have permission from the copyright holders to distribute our projects.

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Re: IP Question

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:11 pm
by mindscout
Could you tell us how did you get the permission ?

Re: IP Question

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:15 pm
by DrJones
They probably gave it away the game to the copyright holders. :eek

Re: IP Question

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:52 pm
by Gronagor
It's not easy. They usually ignore you (but make a note to watch you if you do decide to go ahead without permission.) Will probably help if you have a lawyer friend that can help you.

Same as at the AGS community forum. You'll first have to have something to show them (a few sceens and characters), so they can evaluate whether your 'remakes' will damage the image of their IP. Would probably be best not to make it public before you do get permission.

Most companies WILL reject your request.

Re: IP Question

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:06 pm
by MusicallyInspired
They made an agreement with Vivendi. But let's not forget that was VIVENDI. ActiVision might not be so cooperative.

Re: IP Question

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:55 pm
by Kaelon
As someone with contacts in Activision (but -- disclaimer -- not affiliated with Activision in any way), I can tell you that they are (a) aware of Vivendi's previous arrangements with AGDInteractive; and, (b) do not feel a need to honor previous Vivendi agreements. This, to me, signals a stauncher stance on the part of Activision with regards to how it views IP ownership.

Re: IP Question

Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:13 pm
by Erpy
They're a lot stauncher but they didn't want to call off the agreement on the spot at this point. They're not likely to give the okay for more projects being started though. (then again, we weren't really planning to start any more free projects anyhow so things could be worse)

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