Space Quest Seven

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Space Quest Seven

#1 Post by Alias » Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:44 pm

I dont know if this topic has been covered before... if so, oh well. :\

In case non of you have visited their site for the past 3 or so months, they have a new layout. I would like to think what yu guys think about the project? Honetly I think its going to be the best fan project to be released. :D Well I'm sure its going to be releasedlate 2005, one of the developers said so. So theres something to look forward to. I mean just about in one years time we will play one of the finest projects out there. 8o

www.sq7.org

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#2 Post by Sir Nyrhinen » Fri Sep 24, 2004 6:45 pm

I think that their project is awesome

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#3 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Fri Sep 24, 2004 7:31 pm

Honetly I think its going to be the best fan project to be released

*reminds he's on a website from people that make fan games*

I disagreee I think that KQ1 VGA was the best fan game released and QFG2 may top it off. (whispers: Ok Milon i did it where's my 5 dollars?)

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#4 Post by Erpy » Fri Sep 24, 2004 7:57 pm

I'm quite curious about those "negotiations" of theirs with Sierra. I know stuff like that can take lots of time, but it's been more than 2 years since that entry was added to the FAQ and no statement yet.

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#5 Post by Angelus3K » Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:00 pm

May it of helped with Josh Mandel on the team? He could have called up Sierra and said "Hey its Josh here, making a fan game yea, dont sue us ok? Cool, catch ya at the Chainsaw Monday reunion dinner next week!"

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#6 Post by Erpy » Fri Sep 24, 2004 9:23 pm

If anything, the presence of an ex-Sierra employee may have only made it more difficult, because his presence already gives a more "official" tinge to the project, which is what Sierra wants to avoid. It's really not that simple.

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#7 Post by Angelus3K » Fri Sep 24, 2004 9:34 pm

Yea I guess. I did think of that after I posted.

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#8 Post by Broomie » Fri Sep 24, 2004 9:34 pm

John Mandel is such a great guy! He should get an award for all his contributions to fan projects.

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#9 Post by Angelus3K » Fri Sep 24, 2004 9:38 pm

Yea I agree Brooms, at least there are some Sierra employees that nice.

Along with Al, Ken, Roberta etc etc lol

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#10 Post by BeetleB » Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:14 pm

I'm quite curious about those "negotiations" of theirs with Sierra. I know stuff like that can take lots of time, but it's been more than 2 years since that entry was added to the FAQ and no statement yet.
I think it'll stay that way. I don't think that the SQ7 team sees Sierra's non-responsiveness as a factor in whether they'll release the game or not. If Sierra comes down on them, then they won't release. Otherwise, they will.

I am not an SQ7 Developer in disguise. Promise.

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#11 Post by Alias » Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:38 pm

Well they have a new status report if you look. The project also added new media in the media section like models. And their forum seem active the ones we can see anyway! :lol

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#12 Post by Erpy » Fri Sep 24, 2004 11:26 pm

I think it'll stay that way. I don't think that the SQ7 team sees Sierra's non-responsiveness as a factor in whether they'll release the game or not. If Sierra comes down on them, then they won't release. Otherwise, they will.
Isn't that a little risky? Officially, a company has no obligation to send in a cease & desist letter before taking someone to court over copyright infringement. It's just usually done because the offender is given the "benefit of the doubt". If contact between both parties has already taken place, there's little room for doubt anymore.

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#13 Post by BeetleB » Sat Sep 25, 2004 6:54 am

Isn't that a little risky? Officially, a company has no obligation to send in a cease & desist letter before taking someone to court over copyright infringement.
It's not all that much riskier than the AGD's work.

They don't have an obligation, but I think they also know full well that they're not going to gain much financially by taking them to court. I'm assuming the people involved have very little wealth to make it worthwhile. If they want it stopped, a cease and desist is more effective - usually works, and I don't think the SQ7 Development team has shown any signs to them or publicly that they don't care about Sierra's opinion.

I guess perhaps what I wrote earlier could be misconstrued. I did not mean to imply that the SQ7 team doesn't care what Sierra thinks. Just that they've done what they can in contacting Sierra, and from what I've mostly heard (usually on the Broomcloset forums) is that the responses were more or less vague with little conclusive value. Nothing supporting SQ7, nothing discouraging it.

I think that was a long time ago, and no one saw fit to pursue that avenue further.

Clearly, the SQ7 team can't stop development just because of the off chance Sierra may go after them (especially when they didn't go after the AGD's, or the other SQ fan made games out there). I believe they informed Sierra early on regarding their intention to create a game, and as Sierra neither consented nor objected, they continued their work. If Sierra sends them a notice to stop, I'm fairly sure they simply will do just that.
If contact between both parties has already taken place, there's little room for doubt anymore.
Again, they're within their rights to go to court, but just because they can doesn't mean they will. It's not as if there's any money involved in SQ7. It won't be sold. Sierra won't get any money out of pursuing them. Sierra is, AFAIK, not making a SQ game, so they can't even claim that SQ7 is hurting their profits.

I just don't understand what Sierra's purpose in going to court would be. If all they want is for it to be stopped (which is quite understandable), they'll send a notice. It costs them nothing to do so. Even if it doesn't work, it's almost always the first step - in the off chance that they will cease and desist. If they want to be nasty, they could even demand all the source code (SLAGE engine), media files, etc. I somehow doubt that SQ7 will even try to fight that. There's no way SQ7 can win a court case, and they'll comply.

Sierra's not going to ask for money. There's no money to be had from all this. If they try, the SQ7 team can file for bankruptcy as the worst case - Sierra can't get much money out of that. So the most the SQ7 team will lose is a few years of hard work. Somewhat painful, but nothing more than any fan made Sierra based game project would lose in the same position.

Even if it comes to that, I'm sure each of the developing team gained much in this endeavour. Might not be something they'll be able to put on their resume, but they probably learned new tools, learned how to work in a group, gained wisdom and so on.

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#14 Post by Klytos » Sat Sep 25, 2004 11:34 am

Making games based on other peoples intellectual copyrights is illegal. Decompiling a companies source codes is illegal. KQ1VGA, KQ2+, KQ3VGA, MMD, SCI Studio, AGI Studio, QFI, SQ7, SQ3VGA, all would fall prey to the nasty end of a lawsuit if the copyright holders decided to pursue the issue. End of story.

The good news at this stage is that they haven't. Wait and see if Larry Lovage is a huge hit and see how Sierra might start protecting their old copyrights again. Just a thought.

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#15 Post by Jaeden » Wed Aug 10, 2005 9:32 pm

Klytos wrote:Making games based on other peoples intellectual copyrights is illegal.
So is claiming trademark on something you don't own, which Vivendi is doing right now. On their SQ Classic Adventures forum, they claim to own the TM on Space Quest. In fact, it's owned by the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and have paid a licensing fee each time they wish to use it for a game.

Additionally of note is the fact that Sierra/VUGames was notified about SQ7. They've also left SQ:TLC and SQ0 out in the wild for years. According to the law, a copyright/TM can be challenged if it is proven that the company has failed to protect it. Companies like Xerox are fighting like hell not to lose their marks (because they have let 'xerox' become a household word), and the same applies here.

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#16 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:41 am

whoa, someone revived a year old thread. I'm sure the topic has been discussed enough. Are you from the SQ7 team?

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#17 Post by Gronagor » Thu Aug 11, 2005 7:17 am

Jaeden wrote:
Klytos wrote:Making games based on other peoples intellectual copyrights is illegal.
So is claiming trademark on something you don't own, which Vivendi is doing right now. On their SQ Classic Adventures forum, they claim to own the TM on Space Quest. In fact, it's owned by the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and have paid a licensing fee each time they wish to use it for a game.
Yeah. They don't own the title 'Space Quest', but if you make a game based on THEIR games, it has nothing to do with 'the Children's Museum of Indianapolis'. Hmmm... except you're probably stepping into a three way battle, but if you're right (and I guess you are since I've seen a lot of Space Quest related things that had nothing to do with Sierra's Space Quest) both can sue you as much as they want.

Sierra's rights probably isn't in the name alone, but rather in the idea of 'an adventure game of a clumsy janitor who saves the universe' connected with the title 'Space Quest'. THAT's their trademark.
Additionally of note is the fact that Sierra/VUGames was notified about SQ7. They've also left SQ:TLC and SQ0 out in the wild for years. According to the law, a copyright/TM can be challenged if it is proven that the company has failed to protect it. Companies like Xerox are fighting like hell not to lose their marks (because they have let 'xerox' become a household word), and the same applies here.
Yeah. That's easy for a company to protest against. Where do you think an amateur will get the money for this type of court-case? This type of case could be in court for years.

'Space Quest' is scary grounds to trespass on. If VU (or whoever owns Sierra right now) plans to continue an adventure series, it WILL be Space Quest.

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#18 Post by Angelus3K » Thu Aug 11, 2005 3:14 pm

This thread should really be left to rest in peace.

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