Comment by mindslight
1 day ago
It feels like the right thing to do is to preemptively sue all three for a declaratory judgement, similar to obtaining a "quiet title" for a piece of real estate. Then they can put up or shut up. The right thing to do if you're trying to remaster the game, that is. The right thing to do if you just want to play it is to pirate.
I'm sorry, you want to get into an IP lawsuit with the Walt Disney Company, by choice? You think that starting a fight with the most fearsome collection of IP lawyers on the planet is the right thing to do?
(Fox, one of the possible rights holders, was acquired by Disney in 2019.)
How much should the preemptive-plaintiff be willing to spend to get the declaratory judgement? And why would one expect to win? It is very clear that some combination of the three companies have the rights, and all they have to do is agree collectively to win. Each firm individually probably spends more on lawyers every month than normal people do in their lifetime. They have lawyers on staff, so their marginal cost of being hasslesome to you in court is near zero.
It's all risk-adjusted cost/benefit, and there is almost no practical benefit to taking the risk. Yes, it would be nice to clear up the legal ownership rights and to have a non-pirated version available. But as an economic matter, there is almost no value.
Yes, I get that the legal system can be horrible and adds some pretty ridiculous overhead and costs. I was just pointing out there is a path to actually clear this thing up - a process to give the possible-rightsholders notice that they have to actually respond with concrete evidence or drop the matter, rather than lazily sending "we might care" nastygrams. And doing that that would certainly be much less than being on the receiving end of a lawsuit with damages after paying for development.