I should have said that they don’t expire in the way that copyright does. There is also a difference between registered trademarks ® and unregistered trademarks ™ (i.e. if you have a company or product name that isn’t registered, but you can show that you’ve used it for a long time, it cannot be used or registered by another entity; must be actively defended). Laws might be different dependent on territory, of course (mostly basing on EU stuff that I’m familiar with – and assuming US rules are similar).
Copyright is automatic but it can also be registered in the US which gains you further protection and rights. For example, you cannot file for infringement without registering the work. It seems like Stardock’s contention is they (F&P) cant register the copyright and then backdate those additional protections and rights.
Don’t you mean file for damages?
From the US Copyright Office…
If you believe that your copyright has been infringed and you anticipate a legal dispute, if you have not yet done so, it is advisable that a registration be made as soon as possible in order to secure the opportunity for valuable remedies and litigation advantages available for timely registration under the Copyright Act. If a work is registered prior to infringement or within three months of publication, statutory damages will be available as an option for monetary relief, and the recovery for attorney’s fees may be available. In addition, a registration made before or within five years of publication of the work provides a presumption of the validity of the copyright and the facts stated within the registration certificate. A certificate of registration (or a rejection of an application for copyright) is a prerequisite for U.S. authors seeking to initiate a suit for copyright infringement in federal district court. See Circular 1 Copyright Basics, and sections 410, 411, and 412 of the copyright law.
Which makes me wonder what the point of a non-registered copyright is, honestly. I guess maybe you can send takedown notices?
Is the contention that they didn’t?
No. But that registration was filed in December 2017. Hence the discussion about “backdating”.
Ah, missed that. Just saw the 1992 in the original search result
I don’t see where they’d have a basis for an infringement claim even if they had filed previously. Stardock would have had to have lifted assets wholesale from the original games. There were some images used on the website, was there anything else?
The biggie would be selling SC1/SC2 on Steam and GOG.
But they were getting a royalty from that. Not a lawyer, but it seems awfully strange to accept royalties for a period of time, then later claim the person paying you those royalties had no right to sell the thing you were getting paid the royalties for.
While I can certainly see using that as a leverage point, this case has nothing to do with that, really. At least, that’s how it seems to me. Admittedly, selling all the games in a bundle seems a bit more sticky.
Not really.
The sales on GOG were happening as a result of a negotiation between Atari and Reiche/Ford in 2011 (after Atari put the games for sale there, and R/F objected). They agreed on a equal split of the net proceeds with surprisingly little negotiation. It’s also worth noting that this was not Atari paying royalties on the GOG sales, it was GOG paying both Atari and R/F their respective slices directly. The email thread on that is fascinating.
On the other hand, the games were only put up on Steam last October. This was done by Stardock unilaterally. The implication is that they are paying royalties as per the 1988 agreement (a 15/85 split of the net proceeds), and that in December they convinced GOG to change the revenue split as well.
Reiche/Ford asked Valve to take down the games from Steam, but Stardock made a counterclaim that seems to have been convincing enough for Valve to keep them up for sale.
Ah ok, thanks. For some reason, I thought Stardock had them on Steam longer than that.
They were also released at the same time as the Origins pre-order and marketed in a bundle.
If you love Star Control (or you’re just getting into it and want to experience the whole story), you’ll want to get our bundled pre-order. You’ll have access to the games as they were originally released and can play them while you wait for Star Control: Origins to release!
I would suspect the “convincing enough” part was they told Valve they were taking P&F to court.
In news related to this, it looks like Stardock’s Q&A page has been updated with a note that they’re pulling the classic games off Steam/GOG.
This would be the first sign of de-escalation we’ve seen, so that’s good. (Also, unless my memory is playing tricks on me, they’ve added a bunch of additional emails to their timeline of the events).
Yeah, they definitely did. I’ve got some timeline updating to do.
I agree the GOG/Steam move seems generally positive.
That, and it suggests that Stardock’s case might not be as strong as they initially believed? If I recall correctly, F&P wanted the games pulled from stores on account of the open-source Ur-Quan Masters.
Maybe, but the store sales were really just an inciting incident for everything that’s going on now with the rights disputes. I think there’s a lot of evidence that Stardock has simply gone in with a very “hardball” approach and that something like this move is not a concession as much as just laying a particular bargaining chip down on the table, after holding it back to start.
P&F were fine selling them on GOG, and might have been fine with selling them on Steam if they were part of negotiating the distribution agreement.
I also noticed that Brad said on UQM that the Lawyers were basically telling him to shut up online.
I’m going to bow out of this discussion for the time being. Apparently Paul and Fred’s lawyer is complaining about it. I’m not looking to antagonize opposing counsel but I do want him to understand the harm their false allegations have done to Stardock and myself in particular and that false allegations that they chose to make public will not go unanswered. I’d rather all of this had been handled professionally and privately in the first place.
Somehow this…
I’d rather all of this had been handled professionally and privately in the first place.
…doesn’t seem likely to me.