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After reading Stardock’s lawsuit (https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.320268/gov.uscourts.cand.320268.51.0.pdf https://www.courtlistener.com/r

by anjbe 8y ago

After reading Stardock’s lawsuit (https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.320268/gov.uscourts.cand.320268.51.0.pdf https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.320268...) and Paul and Fred’s response (https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.320268/gov.uscourts.cand.320268.50.0.pdf https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.320268...) several months ago, I came to the opposite conclusion. Fred and Paul were initially sued for saying their new game, Ghosts of the Precursors, is a sequel to the game Star Control II from 1992. Which it is. And that it contains the characters from that game. Which it does. They own the copyright on both the game and the characters, and can legally release a sequel if they want; they’re only missing the name. Maybe it would have been wiser for them to call it a sequel to “our unnamed game from 1992.” But getting that wrong shouldn’t warrant a lawsuit, especially one with such misleading claims as Stardock filed. In light of the response Paul and Fred filed, as well as the posts they’ve made on their blog (https://www.dogarandkazon.com/ https://www.dogarandkazon.com/), I interpret the email chains from Stardock differently from “good faith every step of the way”: rather, as Wardell earnestly wishing to create a sequel with the original (copyrighted) characters and universe, being rebuffed, and petulantly claiming not only that his partial rights (trademark + SC3 partial copyright) allow him full control over the Star Control universe (including, e.g., to incorporate Paul and Fred’s characters in DLC for SC:O as he has done) but also ludicrously claiming that they never owned any rights at all, despite contracts to the contrary. I quote from Stardock’s complaint above: > This at least 30-year long misrepresentation and false narrative that Reiche and Ford peddled to Accolade, Atari and to fans of the Classic Star Control Games [that they are the “creators” of Star Control], has resulted in Reiche (who contracted with Accolade and was paid to develop the game despite never having rights to what he purported to license to Accolade) effectively holding hostage whatever copyrighted material that exists in Star Control II and preventing others (including the true authors) from benefiting from it. I tried to come up with a charitable reading of that quote, and simply couldn’t. To say nothing of this other quote from another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805155 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805155

mcv 8y ago
I accept that Wardell's description of events may have been misleading, though by "good faith" I meant Brad's initial attempts to work with Fred and Paul, including trying to hire them, offering to sell them the rights, and generally keeping them up to date. That's not something he had to do, but he did it nonetheless. None of that means anything legally of course, and Fred and Paul don't owe Brad anything for that. They made clear they still had their own plans for the franchise, though maybe not on what timescale they might work on it. Their announcement seems to have been a surprise to Stardock and it seems to me that's what set bad blood between them and Brad, and made Stardock feel forced to defend their own sizable investment. I've read up a bit more on the topic by now, and especially an Ars Technica article linked to in another comment seems to give a good impression of where things have gone wrong. Stardock seems to either honestly believe or fraudulently claim to have bought more from Atari than Paul and Fred claim Atari still owned at that point. I do think Brad Wardell is an honest fan, but he's also the CEO of a company that may have paid too much for too little, and invested too much into their game without owning all the rights they would have liked to. He did try to unite all the rights to the game in one place, whether it was his own hands or those of Fred and Paul, but was rebuffed in both cases. And while that may have been disappointing for him, Fred and Paul don't owe him anything in that regard. I was also not aware yet that Stardock eventually did include SC2 characters in their game after having originally promised not to, but I believe that only seriously happened in a DLC that I assume was only created after relations broke down and Stardock decided to go all in on this. At the end of the day, though, it seems Stardock assumed or pretended they owned more than they actually did, bet too much on it, hoping for Fred and Paul's endorsement which they never got. And now they've got a garbage fire that they need to turn into a success.
deleted 8y ago
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by anjbe 8y ago

mcv 8y ago

I accept that Wardell's description of events may have been misleading, though by "good faith" I meant Brad's initial attempts to work with Fred and Paul, including trying to hire them, offering to sell them the rights, and generally keeping them up to date. That's not something he had to do, but he did it nonetheless. None of that means anything legally of course, and Fred and Paul don't owe Brad anything for that. They made clear they still had their own plans for the franchise, though maybe not on what timescale they might work on it. Their announcement seems to have been a surprise to Stardock and it seems to me that's what set bad blood between them and Brad, and made Stardock feel forced to defend their own sizable investment. I've read up a bit more on the topic by now, and especially an Ars Technica article linked to in another comment seems to give a good impression of where things have gone wrong. Stardock seems to either honestly believe or fraudulently claim to have bought more from Atari than Paul and Fred claim Atari still owned at that point. I do think Brad Wardell is an honest fan, but he's also the CEO of a company that may have paid too much for too little, and invested too much into their game without owning all the rights they would have liked to. He did try to unite all the rights to the game in one place, whether it was his own hands or those of Fred and Paul, but was rebuffed in both cases. And while that may have been disappointing for him, Fred and Paul don't owe him anything in that regard. I was also not aware yet that Stardock eventually did include SC2 characters in their game after having originally promised not to, but I believe that only seriously happened in a DLC that I assume was only created after relations broke down and Stardock decided to go all in on this. At the end of the day, though, it seems Stardock assumed or pretended they owned more than they actually did, bet too much on it, hoping for Fred and Paul's endorsement which they never got. And now they've got a garbage fire that they need to turn into a success.

deleted 8y ago

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