> Why would they want to require an agreement/or-money for licensing out when it is free advertising for some old ass IP that could get second life? It's becau

> Why would they want to require an agreement/or-money for licensing out when it is free advertising for some old ass IP that could get second life? It's because it is "old ass" and has low value - the corporation gets forever monopoly on the IP basically for free. To work out the licensing deal, some appratchik needs to talk to legal and several people need to be dragged into meetings and write reports and write marketing papers and contracts and all the other ceremonies that go with DoingThings(tm) at a corporation. And if noone gets promoted or mentioned in the next performance meeting, it ain't happening. It's not like there's any downside for them to keep the IP locked down and inaccessible forever.