OTA Ownership

[sombriks]

some time ago, Atari got the rights over Total Annihilation. With this info, i've tried some time ago a minor attempt to convince Atari to open TA and in this way minor licensing issues could be solved...

http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/sh ... st10111689

but now seem's that atari does not own the rights over TA, so, who's the boss now? can we try to ask for open the sources of OTA for this new one? who's the new owner of Total Annihilation?

[Machiosabre]

I think the phrase is abandonware.

[Saktoth]

'I dont think atari knows they have the game' haha hilarious.

This is entirely whats wrong with copyright.

[AF]

Atari are interested in protecting their TA IP because people still have an interest. They very act of petitioning Atari to release the IP reinforces that view making it even harder to obtain and boosting its monetary value.

[KDR_11k]

The USPTO lists Atari as the owner of the Total Annihilation trademark. While it's possible that the trademark and copyright were sold separately it's unlikely since Atari would know if they had negotiated to buy/sell one but not the other.

Atari wouldn't need to really protect TA if it's not competing with their own products, keeps the interest stirred and might enable them to make a TA2 (at that point they'd C&D anyone distributing TA)

[Felix the Cat]

Atari are interested in protecting their TA IP because people still have an interest. They very act of petitioning Atari to release the IP reinforces that view making it even harder to obtain and boosting its monetary value.

The only official word we have re: Atari's view on TA IP is:

This is due to Atari, Inc. no longer owning the License for this franchise.

I guess they're not that interested.

[Zpock]

see spring community, they could love see they work being recognized by atari...

ehh, the last thing we want is to have atari or whatever guys in suits "getting interested"

[Saktoth]

So who the hells owns it? O_O

If its not a nameless faceless corporate enterprise, then it might be someone who actually WOULD release it to the public...

[AF]

It could be the korean company Atari drafted in to build TA2 before GPG announced Supreme Commander.

[MightySheep]

I have teh copyrights for you! Unban me and i will give you them!

[Saktoth]

It could be the korean company Atari drafted in to build TA2 before GPG announced Supreme Commander.

Oh wow did that happen?

That makes it even less likely then.

[sombriks]

see spring community, they could love see they work being recognized by atari...

ehh, the last thing we want is to have atari or whatever guys in suits "getting interested"

hey, sorry about it, :D

what i've tried to say was something like this: Spring today is much superior rts engine than OTA onde day could be. but, as an open source project i think that if someone in suits come and say "hey, you're playing with our Intellectual Propiety. Scam" could be much bad.

this kind of phantom is unnecessary from my point of view. The aimed attention is just "hey guys, take it. do a good work, and if you accept i'm sending you patches and creating something around spring."

indeed, they could try use spring engine in something commercial, but since it's GPL they must release the work i the source too.

could happen, it's a possibility. Hope,

[Pxtl]

It could be the korean company Atari drafted in to build TA2 before GPG announced Supreme Commander.

Oh wow did that happen?

That makes it even less likely then.

Yes, a Korean company was going to make TA2 for Atari. Apparently it was going to be available on the Dreamcast, too. I'm not making this up.

[SLizer]

you sound delirium how matter how factual you are.
gg, lost in trasn... copyright

[SwiftSpear]

If a korean company owns the right to the TA licence... are we at any risk of them fucking with us? I image their legal departments would likely be smaller than Atari's anyways... Not that we'd acctually claim we have any right to the license, but they'd be less likely to demand obscene things and more likely to STFU if their demands are met.

[Saktoth]

It doesnt really change our circumstances. We havent got a C&D and now it seems we are less likely to, but what we are doing is still by distributing OTA content is still in this legal fuzzy zone. You wont see OTA mods for spring being offered on the cover of PC gaming magazines, for example, and i think a lot of the more mainsteam mod, freeware, free games, open source etc community might shun what we are doing by including OTA content.

Though that doesnt mean we should TRY and break into those communities because AFAIC Spring has some of the worst PR of any free game ive seen. I used to search the internet for free games often and never heard of spring- a friend had to tell me about it.

[KDR_11k]

If a korean company owns the right to the TA licence... are we at any risk of them fucking with us? I image their legal departments would likely be smaller than Atari's anyways... Not that we'd acctually claim we have any right to the license, but they'd be less likely to demand obscene things and more likely to STFU if their demands are met.

If a company was contracted by another to do a game the contractor doesn't get the IP, it remains with the publisher.

[Saktoth]

If a company was contracted by another to do a game the contractor doesn't get the IP, it remains with the publisher.

You'd think so, publishers are ravenous with gobbling up (and forgetting about) IP's.

Still, either that means they fobbed the IP off (Who knows, maybe to GPG?) or the person who said Atari doesnt own the IP is just a misinformed low-level pleb who likes to give official sounding answers just to shut people up..

[zwzsg]

It would be great if Atari sent Spring a cease & desist order about the Totala Annihilation Intellectual Property (lol at the term), because it would mean the termination of all talks and mentionning of TA based mods, and so a forced to switch to Expand & Exterminate, PURE, Gundam, or any other of those great games I can never find an open battle for.

[LordMatt]

It would be great if Atari sent Spring a cease & desist order about the Totala Annihilation Intellectual Property (lol at the term), because it would mean the termination of all talks and mentionning of TA based mods, and so a forced to switch to Expand & Exterminate, PURE, Gundam, or any other of those great games I can never find an open battle for.

Not really. The spring dev team does not distribute OTA content any more. And while some sites might have to stop hosting it, there would be others beyond the reach of the C&D to keep hosting TA mods and content. If somehow TA mods were prevented from being played, there would suddenly be a whole lot less players playing spring.