GAME RIGHTS?????

[Drone8888]

Hey, where can I find out who owns the rights to certain games? I want to purchase the rights to a game, but the company disbanded, long ago. Can someone help? Thanks.

[stargate]

what game?

[omnedon]

have you tried Googling the game?

[kevincure]

A pretty famous law professor, Lawrence Lessig, frequently discusses this problem of copyright: Often, no one knows who owns the copyright to what. Companies shut down, are disbanded, are merged, etc., and the ownership rights become hazy for all but the biggest titles. So, for some games, it's possible that no one knows who owns the copyright. For any game of significance, the owner is pretty easy to find on Google.

[hydr0x]

isn't there a organization/institution who is responsible for giving TM,© and so on to companies in the us? there must be some kind of archive, all companies do © research before making a product or deciding for a name so it should be possible to do so for u too, but it might cost a bit ;)

[Ed Oscuro]

isn't there a organization/institution who is responsible for giving TM,© and so on to companies in the us? there must be some kind of archive, all companies do © research before making a product or deciding for a name so it should be possible to do so for u too, but it might cost a bit ;)

That works, but only in theory. If the company folds, usually agreements are set up so the rights go back to the developer(s) but it's not that neat nearly often enough.

[hydr0x]

yes, but if this organization exists (i don't know if, as i am from germany) than i'd assume you are on the safe side if they give you an OK, right? i know, they also make faults (like back in the days with king kong hrhr) but not often

[slapdash]

There are separate offices for copyrights, and trademarks. You CAN pay to have them search as I understand it, but they're grossly understaffed, so it's not likely you'd come up with answers quickly.

Your best bet is to hunt down old magazines, figure out who was involved with the game, or at least the company, and start finding those people to track it down. But don't be surprised if no one knows where the rights went to, or if there's a legal tangle no one wants to undertake to figure it out (unless you've got money).

The cynical way would be to just "steal" the game -- whoever owns the copyrights will sue you if they know they own the rights. And if they don't, eh.

[bargora]

I work in copyright sometimes, and I don't know of any U.S. organization (governmental, non-governmental, or private) that attempts to keep track comprehensively of copyright ownership information. The U.S. Copyright Office will register a copyright or record an assignment of rights, but there is no requirement that a copyright owner file a copyright registration (except as a precursor to litigation) or an assignment of rights with the Copyright Office.

In other words, it's a jungle out there.

I believe that there is a web-based search tool at the Copyright Office that will allow you to search their records. Go to www.loc.gov to find the link to the Copyright Office. If you don't find a record for the game, however, that would just mean that there was no registration filed. And if you do find a record, the information is likely to be out of date, possibly just pointing to the defunct company.

I agree with what slapdash said, too.

Good luck.

[calthaer]

Furthermore, the real kicker is that the game itself CANNOT be copyrighted. The title, maybe the dialogue within the game, and definitely the instruction manual can all be copyrighted, but not the gameplay itself. The text DESCRIBING the gameplay can be, and perhaps the specific code that makes the game do what it does, but not the gameplay.

Nintendo ran into these problems in the '80s when they tried to keep Blockbuster & friends from renting Nintendo games. They couldn't copyright the games themselves, so they couldn't go after Blockbuster on that...but they did bring a lawsuit against Blockbuster for including the instruction manuals with the game when it was rented out.

It's also the reason people create all these clones of classic games for the PDA and call it "Munch Man" and stuff - nobody can do anything about it because the gameplay isn't copyrighted.

So it depends on what you're looking to acquire. If you want the title of a game, you might be able to acquire that using the aforementioned resources on this thread - but not the gameplay. If you just want to make a clone, go ahead and do it.

EDIT: The other thing is that copyrights exist from the moment that a work is first inscribed into any medium - not necessarily published. Point is that NOBODY can keep a comprehensive list of copyrights as they exist automatically upon inception of the work. The advantage to registering it with the feds is that in case of a suit and barring any other legal proof the one who applied with their office first wins the case.

[kevincure]

Yeah, there is no such thing as copyright registry in the US as of 1976. You automatically recieve a copyright on your work when its created, no registration necessary. I'm not quite sure how software copyrights work, though (on the code? or what)