Can '70s and '80s developers obtain the rights to their games?

[8BitMonk]

Interesting Gamasutra article on classic video game copyrights.

Hitting the Reset Button on Video Game Copyrights
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DanRogers/20130813/198132/Hitting_the_Reset_Button_on_Video_Game_Copyrights.php

[Fursphere]

I bet a ton of these "iconic" games where made while employees of a bigger company - therefore the rule doesn't apply.

Like at the bottom of the list - Mario Brothers - doesn't the creator STILL work for Nintendo? (I think he's the CEO now?).

[paigeoliver]

I am sure some of them will be able to, however I severely doubt if anyone is going to regain the rights to anything that has any value. In fact, it could actually be a bad thing for emulation, as some author might regain the rights to some relatively obscure title and then go on a one man mission trying to shut down mame because it emulates it.

[ark_ader]

No.  Maybe in 2110.

That would be awesome and horrible in one swift action.

What would it be like, to gain the rights to a video game you coded, which some fun loving bunch of programmers have sought to enable your "game" to the masses without your permission?

It would be like taking a paper bag out of a river with the hopes of reusing it again. Or reclaiming a winning set of lottery numbers, that just expired.

It would be funny if the video game designer took control of their copyrighted code, only for the corporate owners of the hardware to restrict access, and then having to resort to championing the efforts of the fun loving bunch of coders, instead of taking them to court.  It would be one big hilarious mess.

Which would never happen as corporate copyright ownership was extended to 75 years, thanks to Disney.  If they could find these coders or haven't died of old age by now. 

Is Pacman's corporate owner Disney, Hasbro, or Namco?

[8BitMonk]

I'm not convinced either that there will be any ramifications either commercially or to the emulation community but thought it was an interesting read. It did make me consider how game developers are paid today and whether they are incentivized with rights to intellectual property or future income based on sales from what they help create.

[paigeoliver]

I'm not convinced either that there will be any ramifications either commercially or to the emulation community but thought it was an interesting read. It did make me consider how game developers are paid today and whether they are incentivized with rights to intellectual property or future income based on sales from what they help create.

I would say that 99.9 percent of software has little to no value 35 years down the road.

[ark_ader]

I'm not convinced either that there will be any ramifications either commercially or to the emulation community but thought it was an interesting read. It did make me consider how game developers are paid today and whether they are incentivized with rights to intellectual property or future income based on sales from what they help create.

I would say that 99.9 percent of software has little to no value 35 years down the road.

Well we cannot say that especially with Pacman CE coming out on Steam with everyone (including myself) pre purchasing it.  Granted some IP like  congo bongo might not end up on steam green light, but there are exceptions.  Especially how some crap gets released these days, some get re imagined (I say that then think of spyhunter) like space invaders and frogger on xbox live.  But like the article says, ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- games  like those found on the TRS80 could be sitting on a real gold mine in royalties for their aging authors.

[paigeoliver]

Pac-Man CE is NOT the 1979 software, it is a work based upon the Pac-Man IP which completely different than what this is talking about. This specifically does not cover derivative works. It only covers the original software, which in the case of Pac-Man ran on a specific Z80 based platform that isn't available today.

All this is covering is the actual original software. Lets say Pac-Man qualified (it doesn't since the team were Namco employees) but lets pretend it qualified anyway, and today Iwatani, Funaki and Kai took possession of the original code. They then would own the original code, they wouldn't own the code to any of the console releases, nor to any of the "arcade classics" versions (not even those that used emulation since Namco created a derivative work each time by adding options and other minor code changes). They wouldn't own the code to the modern arcade rereleases, much less any truly derivative works such as Pacman CE. Namco could still continue to sell what is basically the original Pac-Man based on any one of a dozen of their close derivative works.

Meanwhile it would be questionable if Iwatani and company could even do any new Pac-Man games  or even do much with the original software other than sell it for Z80 based systems, since Namco still has a super established ip claim to the Pac-Man characters quite separate from their ownership of the software.

[ark_ader]

Pac-Man CE is NOT the 1979 software, it is a work based upon the Pac-Man IP which completely different than what this is talking about. This specifically does not cover derivative works. It only covers the original software, which in the case of Pac-Man ran on a specific Z80 based platform that isn't available today.

All this is covering is the actual original software. Lets say Pac-Man qualified (it doesn't since the team were Namco employees) but lets pretend it qualified anyway, and today Iwatani, Funaki and Kai took possession of the original code. They then would own the original code, they wouldn't own the code to any of the console releases, nor to any of the "arcade classics" versions (not even those that used emulation since Namco created a derivative work each time by adding options and other minor code changes). They wouldn't own the code to the modern arcade rereleases, much less any truly derivative works such as Pacman CE. Namco could still continue to sell what is basically the original Pac-Man based on any one of a dozen of their close derivative works.

Meanwhile it would be questionable if Iwatani and company could even do any new Pac-Man games  or even do much with the original software other than sell it for Z80 based systems, since Namco still has a super established ip claim to the Pac-Man characters quite separate from their ownership of the software.

Its laughable anyway as most employment contracts stipulate that any code written regardless if it was coded at home or at work belongs to the company.  We are talking about the external contractor coders that were not under any similar contract terms.  No, Z80 code can be ported and sprite routines and graphics are part and parcel.  We have seen plenty of that in the old 8 bit home computer releases.  That is where my fun loving bunch of programmers comment originates.  Lots of obscure arcade games were coded by contractors, especially in the 90s.