Weird. not helpful in preventing spam.....
Anyway, an interesting post from the UQM-forum, I'm crosslinking due to the content from the manuals.
This may help in further discussions.Narsham on UQM-forum wrote:For what it is worth, I pulled out my old SC manuals from the original releases of the games and on the back cover is all the legalese. I quote:
(Star Control): The software and the user manual are copyrighted 1990 by Accolade, Inc.
Star Control II is a trademark of Accolade, Inc. Game (C)1992 Paul Reiche III & Fred Ford. All other materials are copyrighted 1992 by Accolade, Inc.
Star Control 3 and ACCOLADE are trademarks of Accolade, Inc. (C) 1996 Accolade Inc. All rights reserved. Star Control 3 is based upon characters created and used under license from Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford.
It is still unclear regarding SCII: Game (C) by FF and PR. But what constitutes part of the game copyright?
Only the characters? Only the code? The music (which if I remember correctly, was "bought" from some freelancers on the usenet/BBS/... systems of that time)? The story?
This formulation is very short, and in this case ambiguous. But it looks like they meant "the game, everything in the software is (c) PR and FF; all other stuff, like manual, box, cover art,... is (c) Accolade".
I received a "players handbook/hintbook" (ressource guide [1]) with one of the packages, which explicitly states that this handbook was written by FF and PR3. And then the name Atari appears.
It appears to me, that Atari only had transferred the copyrights on physical stuff to them, but left all other stuff, the intagible stuff like code, story, characters, software, to the developers.
Printed books? Manual? Box? Art on disc, CD, box, cover, manual, ressource guide? All copyrights transferred to Atari (and now Stardock).
[EDIT]
Anyway: googled a bit and found this on the net too:
(bolding highlights by me)[url]http://www.freegameempire.com/games/Star-Control-2/manual[/url]; passage [i]Legal Mumbo Jumbo[/i] wrote:LICENSE AGREEMENT
This computer software product (the Software) and user manual are
provided to the Customer under license from Accolade, Inc. and are
subject to the following terms and conditions, to which the Customer
agrees by opening the package of the Software, or using the Software:
Granting of this license does not transfer any right, title or
interest in the Software, or user manual to the Customer except as
expressly set forth in this License Agreement. The Software and user
manual may not be duplicated or copied for any reason. The Customer
may not transfer or resell the Software or user manual.
Star Control II is a trademark of Accolace, Inc. Portions (c)1992
PaulReiche III & Fred Ford. Game (c)1992 by Accolade, Inc. All
rights are reserved. Neither the Software nor the user manual may
be duplicated or copied for any reason. The customer may not
transfer or resell the Software or user manual.
[...]
All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties
of their respective owners.
[edit 3]downloadable PDF of PC version manual (without front of back pages): http://replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.1119
Again, only portions are copyrights by FF and PRIII. (see page 102 of the PDF)[/edit 3]
Forget that in Europe you can always sell again, and that you cannot agree to a license agreement by opening a package if the license agreement is only provided inside the package.
Also you have to duplicate the software to use it (onto harddrive for installation; into memory for execution).
But the text here says PORTIONS only are copyrighted by FF and PR... The game is copyrighted by Accolade.
(very unlucky line breaks...)
This is different from the passage quote on the UQM forum....
This sounds much like Accolade as publisher has all rights to make as many copies as necessary for the distribution of the game. And no-one else.
This would support Stardock's view.
[EDIT2]
Let us make this worse:
With the 3DO clearly, Accolade only has the brandname StarControl, the copyright is stated to be with FF and PRIII.[url]http://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Panasonic_3DO//Manual/formated/Star_Control_2_-_1994_-_Accolade.pdf[/url] 3DO manual, back side wrote: Crystal Dynamics, GEX and Off-World Interceptor are trademarks of Crystal Dynamics. Star Control II is a trademark of Accolade, Inc. (c) 1994 Fred Ford and Paul
Raiche III, 3DO, the 3DO logo and the Interactive Multiplayer are trademarks of The 3DO Company. This game is licensed for home play on the 3DO Interactive
Multiplayer system. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, [???], public performance, or broadcast of this game is a
violation of applicable laws. (c) 1994 Crystal Dynamics Inc., [?]7 Encina Ave., Palo Alto, CA94[?]01. All Rights Reserved. Developed and manufactured in the U.S.
This would support FF and PR's view.
With the different versions 3DO (1994) and PC (1992), I do not know what to make of it. Seems like either Accolade made an error when making the PC manuals, and corrected it for the 3DO version; OR the copyright to the content changed in the meantime.
And 1994 is a long while past. It may be very difficult to refind the documentation to prove either way.
I need to shut up, this is interesting to me personally, but there is no clear documentation publicly available allowing me to draw a sound conclusion.