1y ago

Discworld rerelease "may happen" but depends on "King Charles", developer says

www.eurogamer.net

23 comments

"Whenever something closes in the UK, intellectual property rights revert 50 percent to the original creator and 50 percent to the crown, which is King Charles. So that's the two owners of the games," he explained.
But why?? Surely "public domain" would be a better option...
- But imagine doing nothing and getting half of everything! Its good to be the king.
- "the crown" is just a government entity. Anyone seriously thinking that Charles benefits from this is an idiot plain and simple.
  Other countries have a similar system. Instead of having the IP rights up in the air where nobody knows who owns what. The ownership of the IP is clearly defined, half original creator half government. The crown's only option in regard to this IP is to sell or dispose of it.
  It's there to prevent mass legal cases about who owns what when a company closes.
  
  Why does anyone need to own it? Public domain is absolutely reasonable in this case, which means anyone can use the IP and nobody gets exclusivity.
  That would also prevent mass legal cases because it's clear that everyone has the same access to the IP.
- You should see what they do to land when someone dies without an heir.
  
  I'm guessing it's the same as here in the US, but instead of "the state" owning the property, "the Crown" does. It probably just gets auctioned after some grace period (i.e. time for a legal heir to come forth).
  But I'm pretty sure IP just goes to public domain here if there's no legal heir. But I couldn't find evidence for that, most sites just describe the process of finding an heir.
Holy shit, the monarchy is disgusting in the UK.
- It is pretty absurd.
  
  BuT tHe tOuRisM rEvEnuE
Whilst this is really just a cute story, if the guy really wanted to get it re released, there are plenty of avenues. Basically, he has to ask them to either sell or dispose of their claim to the ip. They aren't involved in licensing or anything like that. they either sell or dispose of claims.
They probably don't even know they have a claim. If they did they likely would have sold it long ago.
- You shouldn’t have to beg them to sell you back your game. Trying to defend this pathetic monarchy in anyway is a joke.
  
  calm down, no one's defending the monarchy.
  The Crown is an entity that's part of the UK parliament and thus state, a lot of legal proceedings based on hundreds of years are law just go in there because that's what happens.
  It's part of a law that has to deal with vacant goods, goods unclaimed. they have to go somewhere.
  This guy didn't own 100% of his stuff, he either gave it away or sold it a long time ago, the people who owned the other half dissolved their company without selling or giving the ip back. so it' goes to the same place that everything in this situation does, it's handled by the governmental legal entity that figures out what to do with them. and yes they do sometimes just say "they don't own it" if they don't care to sell it
  it's called Bona Vacantia if you want to go look it up instead of huffing and puffing over it
That title is not even Pratchett anymore, that's straight Adams.
I feel like the developer should actually get some legal advice. In the U.K., “the crown” does not refer to the monarchy, but some legal entity that might as well be the state.
One source: https://harperjames.co.uk/article/bona-vacantia-buying-ip-from-the-crown/
I loved this game.
- I loved that game and because of it, I bought all of the books. It has a lot of wild puzzles haha
  
  Yeah, I remember a few puzzles were so hard. I doubt I'd have the same patience these days.
  
  Such a fan that you've gone with the username, too? Good stuff.

23 comments