That's one hell of a twist I don't think they saw coming.https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...suit-aims-to-invalidate-stardocks-trademarks/
Oh god, I hope Reiche/Ford get the whole fucking thing.
That's one hell of a twist I don't think they saw coming.https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...suit-aims-to-invalidate-stardocks-trademarks/
Oh god, I hope Reiche/Ford get the whole fucking thing.
I'm Greg Johnson. I was there through the entire development of StarControl 1 and 2. I don't want to comment on ownership or trademarks. I've been a game developer for 34 years and questions of ownership and legalities of rights are not always clear, or for that matter fair. Disputes like this are really best settled in friendly ways where everyone can win, since legal battles just suck money and time and create stress and bad feelings. Life is too short for that. What I can and will say is that Paul and Fred created both of those games. It was really the two of them, and others like me and Erol and whomever just contracted and did bits and pieces under Paul's direction. This Universe, Story, Characters and Gameplay all come from the amazing mind of Paul. It's pointless for people on a board to guess what's really going on behind the scenes or to judge who is right or wrong. I wish Paul and Fred and Brad and Stardock a friendly and mutually beneficial, mutually respectful resolution to this. And I'm sorry it's been so stressful for all of you. It's easy to get dug in. Good luck in finding a solution. And to all the fans - best to just hang in there and wait. And don't judge people harshly when you don't really know what's up. Lets all cross our fingers that they will find answers.
This is Greg Johnson, thanks for the nice article! I did indeed help out on Star Control II (And the original Star Control One Melee), and was the designer of StarFlight. It's great to see Star Control II getting appreciated. It was quite an achievement for it's day. One comment I'd like to make is that this is a fine article but it leaves out a couple important things, first is that the genius of the engineering of this game was all Fred Ford, a one-man engineering marvel. We used to joke about how Fred was really an android - he is so amazing. Fred can code and carry on a conversation with you at the same time - no joke - and he never misses a step. Likewise it doesn't give enough clear credit to the creative genius of this entire Universe and all of it's amazing character, content and game play, which comes straight from the fascinating and sometimes rather bizarre mind of Paul Reiche III. Paul and I shared a tiny office in those early days, and then, once Fred joined Paul we were across the hall from each other... and we took long walks everyday in the Novato hills as I listened to Paul coming up with the characters and story of Star Control. It's Paul's delightful humor and crazy story telling that make this game what it is. His warm and playful personality shines through all of it. Paul also mentored me and guided me as I built Starflight, and as I entered the game industry 35 years ago, and then I helped out a bit on his game mostly doing art and a little of the dialogue writing with his direction. Those were really the garage shop days of game making. Oh and I also roomed with Iain McCaig in those days - an amazing talent too, and a great guy. This article says Iain did writing for the game but I don't believe he did - just some concept art. Anyway hats off to both Paul and Fred. Thanks for giving us an amazing and memorable game!
There is no way this argument can win. The legal president this would set would invalidate any project holdings that are non single party works (ie unless a single person worked on it's not really theirs). You would never ever be able to contract or outsource anything again which obviously isn't viable.It does seem to be focussing on the idea that because the two designers didn't actually produce the directly-protected aspects of the game, they don't have rights to it; instead, they produced the gameplay, which isn't protected.
Everyone I think pretty much knew most of that, but having it in writing from someone who was there and doesn't have any skin in the game just makes Wardell look like a sociopath. Good to know though which of them was skilled in which part of the creative process, I honestly had no idea!So Greg Johnson is the creator of Toejam and Earl and Starflight (big influence on Star Control) and helped with SC1/2. Amusingly, he posted on Stardock's forum saying politely "um, I was there, I did work for them and yes, they did in fact create it."
Great that this ownership dispute will make it clear that Paul and Fred own Star Control and Brad Wardell owns himself.Update: Stardock files complaint that Reiche and Ford didn't actually create Star Control
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...suit-aims-to-invalidate-stardocks-trademarks/
And I would have figured being a transphobe again on twitter would be the most dickish thing Wardell would do all week.
Great that this ownership dispute will make it clear that Paul and Fred own Star Control and Brad Wardell owns himself.
Great that this ownership dispute will make it clear that Paul and Fred own Star Control and Brad Wardell owns himself.
It sounds like it. Seems that the rights reverted to Reiche in 2001 or something?Does this mean that Atari had no right to sell it in the first place?
It's weird to basically side with Activision on this. :pIt sounds like it. Seems that the rights reverted to Reiche in 2001 or something?
Either way, I don't think anyone is on Stardock's/Wardell's side.
Wary. I assume. My pet peeve spelling error right there.Also, I was always weary of Star Control: Origins. The terms "Star Control" and "procedurally generated"should not go together.
Yeah, that's what I meant. English is not my first language, but thanks for correcting me - The only way to learn.
Note: I'm not a lawyer.
Stardock owns the trademark to Star Control. That means they own everything associated with Star Control other than what is explicitly exempted.
Things should get back to talking about the game soon. Lawsuit stuff moves glacially and none of it effects the development of Star Control: Origins.
Perhaps a separate thread should be created. Put the legal junk in a Ghosts of the Precursor thread since Star Control: Origins isn't even part of lawsuit.
Sorry to pile on, but Star Control 2 used procedural generation to create star systems. It's kind of in the DNA of the game. What does Stardock Control use it for? Haven't really kept up with development on account of it being Stardock.Yeah, that's what I meant. English is not my first language, but thanks for correcting me - The only way to learn.
If it did, it was just for the resource mining planets and such. I could find my way around very easily on any playthrough because everything was largely in the same part of the galaxy with largely the same stuff (unless there were subtle changed I never noticed.)Sorry to pile on, but Star Control 2 used procedural generation to create star systems. It's kind of in the DNA of the game. What does Stardock Control use it for? Haven't really kept up with development on account of it being Stardock.
Depending on the size of the universe, 10 percent could be a lot of hand-crafted stuff - But the emphasis on it just doesn't feel like it carries the DNA of the series for me."We rely on the procedural generation to do 90 percent of the universe creation, and then the last 10 percent is we have tools to craft and design our own planets"
Pretty interesting read. Cool to see the behind the scenes stuff of how the games ended up on GOG.Email chain from Reiche and Ford with GOG and Atari which I'm guessing they put up to show proof of ownership.
https://www.dogarandkazon.com/blog/2018/2/27/report-from-planet-surface
That is a really interesting read! Also kind of weird to see them mention Skylanders back then as an off-the-cuff remark, before it became a multi-million dollar thing.Pretty interesting read. Cool to see the behind the scenes stuff of how the games ended up on GOG.
wow that actually seemed like it went pretty smoothlyEmail chain from Reiche and Ford with GOG and Atari which I'm guessing they put up to show proof of ownership.
https://www.dogarandkazon.com/blog/2018/2/27/report-from-planet-surface
Good question.
So, the concern is the future of the UQM. Our long-term goal is for the UQM community to be set up as an independent, open-source destination for creating stories without interference. If that's for Star Control, great. If it's for Ghosts of the Precursors, that's fine too. What we don't want is a scenario where Star Control is legally blocked by an external trademark source enforcing their rights.
I am here. If Stardock does something bad, there's someone you can yell at.
My opinion is that open-source modding is the future. I don't mean tomorrow or next year. But in a few years, modding as we know it today will be a much bigger deal. And open-source is the future of that.
We want a destination to release the Star Control III source code (for example). We want to make source code for parts of Star Control: Origins.
Anyone familiar with the Star Control community, and its modding/remastering attempts knows that the info above from Brad Wardell is a load of crap.Paul Reiche shuts down all attempted mods for Ur-Quan Masters with his legal authority of his copyright claim. Brad needs to liberate it from the clutches of a tyrant!
Oh wait, no he didn't
http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/List_of_The_Ur-Quan_Masters_Mods
That's only if you'd not heard of Wardell's pro-GG stance or his "gamer's manifesto" (that Stardock doesn't actually abide). At the start of this I believe Stardock/Wardell had very little (if any) goodwill at all.I don't think I've ever seen someone burn through so much goodwill so fast with the people who were most likely to buy a game.
So in other news, Stardock has been trying to grab the trademark to Ur-quan Masters and F&P filed for it presumably in response. Oddly, Stardock's legal team didn't sign their application.
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=8...TION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=8...TION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch
Wardell has posted an explanation of why they're doing this on the forums - they just want to protect the community and help them with other open-source projects. It seems like pretty nonsensical PR:
Wardell really knows how to do the PR tapdance, but after a while it becomes pretty obvious what he's doing.Wardell's posts on QT3 are hilariously disingenuous. Selective replies and acting like he has no control over what the legal team of his company says and does. If you didn't know who he was you'd assume he was just a low-level Stardock employee going by his responses.
I hope not, because I couldn't see Reiche and Ford wanting to put up the legal fees for a court battle. I could see Wardell being that pigheaded though.
But earlier this month we received an unfathomable settlement offer from Stardock. Paraphrasing from legalese, it requires…
And if their intent wasn't clear enough, Stardock has now also filed for the trademarks:"The Ur-Quan Masters", "Melnorme", "VUX", Pkunk", "Ilwrath", "Chenjesu", "Androsynth", "Spathi", "SUPER-MELEE", "Syreen", "Ur-Quan", "Orz" and "Yehat"./QUOTE]
- Fred and Paul must surrender all their IP rights to the classic Star Control games to Stardock.
- Fred and Paul never again use the words "STAR CONTROL" or "GHOSTS OF THE PRECURSORS" or "THE UR-QUAN MASTERS".
- For the next 5 years, Fred and Paul do not work on any game similar to the classic Star Control games.
- Fred and Paul issue a public apology to Stardock.
- Fred and Paul never again challenge Stardock's rights to STAR CONTROL trademark or STAR CONTROL 3 copyright.
- Fred and Paul pay Stardock $225,000.
- Fred and Paul never again call themselves the "creators" of the classic Star Control games.
https://www.dogarandkazon.com/blog/2018/3/18/strange-settlement-on-an-alien-planet
New update from Paul and Fred detailing the recent 'settlement' offered by Stardock and the aggressive grab for the rights to aliens and stuff. It's predictably gross.
They need to set up a go fund me page for the legal costs -- I'd donate just to annoy Wardell.