Put the wish list for porting projects HERE...

[RobbieAB]

Yes, and maybe brushing up on your game dev skills...

Why do I suspect if I survive all the projects I'm going to be working on over the next year or so I'm going to be lucky...

Only in the case of a publicly traded company- it gets murky past that. It's a known that at least one IntraCorp published title devolved back to the studio- that means that they weren't likely to have been public. We're going to have to sort through things a bit here. Keep in mind, in a Chapter 7 filing, the officers of the company do NOT get to keep anything from the sale or the lack thereof. (Even for a personal 7 filing, there's a handful of protected items, but the rest goes POOF...)

Except if they were just publishing, the studio probably wrote the deal such that they got the rights back if the event of a belly-up.

It shouldn't matter whether the company was publically traded: if it is wound up all assets which remain after the creditors are paid off, if any, should devolve to the owners of the company. At least that is my understanding of the business law as it stands here in IE.

[Svartalf]

Except if they were just publishing, the studio probably wrote the deal such that they got the rights back if the event of a belly-up.

Depends on the studio and the deal. If it's publicly traded, there'd be a lot of people wanting the asset either sold or the rights to it handed over to them as payment for the loss. (See below for what I mean by this...)

It shouldn't matter whether the company was publically traded: if it is wound up all assets which remain after the creditors are paid off, if any, should devolve to the owners of the company. At least that is my understanding of the business law as it stands here in IE.

(Much to my dismay, I'm fairly familiar with the whole Bankruptcy process, due to my having to file a 13 filing not once, but twice, thanks to the circumstances of the downturn, my wife failing to stop spending money, etc. We've also had to consider a 7 filing with regards to at least one business venture I've been involved in... I'm going off of what I've experienced, so it may be off a bit from what the Law actually says- keep that in mind...)

Actually, if the company is publicly traded, the investors are secondary creditors and can file claims against the company proportionate to their effective investment and it carries forward until everyone's paid off or there's no more assets to be sold. If it's deemed an asset, you DON'T get to keep it in a Chapter 7. That's to keep people from running up a bunch of debts and then running off with assets intact, screwing creditors- the moment you file a 7 or an 11/13 gets converted to a 7, the assets no longer belong to you, they belong to the Court, to be disposed of accordingly by it's Trustee.

For a personal Chapter 7, you get to keep certain classes of items, such as wedding rings, family heirlooms (if you can PROVE it to be such), a car per person filing, etc.- everything else goes bye-bye and is attempted to be sold- period. If there are no buyers, you don't get it back normally; and it's pretty much the same with a business one.

Any contract with the publisher would have to have an explicit return of the rights upon a bankruptcy for it to work- and even then, I don't know if that counts as those would be assets for the publisher right up to the moment the 7 goes into effect- and legally speaking, you can't transfer assets just before or at the moment of filing like that. I'd think we'd have to contact a Lawyer on that one.

So, I don't know if we will honestly ever find out who has the rights- perhaps we ought to table those titles for now and do more digging without clogging the thread up for now.

[Svartalf]

Why do I suspect if I survive all the projects I'm going to be working on over the next year or so I'm going to be lucky...

Welcome to MY world...

[RobbieAB]

I'm going off of what I've experienced, so it may be off a bit from what the Law actually says- keep that in mind...

Interesting how badly screwed you get in the US. Keep in mind that my comment was based of Irish law, which is almost certainly different to US law...

So, I don't know if we will honestly ever find out who has the rights- perhaps we ought to table those titles for now and do more digging without clogging the thread up for now.

Probably for the best.

Welcome to MY world...

I know, but trying to keep three coding projects going at once will be fun. At least one promises a nice reward.

[xav1r]

Depends on the studio and the deal. If it's publicly traded, there'd be a lot of people wanting the asset either sold or the rights to it handed over to them as payment for the loss. (See below for what I mean by this...)



(Much to my dismay, I'm fairly familiar with the whole Bankruptcy process, due to my having to file a 13 filing not once, but twice, thanks to the circumstances of the downturn, my wife failing to stop spending money, etc. We've also had to consider a 7 filing with regards to at least one business venture I've been involved in... I'm going off of what I've experienced, so it may be off a bit from what the Law actually says- keep that in mind...)

Actually, if the company is publicly traded, the investors are secondary creditors and can file claims against the company proportionate to their effective investment and it carries forward until everyone's paid off or there's no more assets to be sold. If it's deemed an asset, you DON'T get to keep it in a Chapter 7. That's to keep people from running up a bunch of debts and then running off with assets intact, screwing creditors- the moment you file a 7 or an 11/13 gets converted to a 7, the assets no longer belong to you, they belong to the Court, to be disposed of accordingly by it's Trustee.

For a personal Chapter 7, you get to keep certain classes of items, such as wedding rings, family heirlooms (if you can PROVE it to be such), a car per person filing, etc.- everything else goes bye-bye and is attempted to be sold- period. If there are no buyers, you don't get it back normally; and it's pretty much the same with a business one.

Any contract with the publisher would have to have an explicit return of the rights upon a bankruptcy for it to work- and even then, I don't know if that counts as those would be assets for the publisher right up to the moment the 7 goes into effect- and legally speaking, you can't transfer assets just before or at the moment of filing like that. I'd think we'd have to contact a Lawyer on that one.

So, I don't know if we will honestly ever find out who has the rights- perhaps we ought to table those titles for now and do more digging without clogging the thread up for now.

Damn, thats sad to hear. Do you think then maybe a court holds the rights to those games then? that could be the case.

[RobbieAB]

Damn, thats sad to hear. Do you think then maybe a court holds the rights to those games then? that could be the case.

Hadn't thought of that. If that's the case, surely the rights will be cheap to acquire. After all, everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it, and the court (supposedly) has a duty to sell the assets...

[xav1r]

Hadn't thought of that. If that's the case, surely the rights will be cheap to acquire. After all, everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it, and the court (supposedly) has a duty to sell the assets...

If that's the case, which i hope it is, how do we find out which court is holding the rights? Intracorp was based in Florida, im not sure if it was in miami specifically however. Maybe a florida court owns them, but wouldnt they have sold it a long time ago by now? if they havent, I'm would be interested in buying the rights. Then of course i would release the source code under the gpl or bsd for everyone to use.

[JA_SAM]

What about War Rock and F.E.A.R Combat?They are both free games but no linux client

[Aradreth]

What about War Rock and F.E.A.R Combat?They are both free games but no linux client

Only the multiplayer part of F.E.A.R is free the single player part costs money. It's also a AAA title and published by Vivendi so it's pretty much a no go.

[Svartalf]

Interesting how badly screwed you get in the US. Keep in mind that my comment was based of Irish law, which is almost certainly different to US law...

Some things about UK law are better, some of them are worse. In the US, in a Bankruptcy, they view a Chapter 7. dissolution, as you asking the Court to officially absolve you of your debts. In the case of a company, that company ceases to be at the conclusion of the case. In order to cut the chicanery down, once you file it, the stuff doesn't belong to the company any more, it belongs to the Court. The problem is, that the Court typically doesn't retain rights to things. Everything is disposed of by the end of the case. I'm not precisely sure how that's handled or how the Capstone titles would have been handled.

I know, but trying to keep three coding projects going at once will be fun. At least one promises a nice reward.

Three? Only three?