Hi, I’m currently remaking a map from Mercedes-Benz World Racing (© 2003 Synetic) https://www.beamng.com/threads/mbwr-alps-remake-conversion.85833/#post-1444949 The game is practical abandonware, it's isn’t sold anywhere, and Synetic was Liquidated in 2014 (RIP) Now the question arose, whether I can upload the map to the repository when I’m done? I’m also not just simply ripping the map from the game and putting it in BeamNG. for example, I transferred the original ground model to a high map, and imported it in BeamNG, so I technically don’t use any original assets there. This should be fine right? What is probably more complicated are the other objects, buildings, bridges, tunnels etc. Can they be put on the map? And how is it when they altered, a lot of these models are pretty low poly, so I’m going the remake or modify a lot of them, textures will probably be completely replaced. Is it fine then?
Just to clear, abandonware isn't an actual legal term. This is quite a difficult question to answer properly, without an actual lawyer. But in short, rights to intellectual property never just disappears even when a company becomes bankrupt, or closed on their own. The rights will be transferred to another company/or sold to get as much money as possible if we talk of bankruptcy (to pay their debt) In this case, Synetic GmbH transfered all their patents and projects to Vitrios GmbH (I highly imagine rights to MB WR was included in this.) Synetic still exists in some way, just as Vitrios instead and their focus is the industrial sector. While I cannot 100 percent confirm where the rights are at, it's almost certain it's at Vitrios. If not, it has been sold to someone else. I very much doubt this map can make it to the repository, with or without objects. But also a quick note, the publisher is Take-Two who is known to be quite aggressive when it comes to cease and desist letters, and lawsuits. I say; stick to the forums, you may get an angry letter and you remove it again. But it's quite unlikely they will care, and a lawsuit would be veeery unlikely. Just worth mentioning
Thanks for the replay ^^ Yea I’m aware that ‘abandonware’ is a pretty vague term. I’ve seen for example, some GTA maps on the forums, also with uploaded files. So I guess, the rules for the forum a less strict than the repository? Btw Take Two to was not the publisher of this game but TDK.
You welcome! Yes they are on the forums, but not the repository You are correct that the forum rules are less strict when it becomes to copyright content. This is why real life brand mods are uploaded there, but never the repository. It's not like the copyright laws are different, but I think that the BeamNG company can be held liable if e.g. copyrighted things are on the repository. When uploaded to the forums, it is the author/users responsibility (as stated in their rules) I understand the confusion about the publisher, it's a little complicated.. The reason that I say it is Take Two is because TDK mediactive (later renamed to Take-Two licensing) became defunct in 2005, but then was folded into 2K. The holding company of 2K is Take-Two interactive.
