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Author Topic: How to find legal status of a particular IP  (Read 1073 times)

AaronBrown99

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How to find legal status of a particular IP
« on: April 28, 2015, 05:19:18 PM »
Is there any way to easily find out who owns the rights (e.g., who I'd need permission from or licensing fees to, I suppose) to the Crimson Skies IP, originally created by FASA?

I am doing a home-brew conversion of the original game background (not the Wizkids later rules with nice plastic minis), but using the new miniatures on attack-wing style bases with maneuver dials, weapon options, etc.

Would I have to hire an attorney to find this kind of thing out?
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Justin Alexander
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How to find legal status of a particular IP
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2015, 06:18:24 PM »
It's literally the first sentence of the Crimson Skies Wikipedia article: Microsoft Game Studios owns the IP.
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Spinachcat

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How to find legal status of a particular IP
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2015, 09:14:10 PM »
What are you planning to do with your homebrew conversion?

If you are just posting for free online, don't sweat the legal issues. Fair Use protects you just fine as long as you acknowledge you don't own the rights and list the rights owners, trademarks, copyrights, etc on your webpage.

If you are trying to design a new game to sell...then you need to start with a big pile of money and game design credits if you expect to buy access to the IP.

If you want to make a Crimson Skies clone to sell with the serial numbers filed off...then you need a small pile of money to make prototypes of your own and then launch a successful Kickstarter.

Good luck!

AaronBrown99

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How to find legal status of a particular IP
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2015, 09:34:44 AM »
Quote from: Spinachcat;828732
What are you planning to do with your homebrew conversion?

If you want to make a Crimson Skies clone to sell with the serial numbers filed off...then you need a small pile of money to make prototypes of your own and then launch a successful Kickstarter.


That's closer to it, thank you!
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tuypo1

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How to find legal status of a particular IP
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2015, 01:17:52 AM »
come to think of it what ever happened to the buck rogers licence does lorraine williams still have it or did it end up with tsr itself.
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AaronBrown99

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How to find legal status of a particular IP
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2015, 11:53:05 AM »
that would be fun, too!
"Who cares if the classes are balanced? A Cosmo-Knight and a Vagabond walk into a Juicer Bar... Forget it Jake, it's Rifts."  - CRKrueger

Matt

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How to find legal status of a particular IP
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2015, 08:02:10 PM »
Quote from: tuypo1;828939
come to think of it what ever happened to the buck rogers licence does lorraine williams still have it or did it end up with tsr itself.



Given that her family owned the rights to Buck, I would imagine they still have them today unless they sold them.