Posted: 3/7/2021 4:28 PM
Post subject: 1970s-80s video games in the public domain?
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SnowySideofTown
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Editor, Player (123)
Joined: 8/3/2014
Posts: 204
Location: USA
I have been doing some work for other online communities in terms of archiving pieces of media (such as books, images, movies, etc.) that have fallen into the public domain (meaning that they are now free of any copyright restrictions) due to expiration, failure to renew, etc. Because of the (relative) newness of the video game medium, I assumed for a long time that it would have been impossible that any video game would have fallen into the public domain in the United States accidentally. By "accidentally" I mean, "due to failure to comply with required formalities". But then I recently learned about this from [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Hirtle_chart the Hirtle chart] that I may have skimmed over before, which reads: "[Works first published in the US, that were published from] 1978 through 28 February 1989 [that were] published without a copyright notice, but without subsequent registration at the copyright office within 5 years [are] in the public domain due to failure to comply with required formalities." In other words, it is quite possible that, if I could find some obscure games without copyright notices that were released before February 28, 1989, and do some research to confirm that they were not registered with the copyright office either, that we might be able to consider them among the rare examples of public domain video games. So, since I'm admittedly no expert on games from the 70s or the 80s, I wanted to appeal to you guys to find some possible candidate games for me. To reiterate, the requirements I ask for are: * The game must have been first published in the US before the exact date of February 28, 1989. If it was first published elsewhere, such as Japan, it doesn't count. * The game must lack a copyright notice within the game itself (at least), or on the cartridge art/box art/etc. if it was ever sold with those at all. * Please also verify that if there are other versions of the game, for example if there was one version released for Atari and another for Commodore, that there is not another version of the game that includes a copyright notice. This would in effect make the public-domain status of the one version of the game without a notice moot. If you know of or can find any games that meet these requirements, please let me know here and I can do the rest of the research (if you hadn't already done that yourself). Thanks!
Posted: 3/12/2021 12:02 PM
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Warp
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Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Note that even if a game appears to be in the PD by the criteria above, it's still a gamble whether you can actually safely use it however you want or not. That's because some companies (sometimes even quite famous and big-name companies) are extraordinarily unscrupulous in claiming rights they don't actually legally have, and fighting for these alleged rights (which they can afford to do, because they are often really rich). There exist numerous examples (not necessarily video games but other types of work) where individuals or corporations have claimed rights they don't actually have, sometimes copyrights, sometimes other types of right, and have been extraordinarily zealous in fighting for these rights, essentially becoming copyright bullies. They may be legally in the wrong, but they get away with their appropriation of false rights because they are so rich and big, and effective at intimidating individuals with legal action. (And, frankly, even if you were completely in the right and the company completely in the wrong, would you have the money, time and fortitude to go into a legal battle against such a company? Life just isn't fair sometimes.) (The only video game example that I can think of is The Tetris Company, which has claimed copyright on the very concept of Tetris. Not just the name, not just the individual games in the series, but the concept of the game itself, the game mechanics. This is unambiguously uncopyrightable in pretty much any country, as has been confirmed by many copyright lawyers, and it would never hold in any court, but they don't care. And other companies and individuals have never bothered challenging them on it.)
Posted: 3/13/2021 8:01 AM
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Acumenium
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Banned User
Joined: 6/11/2020
Posts: 73
Warp wrote:
Note that even if a game appears to be in the PD by the criteria above, it's still a gamble whether you can actually safely use it however you want or not. That's because some companies (sometimes even quite famous and big-name companies) are extraordinarily unscrupulous in claiming rights they don't actually legally have, and fighting for these alleged rights (which they can afford to do, because they are often really rich). There exist numerous examples (not necessarily video games but other types of work) where individuals or corporations have claimed rights they don't actually have, sometimes copyrights, sometimes other types of right, and have been extraordinarily zealous in fighting for these rights, essentially becoming copyright bullies. They may be legally in the wrong, but they get away with their appropriation of false rights because they are so rich and big, and effective at intimidating individuals with legal action. (And, frankly, even if you were completely in the right and the company completely in the wrong, would you have the money, time and fortitude to go into a legal battle against such a company? Life just isn't fair sometimes.) (The only video game example that I can think of is The Tetris Company, which has claimed copyright on the very concept of Tetris. Not just the name, not just the individual games in the series, but the concept of the game itself, the game mechanics. This is unambiguously uncopyrightable in pretty much any country, as has been confirmed by many copyright lawyers, and it would never hold in any court, but they don't care. And other companies and individuals have never bothered challenging them on it.)
You just described Universal v. Nintendo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_City_Studios,_Inc._v._Nintendo_Co.,_Ltd.
Nintendo thanked John Kirby with a $30,000 sailboat christened the Donkey Kong along with "exclusive worldwide rights to use the name for sailboats."[32] The character in Nintendo's Kirby series of video games was named after John Kirby, in honor of his services in the Donkey Kong case.[33][34] It is rumored that a copy of the first game in the franchise, Kirby's Dreamland, was eventually sent to John Kirby who was humored and flattered.[35]