I bought a box a couple of years ago labeled "Telstar Double Value Games" Including UFO Enemy Unknown and Syndicate. Does Mythos Games still own the copyright of UFO? If they do how can another company not part of Mythos bring out a box like this?

"Game Design and program © 1994 Mythos Games Ltd. Documentation and loge © 1994 Microprose Ltd."

and on the same box:

"1995 Telstar Fun & Games Ltd. The copyright in these games is owned as stated and licensed to Telstar Fun & Games Ltd. Marketed and distributed by Telstar Fun & Games Ltd. Prospect Studios, Barnes High Street, Barnes, Londen SW13 9LE"



so.... any lawyers in the room?

What does Ltd. mean anyway?

Is it not possible that it was released in that set on permission?

Ltd. is limited, I believe.

Yup, Ltd is limited company, of which the biggest bonus is being able to liquidate the company and not be able to get any money out of the owners IIRC... something silly like that

Mythos did own the copyright at the time, but if you re-read it carefully, Telstar don't try and dispute this. They've only been licensed to package the game up in thatw ay and the copyright remains with the original owners.

Anywho, all of X-COM belongs to Sid Meier and Firaxis Games at the moment...

Telstar probably just drew up a contract with Mythos (or whoever held the copyright for xcom back at the time) to be able to distribute the game in their bundle. Mythos probably gets a royalty in return. That's my guess, but all of that here say. No telling what sort of deal Mythos and Telstar worked out. Only Mythos and Telstar would know for sure, and even then, they probably both have a slightly different story on what the deal is.

All of it comes down to what sort of deal two companies worked out legally. Also, sometimes publishers will have developers sign contracts that gives the publisher sole publishing rights. Sometimes not. It all really comes down to what sort of deal two parties work out. Then it's on paper from there and arbitrated in courts if there's a dispute over the contract between them.

Telstar does have the copyright though over the medium that it's on. Like if it came in CD form it means they have the copyright over those CDs. There's a difference between intellectual ownership and copyrights. Copyright merely just means that whoever has the copyright has the right to determine who, how, and what limitations others have of copying their material. i.e. cloning the actual CD itself. They've worked out a deal with Mythos to be able to distribute their game through there own channels and on media provided by them at a price.

So in a sense, lets say someone made illegal copies from the telstar disk, they'd be infringing upon two copyrights. Infringing upon Telstar's copyright by cloning the media, but also breaking the EULA of Mythos. Any of us could distribute copies of Xcom and make a profit if we got permission from Mythos. Probably would have to work out some sort of deal with them. Afterall, they're going to want something out of it. Even then though, you couldn't copy Telstar's disks unless you also worked out a deal with them.

Now lets say you got permission from all the same developers that Telstar did in their bundle and compiles your own bundle that had the exact identical games in it. That would probably be perfectly legal as long as you didn't copy them from Telstar's media.

Hope that all makes sense. Essentially all that copyright has to do with is the right to make copies. He who holds the copyright has the right to regulate the stipulations when it comes to copying. Think of copying not as stealing an idea, but more as actually duplicating. Copyrights have more to do with medium (be it paper, some form of tape, digital, etc) than concepts. A concept can't actually be copywritten.

how about copying into the brain? use an advanced tech so you can store digitalized information in the brain. :rolleyes: that would be funny...

LOL! If we could do that I imagine myself playing X-COM on the 1 hour travel from home to work and viceversa, but I'd constantly miss the right bus stop .... :rolleyes: