In article <34B87743.4A502B48@xxxxxxxx>, you wrote:
>> Only the copyright holder has the authority to grant usage rights.
>> Usage rights and copyright are not the same thing. Because you have been
>> granted usage rights for a product you cannot transfer those rights to
>> another, not without the agreement of the copyright holder.
>
>Sigh. Copyright holders can grant the right to sublicense properties as
>part of a license.
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Sigh all you want it won't change the fact that JTS does not have
an exclusive usage contract for the Supercharger library with the
owner of the copyright for those games (Bridgestone).
Atari (gone) had a deal with Epyx (also gone) that gave Atari exclusive
usage rights to the Starpath library. Epyx went out of business their assets
were purchased by Bridgestone. It was at this point that all of Epyx
contracts were dead. Bridgestone is under no legal obligation to
fulfill Epyx contracts as they did not take over the operations of Epyx
they purchased Epyx assets (which included the supercharger games).
Bridgestone has never negotiated an exclusive usage deal with Atari or
JTS. Bridgestone is now eager and willing to negotiate commercial and
non-commercial usage lisences with any interested body. JTS has no say in
it because they no longer have an exclusive usage contract with the holders
of the copyright.
If anyone wants to make a Supercharger CD then all they have to do is
contact Birdgestone and negotiate terms.
There is no Atari Corporation anymore. Jack bought JTS, he merged
Atari with JTS and the whole shebang is run under the name JTS. There
is no subdivision called Atari Corp and all stock is traded under JTS.
So if you wish to include material for which Atari owned the copyrights
to on a CD you will have to negotiate with JTS as they own all Atari's
copyrights.
Has Glenn will be the first to admit, trying to negotiate with JTS for
usage rights is like pulling teeth. Bridgestone, on the otherhand is
eager to please. So if a re-issue of stella was desired the logical thing
to do would be to drop anything which JTS owns the copyright to
(which would be POLO.BIN) and only release the meterial that
Bridgestone owns the copyrights to (which would be the Supercharger games).
JTS may tell you that they have a deal with Birdgestone for exlusive
usage rights but they're just blowing smoke up your skirt. No deal
was ever signed between JTS and Bridgestone for the usage rights of the
Starpath library. Bridgestone owns the copyrights to the library JTS has
Jack.
CRACKERS
(Have another sign on me from hell!!)
--
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