The evergreen digital market of today is just incompatible with the practices established back when stuff was sold in boxes and only expected to sell for 5-8 years, and every now and then we get a reminder of what happens when they don’t mesh.
Thankfully GoG was still selling it and discounted it massively to allow more people to preserve it.
This is also why seasons of TV shows were crazy expensive on DVD, have different music on streaming services, and why some shows like the Drew Carey show will never be seen again.
It would be great if we could get a law that makes these ridiculous licensing rules void and delivery medium is detached from copy permission.
I wonder if it can be even simpler: if you stop selling it (for a reasonable price), it loses all copyright protection. And that would apply to all versions of the media, so companies can’t just stop selling the old version to promote sales of the remaster.
Companies would then have an incentive to negotiate proper licenses to media, otherwise their work would enter the public domain the moment that license expires.
That doesn’t help a ton with music, as the songs are generally for sale. A show of game becoming public domain doesn’t help a ton without music, but it may force companies to be more aggressive in negotiating rights I suppose so they don’t end up in this situation.
Yup, and that’s the goal. Game companies wouldn’t want to lose their copyright, so they’d either have to negotiate more favorable rights or go back to older games to remove lapsed music. Either way, the game stays available.
Music licensing shenanigans strike once again.
The evergreen digital market of today is just incompatible with the practices established back when stuff was sold in boxes and only expected to sell for 5-8 years, and every now and then we get a reminder of what happens when they don’t mesh.
Thankfully GoG was still selling it and discounted it massively to allow more people to preserve it.
The real issue is that music licensing isn’t perpetual. Licensing should be per person or per product, not time based.
Everyone blames the games industry, but they really should be pointing their fingers at the music industry.
This is also why seasons of TV shows were crazy expensive on DVD, have different music on streaming services, and why some shows like the Drew Carey show will never be seen again.
It would be great if we could get a law that makes these ridiculous licensing rules void and delivery medium is detached from copy permission.
I wonder if it can be even simpler: if you stop selling it (for a reasonable price), it loses all copyright protection. And that would apply to all versions of the media, so companies can’t just stop selling the old version to promote sales of the remaster.
Companies would then have an incentive to negotiate proper licenses to media, otherwise their work would enter the public domain the moment that license expires.
That doesn’t help a ton with music, as the songs are generally for sale. A show of game becoming public domain doesn’t help a ton without music, but it may force companies to be more aggressive in negotiating rights I suppose so they don’t end up in this situation.
Yup, and that’s the goal. Game companies wouldn’t want to lose their copyright, so they’d either have to negotiate more favorable rights or go back to older games to remove lapsed music. Either way, the game stays available.