Activision Comes To Its Senses; Allows King's Quest Fan Game To Live On (Again)
from the permission-culture dept
Nearly five years ago, we wrote about how some fans of the video game King's Quest, of which there hadn't been an official release in years, had decided to put together a fan-created version. Vivendi, who owned the rights to the game, initially sent in the lawyers with a cease-and-desist, but later backed down, and gave the go ahead, so long as the name of the game was The Silver Lining, rather than King's Quest IX. But, of course, you may recall that earlier this year, Activision, who had merged with Vivendi, suddenly decided that the old permission no longer applied, and demanded that all work on the game cease and go away.Thankfully, Nick Coghlan alerts us that, after many months, this story actually is turning into a repeat of the 2005 story, as Activision has come to its senses and is letting the game live on. Apparently the negative publicity over Activision's previous position convinced the company that it was making a mistake, and it rescinded the cease-and-desist.
While this story appears to have a happy ending where common sense prevails over ridiculous legal threats, the whole situation once again highlights the problems of permission-culture. These fans were trying to build something that celebrated a game that hasn't been commercially released in ages. And yet, twice now, they've had to deal with threats to be shut down, with the second time coming after they'd already secured "permission." This is not how culture is supposed to work.
Filed Under: fans, king's quest, non commercial license, video games
Companies: activision, vivendi
