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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shutyertrap" data-source="post: 285128" data-attributes="member: 134">I have a feeling we can explain this five ways to Sunday and it still won't land. All I know is if I created an intellectual property and brand, I am not writing a contract to some other business who want to license that property for them to have it in perpetuity. It will be a limited time, and we can talk about renewing it, but at the end of the day it's my IP. If you do not like those terms, don't sign the contract. Even in real estate, the land owner only leases the land to the person building on it. Granted those are usually 90 year leases (or something like that), but eventually it reverts back to the land owner and they can demolish your building once the terms are up.I can't outright say you are wrong, it's not like any of us know the terms of FarSight's agreements. I will point out though that FarSight had a license to ST:TNG and then had to obtain a new license for Stern Star Trek, so no they can't just slap 'Star Trek' on anything they like. The license was specific to that machine, that layout, that particular use. Otherwise the Star Trek license would have been way more expensive. Same can be said for Terminator 2, as the question was specifically posed to FarSight as to whether securing that would allow them to do T3 also, and the answer was no, it was only for that machine.As I've pointed out before, the licenses allow for exclusive use for a limited time. Again with Terminator, another game company had bought exclusive timed digital rights to it, and a side deal that included said company had to be written for FarSight that expressly said they could use the license only for the T2 pinball. Exclusivity rights usually last long enough for a company to develop, distribute, and sell. After that another company can purchase non exclusive rights until the first company's rights fully expire. I guarantee that FarSight does not have exclusivity rights to any of the licenses used with Williams, not even Doctor Who (which they CAN still sell a version of).FarSight could re-skin all the Williams tables, but they'd have to make slight changes to the layouts and rules so as to claim them as their own. In a manner of speaking, this is what Zaccaria has done with their Retro and Remake tables, except they have done so with full permission of the license. Often the case with licensing is if you are no longer actively developing for it, the rights will revert due to non use. Zacc putting out a Remake every couple of months keeps that license agreement alive, possibly extending their exclusivity.</blockquote>

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