Sierra Al Lowe auctioning off copies of Sierra Adventure game source codes

[Haba]

Or if they even have the rights for it.

 

[J_C]

So, the auction was removed because Activision initaited it. Not because they own LSL, but because they felt that there may be parts of the underlying source that are similar/the same as King's Quest and Space Quest. Basically an IP protection - kinda bullshit, but Al doesn't have the money to fight it.

A post by Britton Matthews on the Sierra Gamers forum.

I called Al yesterday to ask him.
He received a letter from an outside law firm hired by Activison that ordered him to take it down. He said in the letter Activison understood they don’t own the IP to LSL but that the source code probably contained shared code to Kings Quest and Space Quest. For that reason they sent him the letter.

Al and I agreed that he was right, but by the time you hire an attorney to prove you’re right, it would have cost more than what he would have got from the auctions.

If I had to take a guess, this is one of those scenarios where Activison is compelled to act. You can’t pick and choose when to enforce IP rights. If they chose not to go after Al and then someone else releases source code that they actually care about, attorneys can point to ALS scenario and say Activison is being partial and selective in their enforcement of their IP rights, which you can’t do under US law.

Crazy shit.

Why the fuck did Activision care about these 3 decade old games sharing code with some other 3 decade old games? Things like this blow my mind. I doubt you can use that code in any capacity today. These just prove how these mega corporations are scum.

 

[jfrisby]

I figured Al avoided this stuff when he clarified that the disks didn't have the agi interpreter source, not sure what else would be relevant

 

[Boleskine]

https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-...-his-leisure-suit-larry-source-code-auctions/

Activision forced Al Lowe to cancel his Leisure Suit Larry source code auctions
By Andy Chalk 2 hours ago

The publisher acknowledged that it doesn't own the rights, but potential 'shared code' led to the takedown demand.

Leisure Suit Larry creator Al Lowe put a number of interesting artifacts from his Sierra days up for auction a couple of weeks ago, including the source code for the original Leisure Suit Larry on 5.25" diskettes. Bidding quickly skyrocketed, but shortly after the auction went live it was canceled, as did a separate auction for the LSL2 code.

Lowe pulled the plug on the auctions, according to Britton Mathews of the Sierra Gamers Facebook group, after receiving a letter from a law firm hired by Activision demanding that he take them down. Interestingly, Activision acknowledged in the letter that it does not own the rights to the Leisure Suit Larry IP, but said that the source code probably contains "shared code" that's also present in the King's Quest and Space Quest games, which it does own. That was apparently enough to spur the takedown notice.

Lowe anticipated something like this when he posted the auctions, and so included a note saying that the winning bidder "will not own the intellectual property rights to the game." He told Mathews that he believes he's in the right legally—but the costs of fighting Activision's takedown demand would be more than the auctions would bring in.

Lowe confirmed in an email that Mathews' account of their conversation is accurate. When asked if he had any alternate plans for the source code diskettes, he suggested that "searching for the bulk eraser from [his] reel-to-reel tape days" was the only thing that had come to mind so far. I suspect he was not being entirely serious.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

 

[Tigranes]

So, the auction was removed because Activision initaited it. Not because they own LSL, but because they felt that there may be parts of the underlying source that are similar/the same as King's Quest and Space Quest. Basically an IP protection - kinda bullshit, but Al doesn't have the money to fight it.

A post by Britton Matthews on the Sierra Gamers forum.

I called Al yesterday to ask him.
He received a letter from an outside law firm hired by Activison that ordered him to take it down. He said in the letter Activison understood they don’t own the IP to LSL but that the source code probably contained shared code to Kings Quest and Space Quest. For that reason they sent him the letter.

Al and I agreed that he was right, but by the time you hire an attorney to prove you’re right, it would have cost more than what he would have got from the auctions.

If I had to take a guess, this is one of those scenarios where Activison is compelled to act. You can’t pick and choose when to enforce IP rights. If they chose not to go after Al and then someone else releases source code that they actually care about, attorneys can point to ALS scenario and say Activison is being partial and selective in their enforcement of their IP rights, which you can’t do under US law.

Crazy shit.

Why the fuck did Activision care about these 3 decade old games sharing code with some other 3 decade old games? Things like this blow my mind. I doubt you can use that code in any capacity today. These just prove how these mega corporations are scum.

Because of the reasons in the last paragraph of that post. Also, it costs them effectively nothing to do this, since they have lawyers on the books anyway. From a business point of view, you have no reason not to automatically enforce. Still shitty, of course.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Why the fuck did Activision care about these 3 decade old games sharing code with some other 3 decade old games? Things like this blow my mind. I doubt you can use that code in any capacity today. These just prove how these mega corporations are scum.

Because of the reasons in the last paragraph of that post. Also, it costs them effectively nothing to do this, since they have lawyers on the books anyway. From a business point of view, you have no reason not to automatically enforce. Still shitty, of course.

Also because the auction reached a five-figure number.

 

[taxalot]

https://www.twitch.tv/textfilesdotcom?sr=a


Live, right now, Jason Scott from Internet Archive is circumventing the problem by reading the source code out loud on Twitch.

 

[Haba]

This world is so fucking retarded.

 

[RapineDel]

I wonder if he knew this would happen and the Metal Jesus / Ebay auctions were just a stunt to garner interest. I'm sure he'll sell them quietly/privately to a collector with an agreement that it stays between them

 

[Haba]

Why would their copyright limit private sales anyway? Someone with the legal muscle should take a case like this to court and see what happens.

 

[OndrejSc]

I would help, but my muscles are illegal.

 

[Haba]

Bitch please

This also helped me discover this:

Spoiler

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.twitch.tv/textfilesdotcom?sr=a


Live, right now, Jason Scott from Internet Archive is circumventing the problem by reading the source code out loud on Twitch.

Jason Scott did it anyway, script files of LSL 1: https://github.com/historicalsource/leisuresuitlarry

Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards

A collection of script and definition files related to the game "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of Lounge Lizards" (often simply called "Leisure Suit Larry") created by Al Lowe based on the game "Softporn/Super Stud Adventure" by Chuck Benton. These collection of files are shown to have been generated (or at least, completed) between February and June of 1987. (Lowe at one point mentioned how slow initial sales of Leisure Suit Larry made him feel he had "wasted six months" of his life, so that timeframe for work could be consided the development time).

This collection contains only the scripts and definitions for Leisure Suit Larry - it will not specifically compile into a game, instead requiring access to a Sierra On-Line engine (Adventure Game Interpreter/AGI) that takes these definitions and drives the games.

AGI/Adventure Games Interpreter source code is not included in this repository.