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.
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.