Hello, this is mostly addressed at any Obsidian representatives who may be available for comment.
I am a law student and was just wondering how much in the way of rights a developer maintains over its creation in general. I'm sure it varies depending on the individual contract, but I assume the rights are all generally in the hands of the game's publisher, given the way the business seems to work. Particularly in terms of a monumental IP like Star Wars, I'm sure that any rights to anything in a developers game are forfeit.
I inquire merely because, given what has been revealed of the development of The Old Republic's plot and the advance printings of the book linking the KOTOR games to TOR and the massive scale of the retcons therein, I don't see how anyone could stand for what is being done with the key plot points of KOTOR II as its developer. Okay, I can, but then it's as a business decision rather than a principled one.
I simply find it rather galling that Bioware had the nerve to retcon everything of particular significance about KOTOR II's plot explicitly so they can steal Darth Nihilus' "gimmick" for their own villain in TOR to make the players' characters into special snowflakes for being able to overcome him. Also wrecking everything remotely interesting about Revan and the Exile as characters in the process.
I suppose, then, my main question is how much, if any, right Obsidian maintains over its creation (in this case, the entire premise of KOTOR II with the Exile's "wound in the force" and Nihilus' unique abilities. I doubt there is much, if any, given that these take place within an extant canon, but I suppose that, given my grasp of the law (which is admittedly only in its relative infancy), I have some wistful hope somewhere that Obsidian could file for injunctive relief and prevent Bioware from doing this to the only real interesting Star Wars characters developed in the past decade and deliberately wiping another company's work from existence in order to blatantly steal its concepts.
I'm afraid I've gone on long enough, at this point, and laid out exactly what my concerns are. I look forward to any sort of reply from Obsidian, if only for the sake of my own edification.
Regards,
Basroil
