As some of you may have read lately, Richard “Lord British” Garriott de Cayeux has declared to his listeners and subjects that he will, in the year 2027, reclaim the copyright to the Ultima series, which he sold to Electronic Arts as part of his 1992 deal, which gave him enough money to buy himself a trip into outer space.
Thumbs Up Dick!
If that isn’t a metaphor for something, I don’t know what is.
Anyway, this raises a bunch of questions in my head, most of which I cannot answer. But I figured I would lay some of that out in a post. At least I can check my guesses later when and if this all comes to a head.
You’ll note that I say “if,” because Garriott has basically been living on his fortune and reputation for the last few decades and has spoken out of his ass about being in talks with EA and reclaiming the Ultima series in the past, so I am not inclined to take anything he says at face value.
That said, I think he can reclaim the copyright. I have vague memories of the law being updated so that authors, who had to assign copyright to a publisher to get their book deal done, could get back their works if the publisher did one print run and then sat on the copyright, refusing to allow any further use of the work. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
That, as noted, was done specifically for authors, but since we copyright damn near everything, the rule applies to video games as well.
Garriott is on record as saying all he has to do is tell EA a year in advance that he is reclaiming the copyright, which he said he did in April, and “Hey presto!” he owns Ultima again. I have seen a couple of things that suggest that the timer might actually be two years and that it might require a bit more work than he is suggesting, but let’s just pretend he is correct for the moment and that he will own the Ultima copyright in April of 2027. Smooth sailing ahead, right?
Except, of course, a bunch of details. Copyright is annoyingly difficult to parse, or for me to parse at least, but it seems like he might get the copyright to anything he, or his subsequent company, Origin Systems, created before the sale to EA in 1992. That gives him Ultima I through Ultima VII, which is the bulk of the series, avoids the problematic Ultima VIII, and has nothing directly to do with Ultima Online, which came about in 1997, five years after the acquisition.
Those last two, funded by EA as works for hire… something done by mere employees, of which Garriott was just one of many… appear to be generally exempt at some level, in as much as they introduced new things to the Ultima franchise. But they were also created based on the original copyrighted work, which includes all sorts of names, locations, characters, and concepts included in the earlier copyright. So those, if not reclaimable by Lord British, are at least in the legal mix.
But even if it excludes those last two, that is a lot of Britannia to work with.
So far as I can tell, Garriott can take that newly restored copyright and remake or remaster or whatever all those titles… so long as he was the sole person named on the copyright. He probably is, but in the case of multiple authors, they all have to agree on any use… though, who is going to bother stopping Garriott if he ignores that? Laws in the United States don’t apply to rich people, at least not when taking advantage of not rich people.
Trickier will be the trademark, which EA still holds and, as multiple articles I read (and linked below) indicate, they have renewed that trademark as recently as June of this year. So maybe Garriott is telling the truth this time about at least informing EA of his intentions. This could have been a reaction to the threat.
That means Garriott holds the copyright to the work, but can’t run out and start selling Ultima III: Exodus Remastered Edition without running afoul of EA and their Saudi overlords due to the trademark. He probably can’t even use any characters or locations that have been trademarked. It might even be problematic to refer to him as Lord British. Oh, the humanity!
On the flip side, Ultima Online might not be able to release any updates related to any of the copyrighted material, and EA itself likely cannot launch another Ultima title that draws on that material either. They could, I suppose, roll out another Lords of Ultima title. (Or Ultima Forever, which introduced Lady British, a totally not covered by past copyright character.) Those had almost nothing to do with the Ultima series aside from the name. However, EA is now deeply involved in its own self-destruction since being acquired by the Saudis, so rolling out piddly ass online titles just to snub Garriott seems low on the list for them. (Ultima Forever felt like something just to piss all over Garriott’s visions… or a cynical attempt to grab some of the attention he was generating.)
That is a whole lot of “maybe,” possibly,” “likely,” with a huge helping of “I don’t know.” I also need to mention that this is only for US copyright. EA may still hold leverage elsewhere.
Also, I don’t see any heroes in this story. There is an odd symmetry here between EA and Lord British for me. I was a fan of both of their work in the 1980s, fell somewhat out of their orbit in the 1990s, and have considered both to be somewhat shit here in the 21st century.
I would be rooting for Garriott as the underdog versus the Saudi owned EA, if not for most everything he has done in the last 25 years. The rich guy space tourist who made some games I enjoyed half a lifetime ago isn’t going to get my support because I have no faith in his doing anything positive with the Ultima series. I mean, I nearly gagged on the final sentence of the WCCF Tech article (linked below) where I first saw the news of this:
One thing is for sure: it would be great to see new Ultima RPGs, as it’s been nearly 27 years since Ascension.
Did you just arrive here on planet Earth my friend? Did you just wake up from a 20 year coma? Have you seen Shroud of the Avatar? You somehow seem aware of past Ultima titles yet are blind to literally everything he has done since. Do you expect me to take you seriously as a journalist with that send off line?
I don’t even particularly care about Garriott, but somehow have a collection of posts about his lunacy. Just as a bit of a recap, here are my priors on that front:
- Apr 2022 – The Trainwreck of 21st Century Lord British
- Sep 2015 – Quote of the Day – Lord British and Sandbox Newsworthiness
- Mar 2013 – Lord British Knows Controversy Gets Attention
- Oct 2012 – With the Empire Crumbling, What of Darth British?
- Sep 2012 – Quote of the Day – Lord British and a Fondness for Zynga
- Jul 2012 – Ultima Forever! Will Lord British Find his Fondness for EA Diminishing?
- Dec 2011 – Lord British is Talking to the Press, Not EA, About His Ultimate RPG
- Dec 2011 – Lord British: About Tabula Rasa… and Ultima 8…
- Dec 2011 – Lord British has a Great Fondness for EA
- Dec 2011 – The Madness of Lord British
Yeah, December 2011 was a bit of a peak… or maybe the start of his downfall. I don’t know.
Meanwhile, there is EA… somehow EA has become worse than it has ever been. Even the disastrous John Riccitiello era of the company feels like a happier time than the literal dismemberment that is in progress. So this whole thing has big “Let them fight!” energy for me.
Which brings me to some theories on how this will play out. I have some options in mind, which I have weighted with percentages based on my gut as to the likelihood of them happening.
- Garriott gets the copyright, nothing happens (30%)
That seems the most likely outcome. And when I say “nothing” I mean no actual game or remaster or anything is created. It does not mean him talking about all the things he wants to do. He’ll chatter like a myna bird on crack. But it will all be so much chin music. He will go on and on about how he is making a crypto backed, AI built, VR enhanced, Facebook hosted metaverse crafting survival horror collection game in the spirit of Ultima or something equally as dumb until he dies.
- Garriot gets the copyright, makes some deal with EA, still nothing happens (20%)
Same as above, but he gets something in writing allowing him to actually do the things he wants to do, he just won’t do them. EA will, however, be able to carry on doing with whatever AI generated vision of Britannia they desire… though why bother when you hold so many better IPs?
- Garriott fails to get the copyright (20%)
Let’s not bet completely on his ability to accomplish even tasks he declares to be easy. I would rate this higher based on his past performance, but I suspect that even he will bumble through and eventually secure the copyright.
- Garriott gets the copyright and makes things worse (20%)
Did you know that you can still buy the Ultima series from EA? Sure enough, Ultima III, for example, is five bucks in their store.
Ultima III in the EA store
Don’t like EA? Well, over on GoG.com you can get the following:
- Ultima I – II – III collection – $6.00
- Ultima IV – V – VI collection – $6.00
- Ultima VII: The Complete Edition – $6.00
- Ultima VIII: Gold Edition – $6.00
- Ultima IX: Ascension – $6.00
- Ultima Underworld I – II – $6.00
You got yourself six dollars? Then you can dive into any era of the franchise you like aside from Ultima Online. EA probably still gets a cut, but you are getting more for your money.
I can foresee a world in which Garriott holding the copyright makes all of that go away because he wants to control everything, but then is too lazy, dumb, cryto-pilled, and AI aroused to do anything that anybody wants. Or maybe he’ll just demand money from GoG.com or whoever and the price will go up. Either way, enshittification is the result.
- Garriott gets the copyright, then turns around and sells it (9%)
Probably with the caveat that his name appears on any title card at at least 70% the size of the name of the game itself for any remake or remaster. Also, whoever he sells it to will tax anybody trying to use any of the copyrighted material, so it is the “makes things worse” scenario, but now somebody else is doing it. This gets a slightly lower ranking because Garriott is obsessed with returning to his creation, so after decades of trying to get it back it would be a bit of an odd turn to then just give it up.
- Garriott gets the copyright, makes a deal with EA, and somehow delivers something good as a remake, remaster, or new vision of the original series (1%)
I mean, it could happen, right? A couple of the articles below seem to take, at face value, Garriott’s suggestion that he could re-release or remake some titles, or even make a new Ultima title. Again, I am not sure where they have been for the last 25 years, but it isn’t 100% out of the question.
So there we go. I am not sure there is anything to do about any of this. I went and bought the Ultima I – II – III Collection over at GoG.com just to have it.
Meanwhile, I wonder what happens if he tries to reclaim the Wing Commander copyright? I mean, that franchise also predates the EA acquisition.
Is this the moment Chris Roberts has been waiting for?
And speaking of EA franchises, what are Will Wright and Bill Budge up to? What if everybody reclaimed their stuff?
Related:
- WCCF Tech – Richard Garriott Is Taking Ultima Back From EA in 2027, Using a ‘Really Weird’ 35-Year Copyright Law That Costs Nothing
- PC Gamer – The creator of Ultima is reportedly reclaiming the series’ rights back from EA
- Massively OP – Richard Garriott expands on his comments about getting the copyright back to Ultima in 2027
- MMORPG.com – Ultima’s Copyright Will Soon Belong To Its Creator Again, Garriott Confirms
- Polygon – Legendary RPG creator is taking his game back from Electronic Arts
- Kotaku – Richard Garriott Wants To Take Ultima Back From EA Using Obscure Legal Quirks
- Tweak Town – Ultima creator to take franchise back from EA in 2027 without paying thanks to US copyright law
- Tech Raptor – Richard Garriott to Soon Take Back Rights to the Ultima Series From EA
- Oasis BBS – Lord British Reclaims Ultima Copyright From EA in 2027
- Inven Global – Richard Garriott Moves to Reclaim ‘Ultima’, Negotiating Copyright Recovery with EA