Legal help with original source code needed

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Please help me with these questions:

 

Assuming I was offered the original source of an Epyx game, could publishing this online possibly cause any severe legal troubles for me or the author?

 

How long is an NDA valid?

 

Is an NDA still valid, after the company who requested it was bought by another comapny?

 

Are there exceptions like publishing 15+ year old sources for "studying purposes" only?

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Arcadenut]

Hi there!

 

Please help me with these questions:

 

Assuming I was offered the original source of an Epyx game, could publishing this online possibly cause any severe legal troubles for me or the author?

 

How long is an NDA valid?

 

Is an NDA still valid, after the company who requested it was bought by another comapny?

 

Are there exceptions like publishing 15+ year old sources for "studying purposes" only?

 

Greetings,

    Manuel

 

Talk to a lawyer. You will need a copy of the NDA and you'll want to find out who owns the copyright on the source. NDA's are usually limited to a specific time-frame (like 1 year after leaving the company).

 

If Epyx was bought by another company, then it is likely that they own the Copyright to that source code. If that is true, you could get in legal trouble for publishing it, no matter what your justification is.

[CPUWIZ]

You should take a close look at the NDA, if there is no time limit attached you are probably screwed. The only thing you can do then is contact the people that bought EPYX and ask them for permission.

[eric_ruck]

The current owner of Epyx, as it were, would be Infogrames. I'm not a lawyer, and for sure I wouldn't take my own advice, but thus far Infogrames has been pretty kind to the classic gaming community.

 

Eric

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

If I understood what you said, then even though any NDA probably expired years ago, the source might still be copyrighted, thus making it available to the public would violate this copyright.

 

Ok, so I'm gonna speak with the copyright holder.

 

BTW: Epyx is owned by a company called "Alpha Omega Publications", not Infrogrames.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Sensation is perfect! I just uploaded the original Apple 2 / 6502 source-codes for Impossible Mission 2 and Spider-Bot!

 

It is not possible to generate the games out of these though, since the data files are missing.

 

Greetings,

Manuel