Topic: Copyrights for Rolemaster 2nd edition books

[Lars1444]

Hi there.

Does anyone know who owns the copyrights for Rolemaster Companion II, III, IV....   and Rolemaster Arms Companion?

[jdale]

For any of the ICE products that are not currently available, it's because rights to some content reverted to some extent to the authors, resulting in no one having clear and complete copyright to the entire works. ICE has been trying to contact all the original authors so they can get those works back in print, and there's a thread about that here: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?topic=11282.120 

[Dreven1]

If original authors have passed away or if they are unavailable (just quit caring about how it proceeds) what is the timeline or timeframe when it goes into public domain? Is it 50 years?

[Malim]

This thing is just so dumb
All the people making RM20 30 years ago, I bet would just like that the game spread happiness instead of this.

[nash]

This thing is just so dumb
All the people making RM20 30 years ago, I bet would just like that the game spread happiness instead of this.

There are some authors that (used) to bear some grudges against past ICEs.   So it's not 100% cut and dried.

But you are right that I bet most would be happy to get their stuff out there.

[jdale]

If original authors have passed away or if they are unavailable (just quit caring about how it proceeds) what is the timeline or timeframe when it goes into public domain? Is it 50 years?

Generally in the US it's 70 years after the person dies. So that's not going to help much.