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http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/half-life-2/550165p1.html
It's hard to read through the legalese in there, but the gist of it is this:
Sierra says that it has rights to Half-Life and a bunch of subsequent stuff, including Half-Life 2. Gabe got them to relinquish ownership of "the Half-Life intellectual property" to Valve by threatening a long time back to halt production of further games (which I don't get in the slightest, because they never made any others, really). Apparently, Sierra agreed to his terms but only under the proviso that he assure them that they would still be the retail distributor for Half-Life exclusively. Gabe said that yeah, they would be the retail distributor, and specifically he agreed on behalf of Valve that there wouldn't be any other attempts at independent distribution.
Of course, Gabe and Valve were building Steam already at that time, and for just that purpose--bypassing Sierra's retail **** and buying direct from Valve.
The argument is basically this: Sierra feels it should still own Half-Life (including HL2 and the Source Engine), because Newell lied to them about not trying to undermine their distribution. Not only did he undermine it, and technically breach their 1999 contract that gave Valve the HL property, but he did it himself, in house, in an attempt to secretly send Valve on an exodus and cutting Sierra out of the loop.
There's a big odd loophole in this. You see, if Valvebreached the contract...that is, if the judge agrees with Sierra's claim...that means that Steam and all of the things we buy through it have been sold to us illegally, because Valve never owned the property. Sierra will most likely then sue the hell out of Valve. But the thing is, if the Judge decides that Valve DIDN'T breach the contract--which is hard to say, because the part they say he breached wasn't very specific or strict--then that means that Sierra will no longer be a part of the equation regarding any of Valve's distro.
The reason why it came up, is because HL was distributed online in some web cafes a while back by Sierra, and Valve sued, because Sierra supposedly had given up the rights to Valve a long time ago. But the agreement vaguely included that Valve wouldn't do the same thing--distribute online. Valve was required to assure Sierra that their retail distro would remain Valve's primary outsource. Valve said yeah, and basically indirectly agreed to not distribute independently.
In layman's terms, it was a trade. "Hey, we get to own the HL properties, but you guys get to funnel in all of our income."
The logic behind the Sierra distro is that Valve is doing online distribution, thus negating the agreement, supposedly. At least...I THINK this is the gist. Like I said, it's confusing as all hell.
So they've been fighting and fighting and with HL2 ready and itching to hit the shelves it seems like the timing is just really bad. I don't know how much this will slow things down but in all honesty it's just another testament to some of Valve's amateur business practices. I mean...you don't lie to keep your contract. You don't like it, you fulfill it and bail or get yourself a new deal. Signing ANYTHING in writing and then lying about your end of the deal is always legal trouble waiting to happen.
It's hard to read through the legalese in there, but the gist of it is this:
Sierra says that it has rights to Half-Life and a bunch of subsequent stuff, including Half-Life 2. Gabe got them to relinquish ownership of "the Half-Life intellectual property" to Valve by threatening a long time back to halt production of further games (which I don't get in the slightest, because they never made any others, really). Apparently, Sierra agreed to his terms but only under the proviso that he assure them that they would still be the retail distributor for Half-Life exclusively. Gabe said that yeah, they would be the retail distributor, and specifically he agreed on behalf of Valve that there wouldn't be any other attempts at independent distribution.
Of course, Gabe and Valve were building Steam already at that time, and for just that purpose--bypassing Sierra's retail **** and buying direct from Valve.
The argument is basically this: Sierra feels it should still own Half-Life (including HL2 and the Source Engine), because Newell lied to them about not trying to undermine their distribution. Not only did he undermine it, and technically breach their 1999 contract that gave Valve the HL property, but he did it himself, in house, in an attempt to secretly send Valve on an exodus and cutting Sierra out of the loop.
There's a big odd loophole in this. You see, if Valvebreached the contract...that is, if the judge agrees with Sierra's claim...that means that Steam and all of the things we buy through it have been sold to us illegally, because Valve never owned the property. Sierra will most likely then sue the hell out of Valve. But the thing is, if the Judge decides that Valve DIDN'T breach the contract--which is hard to say, because the part they say he breached wasn't very specific or strict--then that means that Sierra will no longer be a part of the equation regarding any of Valve's distro.
The reason why it came up, is because HL was distributed online in some web cafes a while back by Sierra, and Valve sued, because Sierra supposedly had given up the rights to Valve a long time ago. But the agreement vaguely included that Valve wouldn't do the same thing--distribute online. Valve was required to assure Sierra that their retail distro would remain Valve's primary outsource. Valve said yeah, and basically indirectly agreed to not distribute independently.
In layman's terms, it was a trade. "Hey, we get to own the HL properties, but you guys get to funnel in all of our income."
The logic behind the Sierra distro is that Valve is doing online distribution, thus negating the agreement, supposedly. At least...I THINK this is the gist. Like I said, it's confusing as all hell.
So they've been fighting and fighting and with HL2 ready and itching to hit the shelves it seems like the timing is just really bad. I don't know how much this will slow things down but in all honesty it's just another testament to some of Valve's amateur business practices. I mean...you don't lie to keep your contract. You don't like it, you fulfill it and bail or get yourself a new deal. Signing ANYTHING in writing and then lying about your end of the deal is always legal trouble waiting to happen.
