A forgotten out-of-print game disc tested the legal literacy of netizens

Perhaps the best thing to do is to put it back and forget about it completely.

If one day you were toppling old things in your home and found that you had a precious game disc that had been out of print for many years, would you choose to collect it yourself or give it to someone else?

It feels no less than being hit by a windfall, and most people will be ecstatic. Of course, the premise is that this disc does not cause you any possible legal disputes.

On May 4, a Reddit netizen posted that his fiancé had found a beta copy of the PSP version of Star Wars: Battlefront III that should have been destroyed while flipping through the old game.

The weight of this disc can be seen from its name. The game is not directly related to the Star Wars: Frontline series after the EA reboot in 2015, but is a sequel to the original series of the same name in the early years.

The original Star Wars: Frontlines 1 and 2 were released in 2004 and 2005. Due to the mostly good reputation among the players, publisher LucasArts decided to continue to produce Star Wars: Battlefront III (hereinafter referred to as "Star Wars Battlefront III") and see the series as part of the company's long-term development strategy. Even when the third work was still in production, they had already signed a contract with the studio for the fourth work.

However, the truth is always unsatisfactory. Due to rising development costs, Star Wars Battlefront III, which was scheduled for release in October 2008, announced that it would skip tickets to April of the following year. Later, the management of LucasArts experienced relatively great turmoil, and the relationship with the studio deteriorated.

So although the work of Star Wars Battlefront III was basically 90% complete, the final project was cancelled. Fans who are obsessed with this can only miss it through a little scarce information.

In 2016, you released a test video of the game, which attracted 600,000 plays

According to the netizen, in the case that the Star Wars Battlefront III project failed that year and all copies should be recovered, only this disc was luckily missed. The fiancé, who was still "young and ignorant" at the time, picked it up from relatives and brought it back home, only recently.

The disc in their hands is not only well preserved and hardly damaged; but the credibility of the information published is largely guaranteed.

In theory, this could be the only PSP copy left after the game was terminated, and the value may be incalculable for fans of the Star Wars Frontline series.

Netizens published the PSP demonstration screen

The netizens who posted it obviously recognized this, but since she herself had not been in contact with the game market, she curiously posted inquiry posts in multiple sections before the shot.

This post has not made any waves in other sections, but the netizens in the game section are obviously very interested. Some netizens suggested that "this disc must be ripped and then uploaded so that it can be saved."

But someone quickly made the point: "You're going to get a lawyer letter from Disney." ”

While it may not have been a big deal in 2008, since LucasArts was acquired by Disney in 2012 with its parent company Lucasfilm, the rights to Star Wars have been owned by Disney, and EA has been able to continue to develop the Star Wars Frontline series after obtaining exclusive licensing.

If this disc were to be sold, it would be difficult to say whether one day an invitation would be received from the strongest legal department in the Western Hemisphere. After all, another video that leaked the gameplay of Star Wars Battlefront III was uploaded before, and it was deleted under the copyright notice.

The message was also annotated on fandom pages made by fans

Netizens worked together under this post to try to figure out the ultimate ownership of this disc with their own legal literacy.

As far as the game itself is concerned, there is nothing wrong with the disc belonging to the former LucasArts. The problem is that the person who signed the NDA with LucasArts is a relative of the poster's fiancé and has nothing to do with the poster and her fiancé. Coupled with the fact that the fiancé should still be a child when the disc was picked up, it is difficult to say whether the law applies to him.

"I'm not an expert" "But I'm not a lawyer"

Discussions began about how long the terms of the confidentiality agreement could last, from 10 to 80 years, to indefinitely, if not declared. There are also regulations that discuss the circumstances of theft, how long the owner is in possession to determine ownership, and so on.

Another group of netizens suspected of acting as "extralegal fanatics" began to give various methods to bypass Disney's supervision.

"As long as I remain anonymous..."

The rest suggests that posters delete posts as soon as possible, contact various game archives or celebrities working on preserving the game's history, and save the game as part of the collection — and by the way, send it online for everyone to see what the cancelled game looks like.

The safest way to do this is to contact LucasArts for a return

Another interesting thing is that the post was posted on May 4, which happens to be a star wars fan holiday — because May 4 is pronounced exactly as the first three syllables of "May the force be with you" in English.

This little farce happened on such a day, and Star Wars fans can probably be regarded as a lively and lively festival.