Imagine Publishing now own the rights to Crash & Zzap!64

[Morkin]

Just spotted this on Twitter...

@ImagineMD: Pleased to announce that we now own the rights and copyright to classic UK games mags - Crash and Zzap!64. #childhooddream

Wonder what their plans are?

[markopoloman]

Hmmmm - very interesting. Does that mean online scanned copies will be made illegal?!

[CraigGrannell]

Hmmmm - very interesting.

Even more interesting if you follow the threads on Facebook, given that the likes of Roger and Oli only found out about this today from me mentioning the tweet. They don't seem especially thrilled. And from what I already knew about the situation and what was further confirmed today, I genuinely don't understand what Imagine owns outright. Imagine cannot own any of Oli's artwork (brands/logos/interior art), which he never gave up the rights for; it likely also doesn't own rights to any of the freelance material (given that in those days, Newsfield would have bought First British Serial Rights rather than today's "we own your content forever" contracts). So that's no Terminal Man rights, no Mel Croucher column rights, etc.

Does that mean online scanned copies will be made illegal?!

They weren't truly 'legal' in the first place. Whether they'll be tolerated will in part be down to Imagine, but going after retro websites wouldn't exactly be a smart move for a company publishing a retro magazine and a load of retro bookazines. (That said, as noted, it's not like Imagine even can own the full rights anyway. It'd also be hugely interesting to know how and where the rights were obtained, given that Zzap! was folded into Europress, but Crash ended up at EMAP, which sold out to Bauer.)

[Bub&Bob]

Spooky * - I was reading your Apple SIM piece today and it made me think that you haven't posted on here for a long time!

* Halloween pun not intended.

[ianpmarks]

All sounds a bit dodgy to me
Clearly to make money so it can only be a bad thing for Crash and Zzap fans, Frey and Kean and any websites offering their content currently.

[Antiriad2097]

Have they just bought the names, so they could publish new content under the banners?

[CraigGrannell]

Possibly. In fact, from the aforementioned threads, that increasingly looks like the case. Seems odd to have not consulted with Roger and Oli, given that without the logos and such, the value of the names alone isn't very high.

[psj3809]

Could be great. Would love to have a bookazine or two and hopefully they can sort out the rights to oli's stuff

[ALK]

The way gaming magazines have gone in recent years, might be time to do a sister magazine. Retro Magazines Magazine.

[kiwimike]

Mixed emotions on this. Could be good, or bad. Like Disney with Star Wars!

Will reserve judgement and see what emerges from it.

[paranoid marvin]

Hmmmm - very interesting.

Even more interesting if you follow the threads on Facebook, given that the likes of Roger and Oli only found out about this today from me mentioning the tweet. They don't seem especially thrilled. And from what I already knew about the situation and what was further confirmed today, I genuinely don't understand what Imagine owns outright. Imagine cannot own any of Oli's artwork (brands/logos/interior art), which he never gave up the rights for; it likely also doesn't own rights to any of the freelance material (given that in those days, Newsfield would have bought First British Serial Rights rather than today's "we own your content forever" contracts). So that's no Terminal Man rights, no Mel Croucher column rights, etc.

Does that mean online scanned copies will be made illegal?!

They weren't truly 'legal' in the first place. Whether they'll be tolerated will in part be down to Imagine, but going after retro websites wouldn't exactly be a smart move for a company publishing a retro magazine and a load of retro bookazines. (That said, as noted, it's not like Imagine even can own the full rights anyway. It'd also be hugely interesting to know how and where the rights were obtained, given that Zzap! was folded into Europress, but Crash ended up at EMAP, which sold out to Bauer.)

Well , if they can't use the Crash! and Zzap! logos, then it's not going to count for much.

[Antiriad2097]

One step at a time.

First they have the rights to use the names.

Next comes the logos etc.

Its business. It won't happen overnight and no doubt keeping things quiet so far has got them a good deal on the names, since the owners will probably be aware of the issues to follow.

[Lorfarius]

They could have bought the rights without realising it doesn't come with the logos?

[Treguard]

...Did they not want the rights to Amstrad Action then ?

[CraigGrannell]

Amstrad Action was a Future magazine. Amtix was the Newsfield mag, and, like Crash, is complicated in that the brand was offloaded to a competitor rather than staying with the original company.