What publisher/developer doesn't want to sit on an IP that's a cash cow, one which constantly pays out over the years? And isn't it fair that they continue to get money for a popular IP that people are still willing to pay money for? I would argue that's it's unfair for Bethesda to not get any money for Morrowind when it's clear that people are still willing to give them money for the game they made. If you mean they've received enough money already for sales of Morrowind, well then who can define what is "enough money"? My understanding is that you're arguing that either Steam should get the money for any Morrowind sales at this point, or the game should be free because Bethesda has already made enough money off their game. If you mean that everyone that worked on the game has received their paychecks, then yes I suppose that's true. I don't understand how Bethesda has been paid for the work they've done on Morrowind. I think if people are truly unhappy with the direction Bethesda is going, they DO have the option to vote with their dollars (although I can't imagine any dollars spent or not spent on Morrowind is going to be enough to compel Bethesda either way at this point in the game's life). I'd love it if continued sales of Morrowind led to the development of future Elder Scroll games, as welll as future Fallout games. I'm starting to think I'm the only Morrowind fan that loves Skyrim. As such, just treat this as a fun discussion, feel free to agree, disagree, or furrow your brow and mutter to yourself. There's too much money in it for them (they might if they ever lose enough of their fan base, as a publicity stunt). Now, I will go ahead and add that I don't think Bethesda will move Morrowind into public domain.
It is a high quality product that has already been paid for by the public, it should be in public domain. This is especially compelling since any money spent on Morrowind today only helps Bethesda produce titles such as Skyrim, which a good chunk of the Morrowind fanbase (and perhaps quite a few outside of that) cannot stand. However, at the same time, this model also undermines Steam's capacity as a distributor of these 'paid for' titles since there would be nothing wrong with downloading them over P2P in my described copyright model. Most of our cash, on Steam, should be flowing to, well, Steam as a distributor of Morrowind. As it is, Bethesda has been paid for the work they've done on Morrowind. This is counter to the logic of today's copyright (which current copyright in the US is unconstitutional). My reasoning is that copyright should function to pay an individual/group for the work they've done.
My general gist is that since Morrowind has been so popular and had so many copies sold that, at least from a digital perspective, it should be in public domain. I wrote a potential derailing comment in another thread, so I wanted to create this discussion in order to redirect anyone who wanted to respond to that comment (and avoid derailing the other thread).
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