As some of you might know, I'm working on a Lemmings/ONML remake written in Java at the moment in my spare time. As I started this, I didn't even know whether I would ever finish this, but now, though I'm still some weeks away from something you would consider a beta version, I'm beginning to think I might really finish this project.
In my attempt to recreate the original game as good as possible I'm using original sound effects, music tracks, graphics and level designs (mainly from the Win95 version). So chances are I infringe a copyright.
This is were the trouble starts regarding copyright issues.
Maybe some of you know about the fate of DHTLM lemmings.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~crisp/lemmings/lemmings.htmlAlso Cheapo doesn't seem to be available "officially" in the net any more.
Not very promising to say the least...
Already some weeks ago I started to figure out who might be in possession of the Lemmings copyright and whom I could contact to ask about the legal situation. Indeed I found out that these are no easy tasks.
At least my investigations showed me that DMA Designs was bought by Rockstar Games which again is owned by Take Two. Then again, Psygnosis - publisher of Lemmings - was bought by Sony as far as I know, so the situation is a bit nebulous.
Though I don't assume that my humble recreation will affect sales for the game (if it is still sold somewhere at all, which I don't know as well), it is neither my intention to infringe copyrights nor do I wish to get in trouble with the legal department of Take Two, Sony or whoever is the copyright holder at the moment.
So I tried to contact people at TakeTwo (I must admit I didn't find any email address of whatever on the sony sites that were worth trying) etc. In black despair I also tried to contact Mike Dailly and the author of DHTML lemmings. Unfortunately, nobody even answered my email.
I would be very glad if someone here could point me to someone who is able and willing to at least listen to my question for permission to use Lemmings media in a non-commercial remake of Lemmings.