- Mistic Software
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Mistic Software, Inc. Type Private Industry Video games Founded 1997 Headquarters Montreal, Quebec, Canada Key people Christophe Comparin (President) Parent Atari Website http://www.misticsoftware.com/ Mistic Software, Inc. is a video game development company, founded in 1997, currently developing games for the Nintendo DS, Wii and iPhone. Mistic is owned by Atari as of 2002.[1]
Contents
Partners
Mistic is working with or has worked with these companies:[2]
- Atari
- Activision
- EA Mobile Games
- Humongous
- The Game Factory
- Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
- Hasbro
- Wizards of the Coast
- Nelvana
- Marathon
- Dupuis
- Midam Productions
Mistic's GPL violations
In December 2008, members of the ScummVM team discovered that three games for the Nintendo Wii console ("Freddi Fish: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds", . . . "Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside", . . . and "Spy Fox: Dry Cereal", . . .) made use of ScummVM, without complying with the terms of the GPL license. They sent a warning letter to the German distributor of these games, Atari Deutschland GmbH, who was not aware that ScummVM was used in the creation of the games. Atari Deutschland GmbH established contact with Mistic Software Inc., the developers of the games.
Mistic Software Inc. responded by denying that members of the ScummVM team hold any rights to the particular code they used. The dispute was ultimately settled in May 2009 by Mistic Software Inc. paying all legal fees and making a donation to the Free Software Foundation as a sign of good will, without acknowledging copyright infringement.
—GPL conflict with Atari, cyx, fingolfin, June 19, 2009[3]In December 2008, the ScummVM team was informed that three games for the Wii console were using ScummVM illegally. Atari had contracted Majesco Entertainment to port these titles to the Wii, who in turn contracted Mistic Software to port the games. Mistic used the ScummVM binary (version 0.9.0), in addition to the games' assets and source code, to port the games, but did not credit the ScummVM team or distribute ScummVM source code as required by ScummVM's license, the GNU GPL. Examination of the binary showed a clear violation; the ScummVM team credits were still in the code, as well as known bugs from that release.
The team contacted gpl-violations.org for legal representation. At first denying the charges, Atari later started negotiating when they learned the ScummVM team only desired adherence to the GPL, and not monetary compensation. However, upon learning that using open-source software is forbidden by Nintendo for use with the Wii software development kit, the developers challenged the legality of the reverse engineering methods used by the ScummVM team, claiming that they therefore had no rights over the resulting code. The ScummVM team denied these charges.
Faced with a long court battle, the matter was settled by ScummVM team members fingolfin and cyx, who agreed to post a press release and no longer speak of the case. The remaining copies of the games violating the GPL were ordered to be sold within a set period, after which time all remaining stock copies must be destroyed or high fines will be levied. As a result, Mistic must make a donation to the Free Software Foundation in addition to paying all expenses incurred by the lawyers working for gpl-violations.org.[4]
References
- ^ Mistic Software Inc. - History
- ^ Mistic Software Inc. - Partners
- ^ Jun 16, 2009: GPL conflict with Atari
- ^ GPL, ScummVM and violations
External links
Categories:- Video game companies of Canada
- Companies established in 1997
- Privately held companies of Canada
- Atari
- Canadian company stubs
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