EDG is right, as usual.
I think Martin was saying that he wasn't allowed to publish any of his reclaimed Gateway material because Marc had declared that only QLI were allowed to publish material set in that area. So Martin owned the manuscripts again... but couldn't publish them because the area that they were set in was the exclusive territory of the company he'd just wrested it from (and who hasn't even published anything else set in that territory since then anyway).
Yes. I own the manuscripts as my IP but am not allowed to publish them as originally written due to alleged licensing issues. I *have* made used of revised versions of parts of the text, in various ways.
Let's think about that for a sec. There's publishable material there that presumably could directly make the licensor some money from royalties from sales, and it doesn't get published because he tells the licensee to get a sub-license from the people who left the licensee hanging for so long that he gave up and reclaimed the manuscripts from them in the first place.
Only one of the books (T20 players book) couldn't be published elsewhere. So I put that out on a new deal with QLI. As of today, they are a year in arrears on payments.
As EDG says, there is publishable mateiral here, and QLI have done nothing signigicant since I left. I have demonstrated willingness to make a new deal and work with them (T20 players book). Had they met their obligations on that deal, I'd have been willing to come to an arrangement about the rest of the material . The Players Book, which I could not really use outside of QLI/T20, was an experiment on my part to see if this was viable. It was not, obviously.
There was a chance here for QLI to get back into the game and for me to make a return on my work at last. Not any more - publishing through QLI benefits me less than just giving the material away, since it makes money for someone else but nothing for me.
Of course Martin's not going to do that - nobody would. So everyone loses - Martin can't publish his hard work and make a return on his valuable time and effort, Marc doesn't get anything from the sales, and the fans don't see the work at all. It's lose-lose-lose all around, just seems completely crazy from a business point of view.
I don't blame Marc for that, not much anyway. I would have preferred a different decision, or clearer explanation of what my handshake license let me do and not do, or maybe just a little slack given the circumstances. But overall he was handed a situation he'd only really heard one side of (not mine) and made a decision that presumably made sense to him at the time.
Yes, everyone lost on this one. But I lost less than most. QLI quite obviously needed me more than I needed QLI. That sounds egotistical, but look what's happened in the past four years since I left.
QLI: Not much.
Me: Lots of Avenger and Mongoose Traveller, plus mainstream books. Result is that I now make more than twice as much as I did during the best time with QLI.
I put forward a plan for minor win all round. It was rejected. So I got out of that game and moved on. Now I'm winning elsewhere and QLI, well, isn't.
Time was when I would not have said stuff like this in public, but QLI is now ranked for me up there with Imperium Games and the other companies that decided not to pay me for my work. It seems like that's a mistake, sicne I have been known to contribute to the success of a product line....
All that said, if QLI got in touch, offered an explanation and a settlement on what I'm owed, I have at least one complete manuscript they could publish as fast as they could lay it out. If the terms were right I'd be willing. After all, I do this for a living.
Doesn't seem likely though.
As someone said at Conpulsion recently:
"I'm in yer castle, not mincin' my words"
I think Martin was saying that he wasn't allowed to publish any of his reclaimed Gateway material because Marc had declared that only QLI were allowed to publish material set in that area. So Martin owned the manuscripts again... but couldn't publish them because the area that they were set in was the exclusive territory of the company he'd just wrested it from (and who hasn't even published anything else set in that territory since then anyway).
Yes. I own the manuscripts as my IP but am not allowed to publish them as originally written due to alleged licensing issues. I *have* made used of revised versions of parts of the text, in various ways.
Let's think about that for a sec. There's publishable material there that presumably could directly make the licensor some money from royalties from sales, and it doesn't get published because he tells the licensee to get a sub-license from the people who left the licensee hanging for so long that he gave up and reclaimed the manuscripts from them in the first place.
Only one of the books (T20 players book) couldn't be published elsewhere. So I put that out on a new deal with QLI. As of today, they are a year in arrears on payments.
As EDG says, there is publishable mateiral here, and QLI have done nothing signigicant since I left. I have demonstrated willingness to make a new deal and work with them (T20 players book). Had they met their obligations on that deal, I'd have been willing to come to an arrangement about the rest of the material . The Players Book, which I could not really use outside of QLI/T20, was an experiment on my part to see if this was viable. It was not, obviously.
There was a chance here for QLI to get back into the game and for me to make a return on my work at last. Not any more - publishing through QLI benefits me less than just giving the material away, since it makes money for someone else but nothing for me.
Of course Martin's not going to do that - nobody would. So everyone loses - Martin can't publish his hard work and make a return on his valuable time and effort, Marc doesn't get anything from the sales, and the fans don't see the work at all. It's lose-lose-lose all around, just seems completely crazy from a business point of view.
I don't blame Marc for that, not much anyway. I would have preferred a different decision, or clearer explanation of what my handshake license let me do and not do, or maybe just a little slack given the circumstances. But overall he was handed a situation he'd only really heard one side of (not mine) and made a decision that presumably made sense to him at the time.
Yes, everyone lost on this one. But I lost less than most. QLI quite obviously needed me more than I needed QLI. That sounds egotistical, but look what's happened in the past four years since I left.
QLI: Not much.
Me: Lots of Avenger and Mongoose Traveller, plus mainstream books. Result is that I now make more than twice as much as I did during the best time with QLI.
I put forward a plan for minor win all round. It was rejected. So I got out of that game and moved on. Now I'm winning elsewhere and QLI, well, isn't.
Time was when I would not have said stuff like this in public, but QLI is now ranked for me up there with Imperium Games and the other companies that decided not to pay me for my work. It seems like that's a mistake, sicne I have been known to contribute to the success of a product line....
All that said, if QLI got in touch, offered an explanation and a settlement on what I'm owed, I have at least one complete manuscript they could publish as fast as they could lay it out. If the terms were right I'd be willing. After all, I do this for a living.
Doesn't seem likely though.
As someone said at Conpulsion recently:
"I'm in yer castle, not mincin' my words"
) and I hope to be able to support both 
