I guess licensed games are quite "locked" right?

[holycross]

I noticed ZXDB doesn't feature a main file area for games like Batman or Robocop. I assume this is becausethe permission from movie industry would be needed right?Has there ever been attempts to get permission?(Warner Bros and whoever owns Robocop rights)

[PeterJ]

Hi, it's a very complicated area, but in general if you don't see a download then either the company still exists in some form or we don't have permission.
There are other places you can go (but please don't post them here).

[RWAC]

So have you been asked not to host the games or is it just that you haven't been granted permission?

I only ask because other websites have these games available.

[Ralf]

Yes, it all complicated.

I believe if you want to be 100% legal and host Robocop game you would have to get a permission not from Warner Bros but from Ocean Software, the company that released the game and purchased itself the license for it.
But Ocean doesn't exist any more, so you would have to talk to someone holding the rights today. Wikipedia claims:

Successor:
Infogrames UK (1998)
Atari UK (2003)
Bandai Namco Europe Limited (2009)

So you would have to talk to some Bandai Namco. And get some signed papers from them, not just some email.
In most cases it's mission impossible. They'll ignore you or say no just say no to avoid any faintiest, slightiest risk.

[Metalbrain]

Also, in World of Spectrum (and associated sites) the policy was (and still is) to host everything until the permission was denied (and permissions were actively looked for), while here in Spectrum Computing only those files with permissions granted are available for download, which is safer and more legal, but leaves us without files from those companies which can't be contacted or just don't answer (this is the case for Ocean Software, and therefore for the RoboCop and Batman files).

Then of course you may find pirate sites (not to be named here) which don't care about permissions at all and host everything.

[Ralf]

while here in Spectrum Computing only those files with permissions granted are available for download

It's not 100% precise as SC hosts for example Russian software where in most cases we certainly lack permission.

I would say the rule here is simple but vague at the same time - "avoid trouble" You won't rather expect serious
legal action from some coder living in Russia. In worst case he'll write a mail asking to remove his software and it
will be done for him.

With big, commercial licenses it's a different story.

And you could expect that when these games become older, people would care less about copyrights for them, right?
Unfortunately in practice it's exactly the opposite. People in 2019 buying copyrights for old Spectrum games, threatening others.
This forum is mostly free of such news but if you read Facebook groups, you could hear some stories...

[PeterJ]

I suppose our rule is, that we publish what we feel comfortable publishing. Unfortunately there is no hard and fast formula. But if you want a title that we don't offer links too, either buy a physical copy or go to one of the many places on the web.

We certainly won't be published any titles from Elite!

[holycross]

Seeing that Piko Interactive bought Ocean Software rights I wonder if they also acquired rights for Batman and Robocop.