I just received an official cease-and-desist order from Square Enix (apparently the current holders of the Carmageddon copyright). (… LOL not that they are doing anything good with it) They allege that my “actions have already caused and will if they continue cause substantial damage to the value of Square Enix’s copyrights and you will understand that Square Enix cannot allow this clear infringement to continue.”

Square Enix hold the copyright to “underlying computer code, text, audio and visual aspects of the game [Carmageddon]”, and copyright laws they quote say I cannot “use, reproduce or distribute” those works.

Obviously this is all a bit silly given we’re talking about a game thats 13 years old and you can’t buy anymore and doesn’t run without DosBox, but still, its a cease-and-desist letter.

So, right now I’ve taken the download link down. I will be renaming the project to OpenC1. It will be distributed without ANY copyrighted material.

Square Enix require me stop working on this project and “not release it in whole, part or any form.”

Dear Square Enix,

The computer code for OpenC1 is my intellectual property. There is no part of my code which Square Enix has any control or copyright over. I absolutely assert my right to work on it and distribute it as I see fit.