Originally Posted by Ausir
The right to distribute the pre-existing Fallout games is covered in the Asset Purchase Agreement, while the license to develop the MMO is covered in the Trademark License Agreement.

Exactly, Bethesda bought the rights to the old Fallout games but Interplay took it upon themselves to release a fallout 1 + 2 (and Tactics, I think) package a year or so ago, without Bethesda's permission.

EDIT: And I really don't see why everybody thinks that Bethesda is the "bad guy" here. Sure, they aren't going about it professionally but I seem to remember Interplay overstepping their legal rights before, with BioWare. They decided to license the Infinity Engine to somebody without BioWare's permission (I must add the required "iirc" here).